Historian: Armenians resettled to regions that never belonged to them
By Trend
Armenians were resettled to the regions that never belonged to them, Head of the Department of Azerbaijani History of the Baku State University, Associate Professor Mehman Abdullayev told Trend Feb. 12.
Abdullayev was expressing his point of view over the publications of some Russian media outlets, financed by Armenians, that Yerevan is allegedly a historical Armenian land.
"Obviously, in 1832, 45,207 people or 70 percent out of 65,280 Armenians registered in Irevan province accounted for Armenians who were resettled from the Qajar state and the Ottoman Empire,” he said. “The demographic result of the mass resettlement of Armenians to Irevan province was very difficult for our people. According to the statistics of 1832, the number of Armenian families living in Irevan sharply increased from 12,694 to 20,927.”
“According to the statistics of the same year, 49,875 people or 43.3 percent of a population of 115,115 people were Azerbaijani Turks,” he said. “Thus, the Azerbaijani Turks, who were the indigenous people of the region, lost their dominant ethnic position in their homeland and turned into an ethnic minority."
Abdullayev said that the Irevan and Nakhchivan khanates were occupied by Russia in 1827 and turned into the "Armenian province" with the support of the tsarist regime in 1828.
“During the occupation of 359 Azerbaijani villages (310 in the Irevan province), their population was massacred and expelled from their houses,” he said.
“The mass placement of about 130,000 Armenians, resettled from the Qajar state and the Ottoman Empire, in this region led to great demographic changes,” Abdullayev said. “The rural population of Irevan and Nakhchivan changed even more.”
"Historian I. I. Chopin, who conducted a comprehensive analysis of the region, knowing exactly that the Armenians are not indigenous people, said it would be correct to call them "residents living before" (that is, before the signing of the Treaty of Turkmenchay),” he said. “But while creating some tables, for some reason he changed his mind and tried to present them as "local" population. In 1832, while conducting a census, the number of “local” Armenian families, that is, those "living before" [the signing of the Treaty of Turkmenchay], reached 4,428 (13,058 men, 12,093 women, in total 25,151)."
“Before the mass resettlement, the overwhelming majority of the population in the Irevan, Nakhchivan and Ordubad regions - 78.4 percent accounted for Azerbaijani Turks,” the historian said. “But as a result of the resettlement policy pursued by Russia for four years, the demographic situation of the region greatly changed.”
"After a short period of time, a demographic explosion took place in the region: 31,201 families or 164,450 people (86,786 men, 77,664 women) lived in the "Armenian province" in 1832,” he said.
“As a result, 51.53 percent of the population accounted for Azerbaijani Turks, while the percentage of the Armenian population increased by more than 2.2 times, increasing from 21.6 percent to 48.47 percent," the historian said.
Abdullayev said that despite the mass resettlement of Armenians, very few representatives of the highest class of Armenians were living in the Irevan region in 1832.
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