Armenians in Azerbaijan

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Armenians in Azerbaijan
Հայերն Ադրբեջանում
Azərbaycan erməniləri
Total population
217 (2009)
Regions with significant populations
Baku
Languages
Armenian, Azerbaijani
Religion
Armenian Apostolic Church
Related ethnic groups
Armenians in Nakhchivan, Armenians in Baku, Armenians in Russia, Armenians in Turkey
Part of a series on
Armenians
Armenian culture
By country
or region
Armenian diaspora
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Subgroups
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Languages and dialects
Persecution

Armenians in Azerbaijan (

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic[3][4]
from 1991 until the region was forcibly retaken by Azerbaijan in 2023. After the Azerbaijani takeover, almost all Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh left the region.

Non-official sources estimate that the number Armenians living on Azerbaijani territory outside Nagorno-Karabakh is around 2,000 to 3,000, and almost exclusively comprises persons married to Azerbaijanis or of mixed Armenian-Azerbaijani descent.[5] The number of Armenians who are likely not married to Azerbaijanis and are not of mixed Armenian-Azerbaijani descent are estimated at 645 (36 men and 609 women) and more than half (378 or 59 per cent of Armenians in Azerbaijan outside Nagorno-Karabakh) live in Baku and the rest in rural areas. They are likely to be the elderly and sick, and probably have no other family members.[5][6][7] Armenians in Azerbaijan are at a great risk as long as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unsettled.[8][9][10][11][12] In Azerbaijan, the status of Armenians is precarious.[13] Armenian churches remain closed because of the large emigration of Armenians and fear of Azerbaijani attacks.[14]

History

Armenians in Baku

Main article: Armenians in Baku
See also:
Armenian Cultural Heritage in Azerbaijan § Baku

Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh

Main articles: Republic of Artsakh, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Culture of Artsakh
Map of the unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
Shahumian and the eastern parts of Martakert and Martuni
.

Armenians have lived in the Karabakh region since the period of antiquity.

Safavid dynasty, which created the Ganja-Karabakh province (beylerbeydom, bəylərbəylik). Despite these conquests, the population of Upper Karabakh remained largely Armenian.[17]

Karabakh passed to

Transcaucasia was incorporated into the Empire in 1828 by the Treaty of Turkmenchay. In 1822, the Karabakh khanate was dissolved, and the area became part of the Elizavetpol Governorate within the Russian Empire
.

After the

Russian Revolution of 1917, Karabakh became part of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, but this soon dissolved into separate Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian states. Over the next two years (1918–1920), there were a series of short wars between Armenia and Azerbaijan over several regions, including Karabakh. In July 1918, the First Armenian Assembly of Nagorno-Karabakh declared the region self-governing and created a National Council and government.[18] In September 1918, Azerbaijani–Ottoman forces captured the city of Shusha, the capital of the Karabakh Council, however, were unable to penetrate the countryside due to the efforts of local Armenians.[19] Following the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918, Ottoman forces were obligated to withdraw from the South Caucasus, including Shusha, after which their garrison was supplemented by the British. On 15 January 1919, the British governor of Baku, General Thomson appointed Khosrov bey Sultanov the "Governor-General of Karabakh and Zangezur" within Azerbaijan, despite neither region being completely under Azerbaijani control. On 5 June 1919, due to the refusal of the Karabakh assembly to submit to Azerbaijani authority as prescribed by British command, 2,000 mounted Kurdish irregulars led by the Sultan bey Sultanov—the brother of Khosrov—looted several Armenian villages in the outskirts of Shushi including Khaibalikend, Krkejan, Pahliul, Jamillu, and several remote hamlets resulting in the deaths of some 600 Armenians. As a result of the bloodshed, the Karabakh Council was compelled to sign a provisional accord with the Azerbaijani government on 22 August 1919, submitted to their rule pending their final status decided in the Paris Peace Conference.[20]

As the Paris Peace Conference was inconclusive on the issue of the South Caucasus territorial disputes, on 19 February 1920 Khosrov bey Sultanov issued an ultimatum to the Karabakh Council to consent to the region's permanent incorporation into Azerbaijan. During meetings of the Eighth Assembly of Armenians of Karabakh from 28 February to 4 March, the delegates expressed discontent with the Azerbaijani administration and warned that they would resort to countermeasures if their existence was threatened.[21] In the uprising that followed, due to the unsuccessful attempt by local Armenian forces to disarm the Azerbaijani garrisons in Shusha and Khankend, the former befell a pogrom which saw the Armenian half of the town looted and destroyed, with its Armenian inhabitants evicted and 500–20,000 massacred.[22][23][24][25][26]

In April 1920, while the Azerbaijani army was locked in Karabakh fighting local Armenian forces, Azerbaijan was taken over by

Azerbaijanis in Armenia[27]
and enabling Armenians to be appointed to key positions and attend schools in their first language.

