Myth & Facts

Despite the fact that the Armenians have lived in Nagorno-Karabakh for centuries, it has always been under the rule of the Caucasian Albanians and Turkic rulers and in the last 10 centuries has been the homeland of a mainly Turkic population. The territory of present-day Nagorno-Karabakh belonged to Caucasian Albania in the first century A.D, called Aghvank in Armenian. ("Great Soviet Encyclopedia," 1973). Armenian language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, Caucasian Albanian, the pre-Islamic ancestors of modern Azerbaijanis spoke an indigenous Caucasian language.

Upon the Islamic conquest of the Caucasus in the ninth century, Nagorno-Karabakh (“Artsakh”) was ruled by the Albanian princes (C. J. F. Dowsett, "A Neglected Passage In The 'History Of The Caucasian Albanians'", BSOAS, 19(3), 1957), while the Albanians in the eastern plain of Karabakh mixed with the Turkic population and became Muslims (R.G. Suny, "Looking Towards Ararat: Armenia In Modern History," 1993). Thus the "Canons Of Aghvan," composed in the fifth century, were a part of the Caucasian Albanian historical heritage shared by present-day Azerbaijanis.

In the 11th century Nagorno-Karabakh became the part of Seljuk Empire, Turkic empire originating from the Qiniq branch of Oghuz Turks. From 12th to 13th centuries it was under the control of Eldiguzids Empire, Atabegs of Azerbaijan, which were a Turkic dynasty founded by Eldiguz of Kipchak origin.

In the 14th century Turkic federations the Gara Qoyunlu and in the 15th century their successors Aq Qoyunlu ruled this land.

One of the successful dynasties ruling Nagorno-Karabakh was Safavid Empire (1501-1736), founded by Shah Ismail I, the son of Halima Begum, the daughter of Uzun Hasan, the ruler of the Turkic Aq Qoyunlu dynasty. At the time of the Safavid state, the entire territory of Azerbaijan was made up of four beylerbeydoms: Shirvan, Karabakh (or Ganja), Chukhursaad (or iravan) and Azerbaijan (or Tabriz)

These regions were headed by the shah’s governors-general who were called beylerbeys. The first beylerbey of Karabakh was Shahverdi-Sultan from the Ziyad-oglu clan of the Azerbaijani Gajar tribe, who was appointed by Shah Tahmasib I in the 1540s. The nobility of the tribe was granted pastures and land plots in Karabakh

The power of the Karabakh beylerbey covered a vast territory – from the Georgian border near “Sinig Korpu” Bridge (currently “red Bridge”) to Khudafarin Bridge on the Araz river (A collection of articles on the history of Azerbaijan, edition 1, Baku, 1949, p. 250).

From 1736–1796 it was ruled by successors of Safavid Empire, the Afsharid Dynasty that originated from the Turkic Afshar tribe. The dynasty was founded by the brilliant military commander Nader Shah, who deposed the last member of the Safavid dynasty and proclaimed himself as the Shah of Iran.

The descendants of Shahverdi-Sultan were Karabakh beylerbeys with a khan’s title until 1736 when Nadir shah took Karabakh proper from Ziyad-oglu, leaving him with Ganja and a county, which he and his heirs owned until 1804. In 1747, Nadir-shah was killed as a result of a conspiracy. His empire split up into independent feudal possessions. “Before Persian troops withdrew from this region, independent rulers emerged in every province”. Panah Ali-bey Javanshir (1747–1763) from the Sarijali oymag of the Javanshir tribe founded the independent Karabakh Khanate (I. P. Petrushevskiy, The Khanates of Azerbaijan and the Emergence of Russian Orientation. News of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR (department of general science), edition 2, 1946, No 5, p. 100).

And the last dynasty which had a control over this land until Russian Czar occupation was the Qajar dynasty, which was of Turkic origin, specifically from the Qajar tribe, from 1789 to 1828 (Turkmenchay treaty).

Under the control of Russian Empire Nagorno-Karabakh was the part of Elisabetpol Governate, then became the part of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918.

The state order of Peter the Great to the Armenian people (October 10, 1724) played a great role in this process. The order agreed on the resettlement of Armenians on the lands occupied by Russia.

This political course of Peter the First continued within a century. The Armenian resettlement and unification intensified after the victory of Russia in the Russian-Iranian war of 1804-1813 and the signing of the Gulustan agreement which divided Azerbaijan in two parts.

The Russian author of the 19th century S. Glinka wrote:

Increase of the resettled related Christian people [in Azerbaijan] can place a reliable stronghold in the borders of Russia for repulse of the hostile actions of the neighbouring peoples, particularly, of the Turks, Persians, and the mountaineers.

[source: S. Glinka «Resettlement of the Armenians of Adderbijan to the borders of Russia» (Описание переселения армян аддербиджанских в пределы России). Moscow 1831, Baku 1990, p. 93 (in Russian); under name «Adderbijan» the author means the South (Iranian) Azerbaijan; https://www.prlib.ru/item/434748].

