Armenian Oblast
Armenian Oblast
Армянская область | |
---|---|
Country | Russian Empire |
Viceroyalty | Caucasus |
Established | 1828 |
Abolished | 1840 |
Capital | Erivan (Yerevan) |
Area | |
• Total | 31,672 km2 (12,229 sq mi) |
Population (1832) | |
• Total | 164,500 |
• Density | 5.2/km2 (13/sq mi) |
History of Armenia |
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Timeline • Origins • Etymology |
The Armenian Oblast[a] was a province (oblast) of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire that existed from 1828 to 1840.[1][2][3] It corresponded to most of present-day central Armenia, the Iğdır Province of Turkey, and the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan. Its administrative center was Yerevan, referred to as Erivan (Эривань) in Russian.[4]
History
The Armenian Oblast was created out of the territories of the former
According to the historian George Bournoutian, the Russians, "for all intents and purposes", refrained from altering "the former Iranian administrative structure".[8] Many of the former Muslims of rank were allowed to continue to fulfill their duties, whereas some were even given Russian military ranks and acted as deputy governors, equivalent to the nayeb rank of the Iranians.[8] As Iran had been forced into "total submission" through the Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828, the Russians were free of any new possible future conflicts with the Qajars.[8] Therefore, the Armenian Oblast, which bordered Iran, was deliberately ignored by the Russian Caucasus administration (Caucasus Viceroyalty) headquartered in Tiflis (Tbilisi), and even moreso by the central Russian government located in Saint Petersburg.[8]
In 1829, Baltic German explorer Friedrich Parrot of the University of Dorpat (Tartu) traveled to the oblast as part of his expedition to climb Mount Ararat. Accompanied by Armenian writer Khachatur Abovian and four others, Parrot made the first ascent of Ararat in recorded history from the Armenian monastery of St. Hakob in Akhuri (modern Yenidoğan).[9]
In 1840, due to complaints from Armenians[b] and the small pack of Russian officials about the high-handed measures of the province's Muslim administrators, the Russian government issued a decree which forced "all local laws and customs to be set aside, that all business be conducted in Russian and that Russians staff all administrative offices".[8] Simultaneously, the Russians ended the separate status of the Armenian Oblast, and merged it into the newly established Georgian-Imeretian Province.[3][8]
The new division did not last long. Already in 1844, four years later, in order to further consolidate the Russian hold over the North Caucasus and South Caucasus,[8] the Caucasus Viceroyalty was re-established, in which the former Armenian Oblast formed a subdivision of the Tiflis Governorate. Five years later, in 1849, the Erivan Governorate was established, separate from the Tiflis Governorate.[11] It included the territory of the former Erivan and Nakhchivan khanates.[12]
Demographics
Background
Immediately after the
Since the start of the 18th century, a "handful" of Armenian notables in Russia, Georgia and Karabakh had been trying to gather Russian support in order to free their compatriots from Muslim rule and to place them under Russian protection.[20] Armenian volunteers from Georgia and Karabakh had also joined the Russian forces during the Russo-Iranian wars.[20] During the peace negotiations between the Russians and Iranians, article XV was added to the Treaty of Turkmenchay by the Russians in order to facilitate the creation of a reliable "Christian defensive line" on the existing Russo-Ottoman border in the Caucasus.[20] Another reason for the inclusion of the article was to comply with the yearnings of Armenians and those within the Russian ranks who supported them.[20] According to article XV, any Iranian subject who inhabited the Azerbaijan Province was allowed to freely migrate into the Russian Empire, and was given one year to transport themselves and their families.[20] They were also given the freedom to transport or sell their property, as Bournoutian explains, "without the government or local authorities having the right to place the least obstacle in their way or to impose any tax or add any duties on the goods and objects sold or exported by them".[20] In relation to the immovable property of the migrants, a term of five years was given during which they could sell or dispose their immovable property "as they wished".[20] The newly positioned Russian administrators in Russian Armenia were also directed to supply logistical and financial support to the migrants.[20]
Although not mentioned specifically by name, Bournoutian notes that article XV of the Turkmenchay Treaty was intended solely for the repatriation of those Armenians whose ancestors had been forcibly relocated to Iran proper in the early 17th century during the Safavid period.[20] Bournoutian adds that the Russians spread announcements in Armenian in Armenian villages, and Russian soldiers, some of which were of Armenian origin, together with Cossacks "strongly persuaded" any hesitant Armenian to leave Iran.[20]
Demographics
From 1828—the year in which the Treaty of Turkmenchay was signed—to 1831, 35,560 Armenians migrated from Qajar Iran's
Some Armenians, complaining about their life under Russian rule, later decided to leave their homeland and returned to Iran, where they were welcomed in Tabriz by crown prince Abbas Mirza and his successors.[22]
The vast majority of the Muslims of the Armenian Oblast were
Administration
There were only a small number of Russian officials in the Armenian Oblast and they were dependent on the former Muslim administrators and interpreters who had served under the Iranians.[8] Bournoutian notes that "Land tenure, taxes and the judicial system remained virtually unchanged, and Persian or the local Turkish dialect continued to be used in many administrative offices".[8]
Literature
- A Journey to Arzrum, Alexander Pushkin, 1835–36
- Wounds of Armenia, Khachatur Abovian, 1841
See also
Notes
- romanized: Ermanī vilāyatī
References
- ISBN 9780300153088.
- ISBN 9780231139267.
- ^ ISBN 9780939214181.
- ^ Tsutsiev, p. 16.
- ^ ISBN 978-0195177756.
- ISBN 9780816609246.
- ^ a b Bournoutian, George (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914. Routledge. p. 7.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Bournoutian, George (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914. Routledge. p. 8.
- ISBN 9781909382244.
- ^ Bournoutian, George (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914. Routledge. p. 11 (note 13).
- ^ Tsutsiev, p. 20.
- ISBN 9780226332284.
- ^ a b c d Bournoutian, George (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914. Routledge. p. 19.
- ^ a b c d e f g Bournoutian, George (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914. Routledge. p. 35 (note 25).
- ^ Bournoutian, George (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914. Routledge. p. xiv.
- ^ Bournoutian, p. 48.
- ^ Bournoutian, George (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914. Routledge. pp. 19–20.
- ^ a b Bournoutian, George (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914. Routledge. p. 34 (note 6).
- ^ Bournoutian, George (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914. Routledge. pp. 19–20, 35 (note 8).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Bournoutian, George (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914. Routledge. p. 20.
- ISBN 978-1-135-77541-4.
- ^ Bournoutian, George (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914. Routledge. pp. 20, 35 (note 12).
- ^ Bournoutian, George (2018). Armenia and Imperial Decline: The Yerevan Province, 1900-1914. Routledge. p. xiv.