The 26 Commissars Memorial, which was located in Baku, Azerbaijan, paid tribute to the 26 Baku Commissars from the Baku commune. The commune was overthrown in 1918 and the commissars later slain near Krasnovodsk (now Türkmenbaşy). The monument was designed by Alesker Huseynov, who went on to become a prominent politician in Azerbaijan.
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The centre of this large square was a dramatic monument with a man coming out of the ground holding what was previously an 'eternal flame' (later extinguished).[1] Hovering above him was a large stone circle that was once inscribed with the names of the slain commissars though all the wording has since been removed making the whole monument much more ambiguous.
The square has a quiet garden and is the location of the Turkish embassy and of the Akhundov National Library, Azerbaijan's main book repository.
On January 2009, the Baku authorities’ started demolition of the 26 Commissars Memorial, and the works were soon completed.[2] The park itself was fenced in July 2008.[2] The dismantling was opposed by some local left-wingers and by the Azerbaijan Communist Party (1993) in particular.[2] The remains of the commissars were reburied at Hovsan Cemetery on 26 January 2009, with participation of Muslim, Jewish and Christian clergy, who conducted religious ceremonies.[3] During exhumation only 21 bodies were discovered, out of expected 26. One of those whose remains were missing from the grave was the leader of the Baku Commune Stepan Shahumyan and four other Armenian commissars Tatevos Amirov, Bagdasar Avakyan, Armenak Boriyan and Aram Kostandyan.[4][5][6]