Documents reveal the secret of the “Armenian miracle” of Karabakh
The Ethnic composition of Karabakh before the migration of Armenians
Thus, we have an official document showing that at the beginning of the 19th century only 20.8% of all families living in Karabakh were Armenians. This is already a clear rejection of the claim that Armenians had long been a majority there.
out of 614 villages, 450 are listed as “Tatar” (i.e. Turkic), and 150 as Armenian. There were 20,095 families living there: 15,729 (78.3%) were “Tatar” families, and 4,366 (21.7%) were Armenian families.
[Description of the Karabakh Province compiled in 1823, by order of the General Manager of Georgia, Yermolov, the real state councilor of Mogilev and Colonel Yermolov 2nd. Tiflis, 1866].
[Collection of materials for description of localities and tribes in the Caucasus. Publication of the Caucasian Education District Administration. Tiflis, 1891 // Department I Field studies in some Transcaucasian localities, p. 2. 62-79]
Resettlement of Iranian and Turkish Armenians in Karabakh.
In 1828-1830, the Russian authorities relocated some 140,000 Armenians from Iran and Turkey to the South Caucasus. They were settled in the former khanates of Karabakh, Erivan, and Nakhichevan. It is not known exactly how many Armenian migrants were settled in Karabakh. But the following fragments of official documents of the time testify to the fact that this number was significant:
there are already 279 families in Karabakh and 948 families in the Erivan region, and the number of all immigrants is confirmed by the regiment. More than 5000 families will be resettled in Lazarev”.
[Report of I.F. Paskevich to I.I. Dibich about the resettlement of Armenians from Persia to Russia dated 26.05.1828. Cited from the following source: Accession of Eastern Armenia to Russia. Collection of documents. Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR, Yerevan, 1972. t. II (1814-1830), pp. 2. 497]
declaring that most of the resettlers, especially the poorest, should go to Karabakh, where they can be provided with everything.
[Report of Colonel Lazarev, the Head of the resettlement of Armenians from Persia to the Commander of Russian troops in the Caucasus, General Paskevich, 24.12.1829. Quoted from the following source: Glinka C. Description of the resettlement of the Adderbidjan Armenians within Russia. Moscow, 1831. Pp. 127]
and two thousand families from the Sanjaks of Bayazet pashalik proposed to establish in Karabakh province. These last families, not willing to be separated … with the urban residents of Bayazet, sent their commissioners and asked to establish them with the first ones here in the province … Only up to 800 families can be settled in the above-mentioned three Magalas of the Armenian province …”.
[Report by M.Z. Argutinsky-Dolgorukov to I.F. Paskevich about the desire of Bayazet Armenians to move to the Armenian region, January 1830. Cited from the following source: Accession of Eastern Armenia to Russia. Collection of documents. Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR, Yerevan, 1972. t. II (1814-1830), pp. 2. 602]
[A picturesque journey through the Asia, made in French under the direction of Eyries (Eyriè) and decorated with engravings. Moscow, 1840. Page 25].
Thus, in the 1830s the number of families in Karabakh was about 21,000. This is almost the same number as in 1823. But the relationship between Armenians and Muslims has changed. While in 1823 Armenians made up less than 22% of the total number of families living in Karabakh, in the 1830s their rate rose to 33%.
The expulsion of Muslims from Karabakh
The settlers themselves are in close quarters and oppress the Muslims, who are all murmuring and thoroughly”.
[Griboyedov A.S. Works in two volumes. Moscow: Pravda Publishing House, 1971. T. II – pp. 339-340]
[Ghazaryan I. The resettlement of Armenians from Persia to the Armenian region in 1828 // Izvestia of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR, No. 7, 1957. Pp. 69]
The fact that the expulsion of Muslims was widespread, and the Armenians occupied not only the villages from which all or part of the indigenous people temporarily fled during the Russian-Persian war but also completely inhabited, is evidenced by the report of Vasily Bebutov, head of the Armenian region, established in 1828 on the territory of the Erivan and Nakhchivan Khanates:
[The accession of Eastern Armenia to Russia. Collection of documents. Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR, Yerevan, 1972. t. II (1814-1830), pp. 1-4. 608]
Thus, by settling Armenian migrants from Persia, as well as the resettlement of Armenians from other parts of the Caucasus and the simultaneous expulsion of Muslims in the late 1820s, an artificial change in the ethnic composition of the population of Karabakh was initiated.
[Mirza Jamal Javanshir of Karabakh. History of Garabagh; newspaper “Caucasus” 1855 №62, Tiflis // republished by the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan SSR, Baku 1959).
