 However, during the early 20th century the cities cosmopolitan and tolerant attitude began to fall apart, and became a venue of sporadic inter-communal violence, but it was in March 1920 when it received the deadliest blow of all.Aided by expeditionary Ottoman forces, armed Turko-Tartar ("Azerbaijani" ) bands burned and destroyed the Armenian section of the city, murdering most of its Armenian residents in the process— some 20,000 people in total.The city's three out of five Armenian churches were totally destroyed by the Turkic bands