Stepan Shahumyan - Reburial

Reburial

On January 2009, the Baku authorities’ demolition of the 26 Commissars Memorial commemorating the 26 Baku Commissars began and was soon completed. It upset Armenia as the Armenian public believed that reburial is motivated by the reluctance of the Azerbaijanis (because of the Nagorno-Karabakh War) to have ethnic Armenians buried in the center of their capital. Another scandal happened, when Azerbaijani press reported that only 21 bodies were found buried in the park, as "Shahumian and four other Armenian commissars managed to escape their murderers". It was questioned by Shahumian’s granddaughter Tatyana, now living in Moscow, who told the Russian daily Kommersant:

“It is impossible to believe that they weren’t all buried. There is a film in the archives of 26 bodies being buried. Apart from this, my grandmother was present at the reburial.”