From the 14 districts in the four counties that existed on the territory of Karabakh, the first place was given to “Tatars” (i.e. Turks) in the 12 “predominant nationalities”. And only in two districts – Armenians (Khankends in Shushinsky district and Karaklis in Zangezur district).
Moreover, in the largest district in the territory of the former Karabakh Khanate, Shushinsky, which became the basis for the creation of the Armenian Autonomous Region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1923, of the four districts, two Armenians are not mentioned in the 1876 census.
[Caucasian calendar of 1891. Tiflis, 1890. Appendix “Data on Space and Population of Transcaucasia”, pp. 9-11].
The consequences of the demographic boom among Armenian resettlers
The first evident changes in the ethnic composition of the population of Karabakh became visible in the 1880s.
[Caucasian calendar. Tiflis, 1908. pp. 81-82].
[Caucasian calendar of 1892. Tiflis, 1891. Appendix “Data on Space and Population of Transcaucasia”, pp. 24-25].
[The accession of Eastern Armenia to Russia. Collection of documents. Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR, Yerevan, 1972. t. II (1814-1830), pp. 2. 464]
As follows from the same document, each family of displaced persons was entitled to one-time aid from the state in the amount of 10 silver rubles.
[The accession of Eastern Armenia to Russia. Collection of documents. Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR, Yerevan, 1972. t. II (1814-1830), pp. 2. 467]
[Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Atlas of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Published by the CEC of the USSR, 1928].
Thus, in addition to the fact that Armenians from Iran and Turkey were evicting Muslims from the best places, the authorities were also creating the most favourable socio-economic conditions for them. After all, the government did not introduce any benefits for Muslims. As a result, in the 1830s, resettled Armenians had special advantages. This could not have an impact on the birth rate. Thus, the consequences of mass migration and the demographic boom among the displaced Armenians by the 1880s led to fundamental changes in the ethnic composition of the Karabakh population. Besides, the influx of Armenian settlers, even on a smaller scale, continued throughout the 19th century.
The number of Armenians … grew steadily – due to the periodic immigration of Armenians and their natural growth, for which there were favorable conditions in Russia (i.e. in the South Caucasian regions of the empire).
[Tavakalyan N. The Accession of Eastern Armenia to Russia and its Progressive Importance // Journal of Social Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR. Yerevan, 1978, No. 10, pp. 13]
after the mass migration of Armenians in 1828-1830, their tribesmen continued to move to Karabakh in whole communities, establishing their villages here (usually people from the same place in Iran or Turkey settled together after moving to the South Caucasus).
[Petrushevsky I. On the pre-Christian beliefs of the peasants of Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku, 1930. Page 21].
The ethnic composition of Karabakh on the eve of the collapse of the Russian Empire
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries the effect of mass migration of Iranian and Turkish Armenians in 1828-1830, as well as the demographic boom that followed, began to weaken significantly. From 1889 to 1914, the ratio of Muslims to Armenians in the territories of the previous Karabakh Khanate ceased to change in favor of the latter. In general, the proportion of Armenians in Karabakh decreased from 45.5% (1889) to 41% (1914), while the proportion of Muslims remained virtually unchanged at 55%.
For some districts of Karabakh, the ethnic dynamics were as follows:
Appendix “Indigenous population of Elizabeth Province by January 1, 1905”, pp. 234-237. The Caucasian calendar for 1915. Tiflis, 1914. Department of Statistics, pp. 230-233].
The change in the ethnic ratio has been affected:
4) increase of the Slavic population in large settlements of Karabakh.
If the dynamics of 1889-1914 had continued and had not been interrupted by the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, in the next few decades the share of Armenians in the population of Karabakh would have decreased to 35-30%.
Ensuring the Armenian majority through ethnic cleansing
The collapse of the Russian Empire led to the first-ever prolonged and full-scale conflict between Armenians and Turks. In the Shushinsky district, the clashes stopped and resumed from 1918 until the end of April 1920, and in Zangezursky, hostilities continued until the summer of 1921.
The Armenian Republic, which was proclaimed in 1918 under the leadership of the Dashnaktsutyun nationalist party, aspired to expand its territory to regions inhabited predominantly by Muslims. For this purpose, a policy of extermination and exile of the Muslim population was pursued to artificially provide the Armenian majority there.
That is how Ilya Petrushevsky, a well-known orientalist who worked in the Caucasus in the 1920s and 1930s, described the actions of the Armenian government:
Dashnaktsakans during the imperialistic war of 1914-1918 and the civil war in Transcaucasia in 1919-1920 with their tactics of bloody adventures and artificially fomenting national enmity alien to the peasantry in the name of the ghost of the great Hayastan “from sea to sea” …”.