With the Soviet Union firmly in control of the region, the conflict over the region died down for several decades. The Armenians in Karabakh were not repressed to a substantial extent.[27] Local schools offered education in Armenian but taught Azerbaijani history and not the history of the Armenian people; the population had access to Armenian-language television broadcast by a Stepanakert-based channel controlled from Baku, and later directly from Armenia as well, though in an unfavourable manner.[28] Unlike in Baku, cases of mixed Armenian-Azerbaijani marriages in Nagorno-Karabakh were very rare.[29] The autonomy of Nagorno-Karabakh led to the rise of Armenian nationalism and the Armenians' determination in claiming independence. With the beginning of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the question of Nagorno-Karabakh re-emerged.

Armenians in Ganja

The 69,000 Armenians of the

Nuri Pasha's ultimatum to disarm and submit, the Armenians of Elizavetpol were not massacred, however, they experienced difficulties in tending to their fields (100 of whom were killed whilst doing so) and traversing roads where they were attacked by "disgruntled refugees" and "lawless bands" who were also raiding the properties of local khans and beys ("chiefs"; "lords").[30] On 9 April 1920, at the height of the Armenian–Azerbaijani war and the clashes in the Kazakh uezd, Azerbaijani soldiers burned the Armenian villages of Badakend (Balakend) and Chardakhly (Çardaqlı) in the district.[31]

According to Human Rights Watch, In 1991 Azerbaijani OMON and Soviet military forces jointly started "a campaign of violence to disperse Armenian villagers from areas north and south of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territorial enclave in Azerbaijan where Armenian communities have lived for centuries".[32]

"However, the unstated goal was to "convince" the villagers half are pensioners to relocate permanently in Armenia."[32] This military action was officially called "Operation Ring", because its basic strategy consists of surrounding villages (included Martunashen and Chaykand) with tanks and armored personnel carriers and shelling them. Azerbaijani villagers were allowed to come and loot the empty Armenian villages—by the end of the operation, more than ten thousand Armenian villagers were forced to leave Azerbaijan.[32]

The majority Armenian population started a movement that culminated in the unilateral declaration of independence.[clarification needed]

Armenians in Nakhchivan

Main articles:
Khachkar destruction in Nakhchivan
See also:
Armenian Cultural Heritage in Azerbaijan § Nakhchivan
Document about election of the Head of the Armenian Catholic Diocese of Nakhichevan, 1691
The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan.
The cemetery at Julfa depicted in a photograph taken in 1915.

Armenians had a historic presence in Nakhchivan (In

Ak Koyunlu.[15]

In the 16th century, control of Nakhchivan passed to the

Aras River. Many of the deportees were settled in the neighborhood of Isfahan that was named New Julfa since most of the residents were from the original Julfa (a predominantly Armenian town).[15]

After the last

Russo-Persian War and the Treaty of Turkmenchay, the Nakhchivan khanate passed into Russian possession in 1828. The Nakhchivan khanate was dissolved, and its territory was merged with the territory of the Erivan khanate and the area became the Nakhichevan uezd of the new Armenian Oblast, which was reformed into the Erivan Governorate in 1849. A resettlement policy implemented by the Russian authorities encouraged massive Armenian immigration to Nakhchivan from various parts of the Ottoman Empire and Persia. According to official statistics of the Russian Empire, by the turn of the 20th century Azerbaijanis made up 57% of the uezd's population, while Armenians constituted 42%.[citation needed
]

During the

Democratic Republic of Armenia (DRA) and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR). In June 1918, the region came under Ottoman occupation. Under the terms of the Armistice of Mudros, the Ottomans agreed to pull their troops out of the Transcaucasus to make way for the forthcoming British military presence.[33]

After a brief British occupation and the fragile peace they tried to impose, in December 1918, with the support of Azerbaijan's

Azerbaijan SSR. A referendum was called for the people of Nakhchivan to be consulted. According to the formal figures of this referendum,[citation needed] held at the beginning of 1921, 90% of Nakhchivan's population wanted to be included in the Azerbaijan SSR "with the rights of an autonomous republic." The decision to make Nakhchivan a part of modern-day Azerbaijan was cemented March 16, 1921, in the Treaty of Moscow between Bolshevist Russia and Turkey. The agreement between the Soviet Russia and Turkey also called for attachment of the former Sharur-Daralayaz uezd (which had a solid Azerbaijani majority) to Nakhchivan, thus allowing Turkey to share a border with the Azerbaijan SSR. This deal was reaffirmed on 23 October 1921 by the Treaty of Kars
.