According to the data of 1823 Armenian families accounted for 1,5 thousand out of 20 thousand families of the Karabakh province (the territory of the former Karabakh khanate). The ethnic composition of the population changed dramatically after the resettlement

[source: “Description of the Karabakh province prepared in 1823 according to the order of the governor in Georgia Yermolov by state advisor Mogilevsky and colonel Yermolov 2nd” (Описание Карабахской провинции, составленное в 1823 году, по распоряжению главноуправляющего в Грузии Ермолова, действительным статским советником Могилевским и полковником Ермоловым 2-м.) Tbilisi 1866].

KARABAKH POPULATION IN 1823
REGION	AZERIS (MUSLIMS)*	ARMENIANS
TOTAL	15,729 (78.30%)	4,366 (21.70%)
IN TOWN (SHUSHA)	1,111 (72.50%)	421 (27,50%)
IN VILLAGES	14,618 (78,70%)	3,945 (21,30%)

* Azerbaijanis

It also has to be noted, that of the total Karabakh population, the share of 5 districts situated in the mountainous part of Karabakh, i.e. the districts of Dizak, Varanda, Chelaberd, Khachen and Talish where Azeris and Armenians lived mixed, was 1,559 families (7.75%). [source: Description of the Karabakh province. op. cit. [61] / Sources on the history of Azerbaijan (Источники по истории Азербайджана). Baku, 1989, p. 263].

Despite its importance, a substantial deficiency of this document was the fact that Armenians – first wave settlers from Iran – were included in the register without provisions.

Resettlement of Armenians increased substantially during the second Russo-Iranian war in 1826-1828. 18,000 Armenian families (40,000 people) were settled in Karabakh, particularly in its mountainous part. This source also shows that with exception of the villages of Ahlatian, Pirnakhay and Shinatag in Zangezur, the populations of all the Armenian villages were immigrants from Iran.

Armenian Catholicos Nerses Ashtaraketsi worked out a project on the resettlement of Armenians. A.S.Griboyedov also contributed to the development and implementation of the plan. Nerses was invited from Petersburg for leading the resettlement of Armenians in November of 1827. He wrote to Yegiazar Lazaryan that stayed in Tebriz at that time:

I’ve just asked the devoted supporter of the Armenian people A.S. Griboyedov not to forget my request about Christian refugees and their acceptance under the flag of Russian masters…I am also writing about all Armenians living in Iran and now I ask you Ivan Fyodorovich Paskovich to return the towns and villages that are controlled by Iranian government to Armenia under the protection of Russia during the reconciliation”.

The Turkmenchay agreement signed on February 10, 1828 stipulated for the resettlement of Armenians by its Article 15 [full text: https://karabakh.org/treaties/turkmenchay-treaty/].

From Article 15: " His majesty Shah forgives all of the population and officials of the Azerbaijan province.…Moreover, he gives a year for these families to move from Iran to Russia freely and to carry their movable property without any tariffs and taxes imposed on them and sell them. As for the immovable property the families are given five years to sell it or to present it to someone voluntarily".

The resettlement committees were established in Yerevan and Nakhichevan for organizing the resettlement of Armenians. The displaced persons were granted important privileges: they were released from taxes and tariffs for the term of six years. They were delivered benefits from the indemnity received from Iran [source: A.A.Bakikhanov’s Institute of History under the ANAS, http://www.no-genocide.us/post/166].

Armenians paid a great attention to the places they were going to settle in Transcaucasia.

It's necessary to resettle Armenians from the regions occupied by Russian Army that are Tebriz, Khoy, Salmas, Maragha to Nakhichevan, Yerevan and Karabakh.. Armenians, in most of their part, were settled in the lands of the Muslim landowners…The settlers are by themselves in very constrained situation and constraint the Muslims, which grumble and with good reason…we discussed a lot about the influences which we have to exercise on the Muslims [i.e. the Azeris who accepted the Armenian settlers] to reconcile them with their present burdened situation, which will not last long, and to eradicate their fear concerning that the Armenians will seize forever the territory, where they were allowed to for the first time.

A.S.Griboyedov

[source: A.S.GRIBOYEDOV, A NOTE ABOUT RESETTLEMENT OF ARMENIANS FROM PERSIA TO OUR (RUSSIAN EMPIRE) LANDS, 1828]

More Armenians were resettled from the Ottoman Empire after the war of 1826-28. The Russian author of the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century, N. N. Shavrov, describes all these processes as follows:

After the war of 1826-1828 ended, during the period of 1828-1930 we (i.e. Russia) have resettled to the Transcaucasus more than 40.000 Persian and 84.600 Turkish Armenians and placed them in the best state lands of Yelizavetpol and Erivan provinces, where [the number of] the Armenian population was miserable, and in Tiflis, Borchaly, Akhaltsiki and Akhalkalaki districts” (all mentioned districts are the territory of present-day Georgia).