[Petrushevsky I. On pre-Christian beliefs of the peasants of Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku, 1930. P. 12]
Dashnaktsutyun party, tried to clean Zangezur and other counties from the Muslim element to create purely Armenian territories …”, the newspaper “Communist” noted on July 20, 1920.
the territory itself belonged to Armenia more than one and a half thousand years ago, and only due to the occupation of the western outskirts of ancient Albania.
Dashnak government again sent its emissaries to Nagorno-Karabakh with a large financial reserve and campaigned for the annexation of Karabakh with Armenia, which has nothing to do with it,”– the Bakinsky Rabochy newspaper reported.
[Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920) Foreign policy (documents and materials). Baku, 1998. pp. 175].
Dashnaks – agents of the Armenian government are trying to get Karabakh to join Armenia, but for the people of Karabakh it would mean losing the source of their life in Baku and contacting Erivan, with which they have never been connected,” noted Anastas Mikoyan, a well-known Armenian communist activist, after whom one of the streets of Yerevan is now named, in his report to Soviet Russia’s leader Lenin on May 22, 1919.
Here the Dashnaks pursued a policy of “cleansing the country from foreigners” and primarily from Muslims who were expelled from Novobayazet, Erivan, Echmiadzin, and Sharuro-Daralaghez districts“.
[Volkova N. Ethnic processes in Transcaucasia in the XIX-XX centuries // Caucasian Ethnographic Collection IV. Moscow, 1969. P. 10]
[the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan (1918-1920) Foreign Policy… Page 2 383]. “Up to now, information about the Armenian military operations in Zangezur has been continuously received, with the ruthlessly peaceful Muslim population being destroyed and many villages burned,” Yusifbeyli emphasised in a telegram to the High Commissioner of Allies (Western States) in the South Caucasus on 8 December 1919 [the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan (1918-1920) Foreign Policy… Page 388].
Zangezur has been an integral part of Karabakh, and the latter is the soul of Azerbaijan, so nothing will come out of this intrigue. Now, gentlemen, three and a half counties of Karabakh are in our hands, while half of Zangezur district is under the power of some insurgents. We have been told that it is also possible to resolve the issue here by peaceful means, and representatives of great powers stand on this position. We are not against peace. We have chosen the peaceful way in general as a means to resolve all issues. Therefore, we are ready to wait for the peaceful resolution of this issue,” Yusifbeyli said in his address to the ADR Parliament on 22 December 1919 [Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920) Parliament (verbatim reports). Baku, 1998. pp. 431].
been thundering Muslim villages in Zangezur and exterminating the population,” said Hasan bey Aghayev, Deputy Chairman of the ADR Parliament, at a parliamentary session on 22 January 1920 [Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920) Parliament… Page 464].
destroyed up to 40 Muslim villages in the area of Zangezur district … Armenian troops, apparently fulfilling a certain plan of their government, again began to destroy Muslim villages, subjecting residents to inhuman extermination,” Khoysky reported to his Armenian counterpart on 25 January 1920 [Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920) Foreign policy … Page 447].
[Abramyan G. From the History of the Karabakh Events, p.10].
By the end of April 1920, ADR succeeded in regaining control of Karabakh, except for Zangezour. A few days later, ADR ceased to exist. Soviet power was established in Azerbaijan. In Zangezur, the Red Army continued fighting against Armenian armed groups until July 13, 1921
[Kadishev A. intervention and the Civil War in Transcaucasia. Moscow, 1960. Pp. 430].
Zangezur. In 1897, out of 137.9 thousand people, 63.6 thousand Armenians (46.2%), 71.2 thousand Azerbaijanis (51.7%), 1.8 thousand Kurds (1.3%) lived here. According to the agricultural census of 1922, the entire population of Zangezur numbered 63.5 thousand people, including 56.9 thousand Armenians (89.5%), 6.5 thousand Azerbaijanis (10.2%), and 0.2 thousand Russians (0.3%).”
[Volkova N. Ethnic processes in Transcaucasia in XIX – XX centuries // Caucasian ethnographic collection IV. Moscow, 1969. pp. 10]
[Niftaliev I. Azerbaijan SSR in the expansionist plans of Armenians (20s of XX century). National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. Institute of History. Baku, 2010. pp. 66].
Thus, by expelling tens of thousands of Muslims and destroying over fifty Muslim villages in Nagorno-Karabakh and Western Zangezur, the Armenian majority was secured. This was the basis for the transfer of the latter to Soviet Armenia and the formation of an Armenian autonomy in Nagorno-Karabakh.
It was noted (p.8):
Nagorno-Karabakh was separated from Azerbaijan into the Autonomous Oblast based on its national majority: 94.4% of its inhabitants are Armenians and 5.6% are Turks”.