In the years following the establishment of Soviet rule, Nakhchivan saw a significant demographic shift. Its Armenian population gradually decreased as many emigrated. According to statistics published by the Imperial Russian government in 1916, Armenians made up 40% of the population of the Nakhchivan uezd.[34] The borders of the uezd were redrawn and in the 1926 all-Soviet census 11% of region's population was Armenian,.[35] By 1979 this number had shrunk to 1.4%. The Azerbaijani population, meanwhile increased substantially with both a higher birth rate and immigration (growing from 85% in 1926 to 96% by 1979). The Armenian population saw a great reduction in their numbers throughout the years repatriating to Armenia and elsewhere.

Some Armenian political groupings of the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian diaspora, among them most notably the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) claim that Nakhchivan should belong to Armenia. However, Nakhchivan is not officially claimed by the government of Armenia. But huge Armenian religious and cultural remnants are witness of the historic presence of Armenians in the Nakhchivan region. Recently the Medieval Armenian cemetery of Jugha (Julfa) in Nakhchivan, regarded by Armenians as the biggest and most precious repository of medieval headstones marked with Christian crosses – khachkars (of which more than 2,000 were still there in the late 1980s), has completely been destroyed by Azerbaijani soldiers in 2006.

Armenians in the Greater Caucasus slopes

A year prior to the Russian Revolution, there were 80 thousand Armenians,

Zakatal),[36] the territory of all was inherited by Azerbaijan.[37] Most of the Armenian towns and villages in these districts were destroyed by the Azerbaijani–Ottoman advance against the Baku Commune in late 1918.[38] By 1919, 23 Armenian parochial schools in Shemakha had been closed, and slightly more than 10% of the district's pre-revolution Armenian population survived as evidenced by the 33 wagonloads of their bones. In the Aresh and Nukha districts of the Elizavetpol Governorate, only 3 of 51 Armenian and Udi villages remained, indicating the massacre of 25,000 and the kidnappings of thousands of Armenian girls and women by Azerbaijani and Turkish officers.[31] 48 Armenian villages were destroyed and the female population kidnapped and raped.[39] By 1919, only half of the two districts' Armenian population had survived, forced into the remaining three villages of Nidzh (Nij), Vardashen (Oğuz), and Jalut (Calut). The remaining villages were later destroyed in March 1920 in retaliation for the uprising in Nagorno-Karabakh—causing the survivors to flee up into the Greater Caucasus Mountains or to Georgia. Many of these Armenians were forced into labor by beys, and were often unable to reclaim their stolen possessions. One of the Armenian deputies in Azerbaijan's parliament denounced the treatment of the Armenians in the Greater Caucasus slopes, but their appeals were ignored by the government of Azerbaijan. 1,500 Armenians from this region were later resettle in the Etchmiadzin and Surmalu uezds ("counties") of Armenia.[31]

Conditions today

The Armenians still remaining in Azerbaijan practically live in virtual hiding, and have also changed their Armenian names and surnames to Azerbaijani names because they have to maintain an extremely low profile to avoid harassment and physical attacks. They have continued to complain (in private due to fear of attacks) that they remain subject to harassment and human rights violations and therefore have to hide their identity.

Immigration and naturalization service report:[41]

It is clear that Armenians are the target of violence from societal forces and that the Azerbaijani government is unable or in some instances unwilling to control the violence or acts of discrimination and harassment. Some sectors of the government, such as the Department of Visas and Registrations mentioned above, appear unwilling to enforce the governments stated policy on minorities. As long as the Armenian-Azeri conflict over the fate of Karabakh continues, and possibly long after a settlement is reached, Armenian inhabitants of Azerbaijan will have no guarantees of physical safety.

