Armenian–Tatar massacres of 1905–07
| Armenian–Tatar massacres | ||||||||
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| Part of Revolution of 1905 | ||||||||
 A Cossack military patrol near the Baku oilfields, ca. 1905. |
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
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Armenian groups |
Caucasian Muslim groups |
 Russian Empire
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Armenian groups
The Armenian–Tatar massacres (also known as the Armenian-Tartar war and the Armeno-Tartar war and more recently, the Azeri-Armenian war) refers to the bloody inter-ethnic confrontation between Armenians and Azerbaijanis (at the time commonly referred to as "Caucasian Tatars" or "Tatars of the Caucasus") throughout the Russian Caucasus in 1905–1907.
The massacres started during the Russian Revolution of 1905, and claimed hundreds of lives. The most violent clashes occurred in 1905 in February in Baku, in May in Nakhchivan, in August in Shusha and in November in Elizavetopol, heavily damaging the cities and the Baku oilfields. Some violence, although of lesser scale, broke out also in Tbilisi.
According to professor Firuz Kazemzadeh, "it is impossible to pin the blame for the massacres on either side. It seems that in some cases (Baku, Elizavetpol) the Azerbaijanis fired the first shots, in other cases (Shusha, Tiflis) the Armenians." The clashes were not confined to the towns, and, according to Swietochowswki, citing Armenian sources 128 Armenian and 158 Azerbaijani villages were destroyed or pillaged, while the overall estimates of lives lost vary widely, ranging from 3,000 to 10,000, with Azerbaijanis suffering higher losses, which stemmed from Azeri mobs being organized poorly and Dashnaks on the Armenian side being more effective.
According to van der Leeuw clashes started in early February 1905 over the killing of a Tatar schoolboy and shopkeeper by Armenians. 126 Tatars (Azeris) and 218 Armenians were killed during four days of fighting in Baku. Other sources such as Dasnabedian, or Walker claim that Azeris had started the conflict which gave Armenians a reason to give a strong response, Tatars had killed many unarmed Armenians in Baku, in February 1905. Walker also said that, "Tatars were free to massacre with impunity".
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