Massacres of Azerbaijanis in Armenia (1917–1921)

"[12] The British journalist C. E. Bechhofer Roberts commented on the state of affairs in April 1920 as "no day went by without a catalogue of complaints from both sides, Armenian and Tartar, of unprovoked attacks, murders, village burnings and the like.

"[13] Mustafa Kemal, the leader of the Turkish National Movement, in justifying an invasion of Armenia, stated that reportedly nearly 200 villages were burned by Armenians and most of their 135 thousand inhabitants were "eliminated".

[14] Historian Richard Hovannisian wrote that nearly a third of the 350 thousand Muslims of the Erivan Governorate were displaced from their villages in 1918–1919 and living in the outskirts of Yerevan or along the former Russo-Turkish border in emptied Armenian homes.

[15] During his tenure as minister of war, Rouben Ter Minassian transferred many of the 30 thousand Armenian refugees from eastern Anatolia, to replace evicted Muslims and homogenise certain areas, including Erivan (present-day Ararat) and Daralayaz.

[10] Oliver Wardrop traveled through Armenia in October 1919 and wrote that along much of Lake Sevan lay deserted houses "in ruins from internecine conflicts between Armenians and Tatars.

[33][34]) A message dated 12 September from the local county chief indicated that the villages of Rut, Darabas, Agadu, Vagudu were destroyed, and Arikly, Shukyur, Melikly, Pulkend, Shaki, Kiziljig, the Muslim part of Karakilisa, Irlik, Pakhlilu, Darabas, Kyurtlyar, Khotanan, Sisian, and Zabazdur were set aflame, resulting in the deaths of 500 men, women, and children.

[41][42] [better source needed] In April 1920, the archbishop of Yerevan, Khoren I of Armenia wrote "I must admit that a few Tatar villages...have suffered... but, every time...they were the aggressors, either they actually attacked us, or they were being organised by the Azerbaijan agents and official representatives rise against the Armenian Government."

He also criticized the death figures in primary sources for often being "freely invented by the authors" and exaggerations of "destroyed villages" referring to settlements of 4–5 inhabitants.