A report by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) released in May 2011 found that their conditions had barely improved. It found that:

...people of Armenian origin are at risk of being discriminated against in their daily lives. Certain people born of mixed Armenian-Azerbaijani marriages choose to use the name of their Azerbaijani parent so as to avoid problems in their contacts with officialdom; others who did not immediately apply for Azerbaijani identity documents when the former Soviet passports were done away with today encounter difficulties in obtaining identity papers.[42]

It further expressed concern over the "fact that the constant negative official and media discourse concerning the Republic of Armenia helps to sustain a negative climate of opinion regarding people of Armenian origin coming under the Azerbaijani authorities' jurisdiction."[42] It recommended that the government "work actively to improve the climate of opinion concerning Armenians coming under Azerbaijan’s jurisdiction."[42]

During the

2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War large parts of the Armenian-controlled Republic of Artsakh were captured by Azerbaijan.[43] While most of the Armenian residents fled in advance of the Azerbaijani army, with Armenian cities such as Hadrut being entirely depopulated, the few who remained behind were mistreated or even killed by Azerbaijani soldiers.[44] There have also been numerous reports that Armenian prisoners of war were tortured and nineteen were executed in captivity.[45][46] Armenian soldiers were also brutally mistreated, including multiple instances of beheadings recorded on video.[47]

