This tension largely resulted from the larger political and social issues of the time, rather than any inherent conflict between the Armenian and Tatar peoples.

[13] The destruction of each other's villages and the pogroms in Baku therefore resulted in grave distress both on a local as well as on a global level.

[16] According to French writer Claude Anet, who in April 1905 crossed the Caucasus region by automobile, "the many minorities – and, in particular, Azeris (Tatars) and Armenians - resumed ancestral clashes".

The Armenians faced accusations of "getting rich quickly at the expense of the populations in the midst of which they live and excelling in the money business like the Jews".

They were universally disliked by the Government and the other ethnic groups in the Caucasus such as Tartars, Georgians, Kurds and Circassians and that they used "bombs for defence instead of hand-to-hand combat".

The Armenians, who formed the active and commercial class would have the most to lose from strikes, economic unrest, massacres and looting.

And in addition to the causes of discontent that are common to all Russians, they have special reasons for being dissatisfied with the present state of affairs.

[17] Svante Cornell, a Swedish scholar from Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program (CACI) and American Foreign Policy Council, in his "Small nations and great powers: a study of ethnopolitical conflict in the Caucasus" provides various sources that give conflicting accounts on the Baku events.

According to the Baku Statistical Bureau, 205 Armenians and 111 Tatars were killed in the clashes, of which 9 were women, 20 were children, and 13 were elderly, along with 249 wounded.

[24][25] After the Baku clashes, Muslim communities in the Nakhchivan district began smuggling consignments of weapons from Persia.

Villari cites official reports mentioning that "out of a total of 52 villages with Armenian or mixed Armenian–Tartar populations, 47 were attacked, and of that 47, 19 were completely destroyed and abandoned by their inhabitants.

According to the journalist Thomas de Waal, out of the 300 killed and wounded, about two-thirds were Tatars as the Armenians were better shooters and enjoyed the advantage of position.