The Avenue Of Martyrs

The early 90s were a deadly time for Azeris.

First Soviet troops shot Azeris demonstrating for independence. Some of the dead were left on the streets and others were ‘disappeared’. All are remembered here.

And then after independence from the Soviet Union a part of Azerbaijan populated by ethnic Armenians tried to declare independence itself. The struggle over Nagorno Karabakh was bloody and brutal. While Azerbaijan was militarily defeated the conflict is now frozen with no resolution in sight nearly two decades on.

Armenia claims that the territory was taken from them by Stalin and given to Turkic Azerbaijan as part of a manoeuvre to tempt Turkey out of NATO and into the Warsaw Pact in the 60s. Azerbaijan claims Karabakh as the cradle of Azeri culture in the same way that Serbia claims Kosovo.

The graves of those ‘martyred’ in these conflicts are laid out along the Avenue Of Martyrs on a hill overlooking Baku, bordererd at one end by the Flames Towers and the Presidential Offices. Like all places of remembrance and commemoration it is a peaceful and contemplative place to visit.