History

The brutal destruction of Russians by the Turko-Tatars in 1918

In 1917, after Lenin’s coup, Russian troops began to leave the front line, which stretched from the Black Sea to Lake Urmia, and rushed home to Russia, where the Bolsheviks promised them “land, bread, and peace.”

The Muslim National Committee of Ganja decided to disarm the Russian military units retreating from the Turkish front and arm the newly formed national regiments with acquired weapons and ammunition.

On January 5, 1918, a 10,000-strong Musavat horde, consisting of criminal elements, including those specially released from prisons for this purpose (Aslan bey Safikyurdinskiy, Khadat bey Rustambegov) in Shamkhor, Dalyar, Khachmas, Agstafa, Gandzak, and Yevlakh suddenly attacked the Russians echelons and brutally killed thousands of soldiers.

Pogroms, accompanied by rape and torture, which lasted eight days…

The Russians quickly forgot about these bloody events (in Russian historiography there are only fleeting references to the massacres of January 1918).

Moreover, two years later, in 1920, in April, the Russian-Turkish-Tatar honeymoon began, the purpose of which was the Armenians who had just recovered from the greatest disasters.

Already in May 1920, Russian-Tatar military units invaded the Republic of Armenia without declaring war and occupied Artsakh.

by Arshaluis Zurabyan

Vigen Avetisyan

Recent Posts

MPG/Gallup International Poll of September 25, 2026: Examining an Anomalous Jump in the Numbers

1. What Was Published on September 25 Aram Navasardyan, head of the Armenian branch of…

2 weeks ago

Russian Gas for Armenia: Facts, Hypotheses, and What Cannot Yet Be Claimed (as of September 26, 2026)

Why the topic is back in focus Over the past four months, the gas issue…

2 weeks ago

The Story of a Lie: How Azerbaijan Rewrote the History of Karabakh

It's often assumed that the "Albanization" of Armenian heritage — the policy of declaring medieval…

2 weeks ago

Azerbaijan’s Cultural Propaganda Against Armenian Heritage: Evidence, Mechanism, and the Cost to the Peace Process

What independent observers are documenting The most systematic data on the fate of Armenian monuments…

2 weeks ago

Dadivank and Gandzasar: Two Armenian Monasteries, and the Manufactured Case Against Them

On September 12, 2026, a delegation of some 150 diplomats and representatives from 58 countries,…

3 weeks ago

The September Days: How the Armenians of Baku Were Massacred in 1918

On September 15, 1918, the oil city of Baku fell to a joint Ottoman-Azerbaijani force,…

3 weeks ago