TWO RARE ORIGINAL PHOTOS OF SHUSHI DISCOVERED BY THE AGMI
Armradio.am
24.03.2010 15:30
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 The unpublished photos show the panoramic view of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, 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.