Gugark pogrom

Gugark pogrom
Part of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
LocationGugark District, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union
DateMarch – December 1988 (9 months)
TargetLocal Azerbaijani population
Attack type
Murder, arson, pogrom
Deaths11 (per official Soviet data)
21 (per Arif Yunusov)
PerpetratorsLocal Armenians and Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan
MotiveA reaction to similar pogroms of Armenians in Azerbaijan

The Gugark pogrom[1] was a pogrom directed against the Azerbaijani minority of the Gugark District (now a part of the Lori Province) in the Armenian SSR, then part of the Soviet Union.[2][3][4][5]

The pogrom of Azerbaijanis in Gugark in March 1988 followed the earlier pogrom of Armenians in Sumgait in the end of February 1988.[4] The persecution of the Azerbaijanis continued until virtually all of them fled the region.[3] The pogrom was one of the acts of ethnic violence in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which would later erupt into a war.

Azerbaijani sources label the pogrom as a "massacre" (Azerbaijani: Quqark qırğını/qətliamı).[6][7][8]

  1. ^ Grigoryan, Arpi; Karimov, Elchin; Alıcı, Nisan (15 May 2019). "Working Through the Past in the Shadow of the Present: The Cases of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey". Caucasus Edition: Journal of Conflict Transformation. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  2. ^ Helvécio de Jesus Júnior, João Ricardo Guilherme Zimmer Xavier (2018). "The geopolitics of the Caucasus: An analysis of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict". Revista da Escola Superior de Guerra. 33 (69). ISSN 0102-1788. Archived from the original on 2020-03-20. Retrieved 2021-05-09. On the other hand, attacks against Azerbaijanis also increased in great proportions, with several pogroms in the cities of Gugark and Gosh, including dozens of deaths and intensifying the nationalism of the two countries
  3. ^ a b Coyle J.J. (2018). Nagorno-Karabakh. In: Russia's Border Wars and Frozen Conflicts. Springer Publishing. pp. 207–256. ISBN 978-3-319-52204-3. Armenian towns of Spitak, Gugark, and others. Two hundred sixteen were killed in Armenia, including 57 women, 5 infants, and 18 children. The last Azerbaijanis were forced out of Armenia by the end of November 1988.
  4. ^ a b Mgr. Jozef Hyrja (April 20, 2016). "Tears in the Black Garden - Nagorno-Karabakh". historyweb.dennikn.sk (in Slovenian). Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved May 9, 2021. On February 27 and 28, 1988, he followed the pogrom in the aforementioned city of Sumgait. A large crowd of Azerbaijanis began attacking Armenian shops and houses, looting and killing Armenian fellow citizens... The result was the exodus of the Armenian population from the city. Similar attacks followed in Armenia against the Azerbaijani minority in the cities of Spitak and Gugark.
  5. ^ Coyle, James J. (2021). "Roots of the Conflict". Russia's Interventions in Ethnic Conflicts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham (Springer Publishing). pp. 1–32. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-59573-9_1. ISBN 978-3-030-59573-9. S2CID 229450011. Archived from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-05-09. Attacks against Azerbaijanis took place in the Armenian towns of Spitak, Gugark, and others
  6. ^ "Witness of the Gugark massacre: They burned the village at night, INTERVIEW (VIDEO)". AzVision. 31 March 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  7. ^ "Ermənilərdən şok etiraf: 1988-də azərbaycanlıların qətliamı - Video". Aqreqator.az (in Azerbaijani). 4 November 2018. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  8. ^ ""Quqark qətliamını törədən cinayətkarların əsas məqsədi etnik təmizləmə idi"- Millət vəkili". Aqreqator.az (in Azerbaijani). 27 November 2019. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2020.