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The Azerbaijani community in Armenia represented a large number but has been virtually non-existent since 1988–1991, when the overwhelming majority of the Turkic speaking people --which mostly identified themselves as Azerbaijani's-- fled the country as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh War and the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. UNHCR estimates the current population of Azerbaijani's in Armenia to be somewhere between 30 and a few hundred persons, with the majority of them living in rural areas and being members of mixed couples (mostly Azeri women married to Armenian men), as well as elderly and sick, and thus unable to leave the country. Most of them are also reported to have changed their names and maintain a low profile to avoid discrimination.

Conflict

The Azerbaijani's of Armenia were marginalized, discriminated, and often forced to migration resulting in significant changes in the country's ethnic composition, even though they have managed to stay its largest ethnic minority until the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Tensions rose again after both Armenia and Azerbaijan became briefly independent from the Russian Empire in 1918. Both quarreled over where their common borders lay. Warfare coupled with the influx of Armenian refugees resulted in widespread massacres of Muslims in Zankezur causing virtually all of them to flee to Azerbaijan. Relatively few returned, as according to the 1926 All-Soviet population census of there were only 78,228 Azeris living in Armenia. By 1939, however, the numbers increased to 131,000.

In 1948–1951, with the Council of Ministers of the USSR's adoption of the resolution entitled "Planned measures for the resettlement of collective farm workers and other Azerbaijanis from the Armenian SSR to the Kura-Arax lowlands", the growing Azeri community became partly subject to "voluntary resettlement" (classified by Azerbaijani sources as in fact deportation) into central Azerbaijan to make way for incoming Armenian immigrants from the Armenian diaspora. Some 100,000 Azeris left Armenia within those three years bringing the number of those in Armenia further down to 107,748 in 1959. By 1979, Azeris numbering 160,841 were constituting 6.5% of Armenia's population.

Present day

It is impossible to determine the exact population numbers for Azeris in Armenia at the time of the conflict's escalation, since during the 1989 census forced Azeri migration from Armenia was already in progress. UNHCR's estimate is 200,000 persons. Civil unrest in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1987 led to Azeris' being often harassed and forced to leave Armenia. On 25 January 1988 the first wave of Azeri refugees from Armenia settled in the city of Sumgait. Another major wave occurred in November 1988 as Azeris were either expelled by the local authorities or fled fearing for their lives. This ensured the total Azeri emigration by 1991 and them settling primarily in Azerbaijan and Russia.

Hranoush Kharatyan, Head of Department on National Minorities and Religion Matters of Armenia, has made the following statement in February 2007:

Yes, ethnic Azerbaijanis are living in Armenia. I know many of them but I can't give numbers. Armenia has signed a UN convention according to which the states take an obligation not to publish statistical data related to groups under threat or who consider themselves to be under threat if these groups are not numerous and might face problems. During the census, a number of people described their ethnicity as Azerbaijani. I know some Azerbaijanis who came here with their wives or husbands. Some prefer not to speak out about their ethnic affiliation; others take it more easily. We spoke with some known Azerbaijanis residing in Armenia but they haven't manifested a will to form an ethnic community yet.

See also

• Azeris
• Erivan khanate
• Blue Mosque, Yerevan
• List of Azerbaijanis
• Demographics of Armenia

References

1. Second Report Submitted by Armenia Pursuant to Article 25, Paragraph 1 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Received on 24 November 2004
2. ^ International Protection Considerations Regarding Armenian Asylum-Seekers and Refugees. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Geneva: September 2003
3. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2003: Armenia U.S. Department of State. Released 25 February, 2004
4. ^ Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War by Thomas de Waal ISBN 0814719457
5. de Waal. Black Garden. p. 127-8.
6. Template:Ru icon Turkish-Armenian War of 1920
7. Turkish-Armenian War: Sep.24 – Dec.2, 1920 by Andrew Andersen
8. Template:Ru icon Ethnic Conflicts in the USSR: 1917–1991. State Archives of the Russian Federation, fund 1318, list 1, folder 413, document 21
9. Template:Ru icon Garegin Njdeh and the KGB: Report of Interrogation of Ohannes Hakopovich Devedjian August 28 1947. Retrieved May 31 2007
10. ^ The Alteration of Place Names and Construction of National Identity in Soviet Armenia by Arseny Sarapov
11. Template:Ru iconAll-Soviet Population Census of 1939 - Ethnic Composition in the Republics of the USSR: Armenian SSR. Demoscope.ru
12. Deportation of 1948-1953. Azerbembassy.org.cn
13. Armenia: Political and Ethnic Boundaries 1878-1948 by Anita L. P. Burdett (ed.) ISBN 1-85207-955-X
14. Template:Ru icon All-Soviet Population Census of 1959 - Ethnic Composition in the Republics of the USSR: Armenian SSR. Demoscope.ru
15. Template:Ru icon All-Soviet Population Census of 1979 - Ethnic Composition in the Republics of the USSR: Armenian SSR. Demoscope.ru
16. ^ Template:Ru icon The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict by Svante Cornell. Sakharov-Center.ru
17. ^ Template:Ru icon Karabakh: Timeline of the Conflict. BBC Russian
18. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2004: Armenia. U.S. Department of State
19. The Azerbaijanis Residing in Armenia Don’t Want to Form an Ethnic Community by Tatul Hakobyan. Hetq.am 26 February, 2007

• Azerbaijani people
• Ethnic groups in Armenia