Famous Armenians from Azerbaijan

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Memorandum from the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights to John D. Evans, Resource Information Center, 13 June 1993.
  2. ^ "Implementation of the Helsinki Accords: Human Rights and Democratization in the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union" (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, January 1993), p. 118.
  3. ^ Demographic indicators: Population by ethnic groups Archived December 20, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "Assessment for Armenians in Azerbaijan, Minorities At Risk Project". Archived from the original on 2011-05-25. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
  5. ^ a b Этнический состав Азербайджана (по переписи 1999 года) Archived 2013-08-21 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian)
  6. ^ "Definitions of national identity, nationalism and ethnicity in post-Soviet Azerbaijan in the 1990s" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2010-12-15.
  7. ^ "European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), Second Report on Azerbaijan, CRI(2007)22, May 24, 2007". Archived from the original on June 3, 2008. Retrieved October 22, 2010.
  8. ^ "University of Maryland Center for International Development and Conflict Management. Minorities at Risk: Assessment of Armenians in Azerbaijan, Online Report, 2004". Archived from the original on 2011-05-25. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
  9. ^ Razmik Panossian. The Armenians. Columbia University Press, 2006; p. 281
  10. ^ Mario Apostolov. The Christian-Muslim Frontier. Routledge, 2004; p. 67
  11. ^ Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. 2001
  12. ^ Barbara Larkin. International Religious Freedom (2000): Report to Congress by the Department of State. DIANE Publishing, 2001; p. 256
  13. ^ Azerbaijan: The status of Armenians, Russians, Jews and other minorities, report, 1993, INS Resource Information Center, p. 10
  14. ^ United States Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1992 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, February 1993), p. 708
  15. ^
    Hewsen, Robert H.
    Armenia: A Historical Atlas. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2001.
  16. ^ R. Schmitt, M. L. Chaumont. "Armenia and Iran". Encyclopædia Iranica. Archived from the original on 2012-01-21. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
  17. ^ a b Cornell, Svante E. The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Archived 2013-04-18 at the Wayback Machine. Uppsala: Department of East European Studies, April 1999.
  18. ^ The Nagorno-Karabagh Crisis: A Blueprint for Resolution Archived 2000-09-02 at the Wayback Machine, New England Center for International Law & Policy
  19. ^ Микаелян, В.А. (1992). Докладная записка Карабахского армянского Национального Совета Правительству Армении о военных и политических событиях в Арцахе с декабря 1917 г. [Report of the Karabakh Armenian National Council to the Government of Armenia on the political and military events since December 1917, in Nagorno Karabakh in 1918–1923. Collection of Documents and Materials.]. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences.
  20. OCLC 238471. Archived
    from the original on 2009-02-12. Retrieved 2022-07-04.
  21. ^ Микаелян, В.А. (1992). Докладная записка Карабахского армянского Национального Совета Правительству Армении о военных и политических событиях в Арцахе с декабря 1917 г. [Report of the Karabakh Armenian National Council to the Government of Armenia on the political and military events since December 1917, in Nagorno Karabakh in 1918–1923. Collection of Documents and Materials.]. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences.
  22. OCLC 39538940. Archived
    from the original on 2023-01-13. Retrieved 2022-07-04.
  23. ^ "The British administrator of Karabakh Col. Chatelword did not prevent discrimination against Armenians by the Tatar administration of Gov. Saltanov. The ethnic clashes ended with the terrible massacres in which most Armenians in Shusha town perished. The Parliament in Baku refused to even condemn those responsible for the massacres in Shusha and the war started in Karabakh. A. Zubov (in Russian) А.Зубов Политическое будущее Кавказа: опыт ретроспективно-сравнительного анализа, журнал "Знамья", 2000, No. 4, http://magazines.russ.ru/znamia/2000/4/zubov.html Archived 2019-03-25 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ "massacre of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh's capital, Shushi (called Shusha by the Azerbaijanis)", Kalli Raptis, "Nagorno-Karabakh and the Eurasian Transport Corridor", https://web.archive.org/web/20110716225801/http://www.eliamep.gr/eliamep/files/op9803.PDF
  25. ^ "A month ago after the massacres of Shushi, on 19 April 1920, prime-ministers of England, France and Italy with participation of the representatives of Japan and USA collected in San-Remo..." Giovanni Guaita (in Russian) Джованни ГУАЙТА, Армения между кемалистским молотом и большевистской наковальней // «ГРАЖДАНИН», M., # 4, 2004 http://www.grazhdanin.com/grazhdanin.phtml?var=Vipuski/2004/4/statya17&number=%B94 Archived 2014-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
  26. ISBN 0814325270, archived
    from the original on 2023-01-13, retrieved 2022-07-04
  27. ^ a b Tobias Debiel, Axel Klein, Stiftung Entwicklung und Frieden. [Fragile Peace: State Failure, Violence and Development in Crisis Regions]. Zed Books, 2002; p.94
  28. ^ T.K.Oommen. Citizenship, nationality, and ethnicity Archived 2023-09-20 at the Wayback Machine. Wiley-Blackwell, 1997; p. 131
  29. ^ Алла Ервандовна Тер-Саркисянц, Современная семья у армян Нагорного Карабаха. В: В.К. Гарданов (ed.). Кавказский этнографический сборник. Ter-Sarkisiants, A. A. "Sovremennaja semja u armjan Nagornogo Karabaxa". In: V. K. Gardanov (ed.). Kavkazskij ètnografičeskij sbornik, 6: 11-46; p. 34.
  30. OCLC 238471. Archived
    from the original on 2009-02-12. Retrieved 2022-07-04.
  31. ^
    OCLC 238471. Archived
    from the original on 2009-02-12. Retrieved 2022-07-04.
  32. ^ a b c HRW Report on Soviet Union Human Rights Developments Archived 2020-11-11 at the Wayback Machine [in 1991]. Human Rights Watch, 1992.
  33. ISBN 0-520-01984-9
    .
  34. ^ Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, vol. I, p. 91.
  35. ^ "Nakhchivan ASSR in the 1926 All-Soviet Census". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  36. ^ a b Кавказский календарь на 1917 год [Caucasian calendar for 1917] (in Russian) (72nd ed.). Tiflis: Tipografiya kantselyarii Ye.I.V. na Kavkaze, kazenny dom. 1917. pp. 178–237. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021.
  37. OCLC 884858065, retrieved 2021-12-25{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  38. ^ Погромы армян в бакинской и елисаветпольской губерниях в 1918–1920 гг [Pogroms of Armenians in the Baku and Elisavetpol governorates in 1918–1920.] (PDF). Yerevan. 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-08-07. Retrieved 2022-08-23.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  39. ISBN 978-5-8243-1435-9. Archived
    from the original on 8 October 2022.
  40. ^ "Implementation of the Helsinki Accords: Human Rights and Democratization in the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union" (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, January 1993), p. 118
  41. INS
    resource information center, 1993
  42. ^ a b c European Commission against Racism and Intolerance "ECRI REPORT ON AZERBAIJAN (fourth monitoring cycle) Archived 2013-03-16 at the Wayback Machine." May 31, 2011. p. 30.
  43. ^ "Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia sign Nagorno-Karabakh peace deal". BBC News. 2020-11-10. Archived from the original on 2020-11-10. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
  44. ^ "Azerbaijani subversive group kills mother and son in Hadrut". Public Radio of Armenia. Archived from the original on 2020-11-17. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
  45. ^ "Azerbaijan: Armenian POWs Abused in Custody". Human Rights Watch. 2021-03-19. Archived from the original on 2022-04-24. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
  46. ^ "Nineteen Armenians 'killed in Azerbaijani captivity'". OC Media. 2021-05-04. Archived from the original on 2021-10-06. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
  47. ^ "Two men beheaded in videos from Nagorno-Karabakh war identified". The Guardian. 2020-12-15. Archived from the original on 2021-10-05. Retrieved 2021-10-06.

External links

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