[source: Shavrov N. N. «New threat to the Russian affairs in the Transcaucasus: forthcoming sale of Mughan to strangers» (Новая угроза русскому делу в Закавказье: предстоящая распродажа Мугани инородцам). St. Petersburg, 1911, p.59 (in Russian) / Id. pp. 60-61; https://www.prlib.ru/item/429115]

Shavrov also indicates that:

124.000 Armenians officially being resettled, there were many who resettled unofficially, therefore, the total number of those who resettled, considerably exceeds 200.000.

Azerbaijanis made up 64.8% and Armenians 34.8% of the total population of Karabakh in 1832.

[source: The Penny Encyclopaedia [ed. by G. Long]., Volume 11, p. 175]

In consequent years, the massive resettlement of Armenians to the South Caucasus, “Was going – using the words of another Russian author of XIX c. V. L. Velichko, – now hardly noticeable stream, now wide, impetuous torrent” .

[source: Velichko V.L. «The Caucasus. Russian affairs and interethnic questions» (Кавказ. Русское дело и межплеменные вопросы). St Petersburg, 1904, vol. 1, p. 75; Baku, 1990, p. 81]

Armenians were resettled again during the Crimean war (1853-1856). Unfortunately, their number was not registered.

During the years of Russo-Ottoman war of 1877-1879, 85,000 Armenians were resettled to the South Caucasus, in 1894 this number was 90,000, in 1897 another 10,000.

In the 1880s Azerbaijanis accounted for 41.5% and Armenians for 58.2% of the total population of the Shusha district. These indicators equaled 45 and 53% in 1897 and 40.2 and 52.3% in 1917 in Russia.

[source: «Statistical data about the population of the Transcaucasian region, extracted from the family lists of 1886» (Свод статистических данных о населении Закавказскаго края, извлеченных из посемейных списков 1886 г). Tiflis, 1893, IV; https://dlib.rsl.ru/viewer/01005403186]

The first Russian Empire population census of 1897 showed that of the total population of Karabakh Azeris constituted 53%, Armenians – 45%.For the first time in history, Armenians constituted the majority in some places of Karabakh. Although, in general, Azerbaijanis still constituted the majority in the region.

[source: The Caucasus Calendar of 1897, LXVIII – Yelizavetpol gubernia (province). St Petersburg, 1904, p. 3; https://dlib.rsl.ru/viewer/01003825031]

ELIZABETPOL GOVERNORATE
REGION	TURKS*	ARMENIANS
TOTAL	60,80%	33,26%
ARESH	70,10%	20,50%
JABRAYIL	74,10%	23,70%
JAVANSHIR	71,60%	26,90%
ELIZABETPOL	63,90%	26,40%
ZANGEZUR	51,64%	46,06%
GAZAKH	57,20%	38,90%
NUKHA	69,30%	15,70%
SHUSHA	45,30%	53,30%

BAKU GOVERNORATE
REGION	TURKS*	ARMENIANS
TOTAL	58,70%	6,30%
BAKU	34,70%	12,30%
GEOKCHAY	79,00%	11,00%
DZHEVAT	93,30%	...
KUBA	38,30%	...
LENKORAN	64,70%	…
SHEMAKH	73,70%	11,70%

ERIVAN GOVERNORATE
REGION	TURKS*	ARMENIANS
TOTAL	37,80%	53,30%
ALEXANDROPOL	4,70%	85,50%
NAKHICHEVAN	63,70%	34,40%
NOVO-BAYAZET	28,30%	66,30%
SURMALU	46,50%	30,40%
SHARUR-DARALAGYOZ	67,40%	27,10%
ERIVAN**	51,40%	38,50%
ETCHMIADZIN	29,00%	62,40%

* Turks - Azerbaijanis

** Current capital of Armenia, “Yerevan”.

- Population distribution by main language and counties

- Russian Empire except for the provinces of European Russia

[source: http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=566]

N.I.Shavrov in 1911: "To date 1 million out of 1 million and 300 thousand people of the total population of Transcaucasia are not aboriginal inhabitants they have been resettled there from our country.

Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh marked the 150th anniversary of their resettlement in 1978, and a special monument was erected in the Maraghashen-Leninavan region of Mardakert Aghdara. As stated above, the resettlement of Armenians was implemented for the sake of both Russia and Armenia's political interests. But 10 years later, in 1988, the inscription "150" was removed from the monument. This was done to hide the facts about the artificial mass resettlement of Armenians to the region.

Coming soon.

Myth & Facts

On this page we will reveal all the lies about Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh has predominantly been an Armenian homeland for centuries.

Historically, the majority of the Nagorno-Karabakh population have been Armenians.

A.S.Griboyedov

Upon joining the USSR, Stalin gave Nagorno-Karabakh to the Soviet State of Azerbaijan.

Armenia sandwiched between Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Muslim Azerbaijan is against Christian Armenia.