2 RARE PHOTOS

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15:04:25 – 24/03/2010

Two rare original photos have been discovered by the Armenian Genocide
Museum-Institute. The unpublished photos show the panoramic view of
Shushi – Armenian cultural center of Karabakh, after the 1920 massacre
and destruction. The photos were taken from different points; in
one of them the church of St. Amenaphrkich Ghazanchetsots surrounded
by ruined houses and buildings with unique Armenian architecture is
depicted and the second photo illustrates burned and ruined Armenian
quarter of the city with Kanach Zham Church. These photos are unique
documentation of the Armenian pogroms and horrific brutalities in
Shushi took place in March of 1920.

At the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century Shushi
was one of the important cities of the South Caucasus and had important
role in the Artsakh Armenians political and cultural life.

On March 23, 1920 ruling Musavat party of Azerbaijan organized
pogroms in Shushi and surrounded villages. Khosrov bek Sultanov,
who was appointed the governor of Karabakh region by Azerbaijan
government, implemented the state sponsored plan of the elimination
of the Armenians by organizing the massacres of the local Armenian
population and the robbery and burning of the Armenian quarter. The
Tatar battalion with Muslim population of the city exterminated more
than 10,000 Armenians as well as destructed and burned the Armenian
quarter of the city. Only several thousand Armenians could survive
in this horrific massacre, as they had succeeded to escape from the
town. Once prospering city, with the majority of Armenian population
was turned into ashes. The demographic image of Shushi was sharply
changed after this atrocious day and the city lost its Armenian
population and identity. During Soviet years Shushi was continuingly
presented as a historical and cultural centre of Azerbaijanis. In
1960-1970 by the initiative of Heydar Aliev (the first secretary of
the Central Committee of Azerbaijani SSR in1969-1982) the ruins of
Armenian quarter as the tragic memory of 1920 disaster and the obvious
evidence of the presence of the Armenian culture and Armenian tragedy
were erased.