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Azerbaijanis in Armenia

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The Turkic community in Armenia has historically been present on these lands in large numbers since they settled there starting by eleventh century but has been virtually non-existent since 1988–1991, when the overwhelming majority of the Turkic speaking people --which by 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 numbers for 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.

History

From eleventh to fourteenth centuries Turkic tribes started invading Armenia, first the Turkman, then the Seljuks and the Mongols raiding brutally, destroying towns killing and raping the population. The large scale Turkic migration brought also the linguistic Turkification of a number of the Muslim people in Transcaucasus such as the Shirvanis. In 1604-5, Shah Abbas depopulated Armenia, Edward Augustus Freeman writes: The people removed were chiefly Armenian Christians , as a result by the Seventeenth century, the Armenians had become a minority in parts of their historic lands. During the last decade of the 18th century the Persians under the fear of losing the Yerevan Khanate in the profit of the Russians, supported by the Khans to launch a wide scale attack against the Armenian population; from which many fled from the region. the Armenian Mechitarist Bishop Michael Chamich wrote about the period: In consequence of the tyranny which the Mohammedans exercise over the Christians whom they have subjected to their power, Armenia is almost depopulated. The inhabitants seize every opportunity that occurs to leave their wretched country and settle in places under milder government. In the first quarter of the 19th century, the Khanate of Yerevan which included most of Eastern Armenia and covered an area of approximately 7,000 square miles was nearly depopulated with a population of only 100,000, Armenians ending up representing only 20%, the rest being Muslim (Persian, Turkic, Kurdish). The land was mountainous and dry. The Khanate also included Southwest Iranian Azerbaijan and the Ottoman provinces of Bayazid and Qars which are not part of the current republic of Armenia. By the beginning of the 20th century a significant population of Tatars (related to modern Azerbaijani) lived in Russian Armenia. They numbered about 300,000 persons or 37.5% in Russia's Erivan Governorate (roughly corresponding to most of present-day central Armenia, the Iğdır Province of Turkey, and Azerbaijan's Nakhichevan exclave). Officially most of the Muslims were classified as Tartars and most lived in rural areas and were engaged in farming and carpet-weaving. They formed the majority in 4 of the governorate's 7 districts, including the city of Erivan (Yerevan) (which total population at the time was slightly under 30,000) itself where they constituted 49% of the population (compared to 48% constituted by Armenians). At the time, Eastern Armenian cultural life was centered more around the holy city of Echmiadzin, seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Historian Luigi Villari reported that in 1905, Azeris in Yerevan were generally wealthier than the Armenians living the city.

For the Turkic people, particularly the modern Azerbaijani's of Armenia, the 20th century was the period of marginalization, discrimination, mass and often forcible migrations 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. In 1905–1907 Erivan Governorate became an arena of clashes between Armenians and Azeris believed to have been instigated by the Russian government in order to draw public attention away from the Russian Revolution of 1905. 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 Armenia 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

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. The Kingdom of Armenia, M. Chahin, Routledge (2001) p.234
  5. The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Causes and Implications by Michael P. Croissant Praeger/Greenwood (1998) p.2
  6. The history and conquests of the Saracens, 6 lectures, Edward Augustus Freeman, Macillan (1876) p. 229
  7. An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires by James Stuart Olson, Greenwood Press, (1994) p. 44
  8. Archives Historique et Politiques, ou Recueil de Pièce Officielles, Mémoires et Morceaux Historiques, Inédits ou Peu Connus, Relatifs à L'Histoire des 18e et 19e Sciècle, Maximilian Samson Friedrich Schoell, Libraire grecque-latine, Original issu de l'Université du Michigan (1818), pp. 248-264
  9. History of Armenia by Mik'ayel Ch'amch'yants', Bishop's college press, by H. Townsend (1827) p.506
  10. George A. Bournoutian. Eastern Armenia in the Last Decades of Persian Rule, 1807 - 1828 (Malibu: Undena Publications, 1982), pp. xxii + 165
  11. George A. Bournoutian. Eastern Armenia in the Last Decades of Persian Rule, 1807 - 1828 (Malibu: Undena Publications, 1982), pp. xxii + 165
  12. Template:Ru icon Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary: Erivan Governorate
  13. Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social Democracy, 1883-1917, Stephen F. Jones, Harvard University Press (2005) p. 19
  14. Template:Ru icon Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary: Erivan
  15. ^ Thomas de Waal. Black Garden: Armenia And Azerbaijan Through Peace and War. New York: New York University Press, p. 74. ISBN 0-8147-1945-7 Cite error: The named reference "DeWaal01" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  16. Fire and Sword in the Caucasus by Luigi Villari. London, T. F. Unwin, 1906: p. 267
  17. ^ Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War by Thomas de Waal ISBN 0814719457
  18. Template:Ru iconMemories of the Revolution in Transcaucasia by Boris Baykov
  19. Template:Ru icon Turkish-Armenian War of 1920
  20. Turkish-Armenian War: Sep.24 – Dec.2, 1920 by Andrew Andersen
  21. Template:Ru icon Ethnic Conflicts in the USSR: 1917–1991. State Archives of the Russian Federation, fund 1318, list 1, folder 413, document 21
  22. Template:Ru icon Garegin Njdeh and the KGB: Report of Interrogation of Ohannes Hakopovich Devedjian August 28 1947. Retrieved May 31 2007
  23. ^ The Alteration of Place Names and Construction of National Identity in Soviet Armenia by Arseny Sarapov
  24. Template:Ru iconAll-Soviet Population Census of 1939 - Ethnic Composition in the Republics of the USSR: Armenian SSR. Demoscope.ru
  25. Deportation of 1948-1953. Azerbembassy.org.cn
  26. Armenia: Political and Ethnic Boundaries 1878-1948 by Anita L. P. Burdett (ed.) ISBN 1-85207-955-X
  27. Template:Ru icon All-Soviet Population Census of 1959 - Ethnic Composition in the Republics of the USSR: Armenian SSR. Demoscope.ru
  28. Template:Ru icon All-Soviet Population Census of 1979 - Ethnic Composition in the Republics of the USSR: Armenian SSR. Demoscope.ru
  29. ^ Template:Ru icon The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict by Svante Cornell. Sakharov-Center.ru
  30. ^ Template:Ru icon Karabakh: Timeline of the Conflict. BBC Russian
  31. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2004: Armenia. U.S. Department of State
  32. The Azerbaijanis Residing in Armenia Don’t Want to Form an Ethnic Community by Tatul Hakobyan. Hetq.am 26 February, 2007
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