Armenians, as Christian missionaries since the Middle Ages, came to Azerbaijan from time to time and converted abandoned Christian churches (which had been left by the Turks who had converted to Islam) into Armenian churches. In 1441, the seat of the Armenian Catholic Church was moved from Cilicia to the Uchmuazzin (Echmiadzin) Church in the village of Valarshabad near the city of Iravan. The church’s money was used to purchase lands belonging to Azerbaijanis, and thus the first Armenian settlements were formed in the vicinity of Uchmuazzin.

The Russian army captured the fortress of Iravan on 1 October 1827. Under the Treaty of Turkmenchay, signed on 10 February 1828, the last khanates of northern Azerbaijan – Iravan and Nakhchivan – joined Russia. On 20 March, Nicholas I approved this treaty, and the next day signed a decree on the creation of the “Armenian region”, which included the territories of the Iravan and Nakhchivan khanates.

Article 15 of the Treaty of Turkmenchay, concluded on 10 February 1828, provided Armenians living in Iran the right to transfer allegiance to Russia. In addition, they were given a one-year term for free passage with their families from the Persian regions to Russia. The exportation and sale of their movable property was not to be hindered by the government and local authorities and was exempted from duties and taxes. As for immovable property, there was determined a five-year period for its sale or drawing up a power of attorney for it.

Preparations for the resettlement of Armenians began as early as May 1827, when Colonel Lazarev (Yeghiazar Lazaryan), who had much influence among Armenians, became subordinate to Paskevich upon written request from St Petersburg. At the beginning of October Lazarev was already in the detachment, allocated to carry out certain works among Armenians living in South Azerbaijan, and then he was appointed commandant of Tabriz. On the initiative of the Russian Ambassador to Iran A.S. Griboyedov, the issue of resettlement of Iranian Armenians to the occupied lands was raised, and it was after this that the project of the Russian government to resettle 80,000 Cossacks to the lands along the Iranian border lost its force.

On 14 February Lazarev sent a report to Paskevich, in which he reminded that during the war Armenians had done everything possible for our victory and now they wanted to leave their homes and move to the Russian provinces.  For the rapid and convenient mass resettlement of Armenians Lazarev proposed: 1) that Paskevich should give him a document to direct the resettlement and that this document should specify the benefits envisaged for the resettlers; 2) that he should be authorised to appoint the necessary number of staff and chief officers, knowing the Armenian language, to direct the resettlement; 3) that the Russian army should wait in those places where, due to climatic conditions, the resettlement work might be delayed and escort the resettlers to their destinations; 4) that funds should be allocated from the treasury for the poor resettlers.

In response to those proposals, Paskevich sent special directives on 26 February to Lazarev and on 29 February to the Iravan Temporary Administration. The directive sent to Lazarev, consisting of 19 articles, stated: the resettled Christians who were engaged in trading will be placed in the cities so that they can take up commerce anew; the peasants will be allotted sufficiently fertile land and will be exempt from taxes for 6 years and from land duties for 3 years; families ready for resettlement should be given papers of a special form indicating the benefits provided for them; the resettlers by villages should be divided into groups and each such group should consist of 150 to 300 families; the settlers should be sent to the provinces of Iravan and Nakhchivan in order to increase the Christian population in these lands as far as possible; an officer knowing the Armenian language and 2-5 Cossacks should be assigned to accompany each group; as soon as a certain part of the group will be on the road, the Iravan Temporary Administration should be notified immediately of the number of families, the climatic conditions of the places where they have been living, the number of herds they possess, and the approximate time of their arrival at the border.

The process of withdrawal of the Russian army, according to the treaty, began on 8 March from Maragha, so it was envisaged to resettle the Armenians living in Maragha first. The Armenians living in the village of Uzumchu and neighbouring villages near Karabakh were decided to be resettled in Karabakh.   25 thousand roubles in silver were allocated from the treasury to help poor families. The duties of Lazarev and Armenian officers subordinate to him were limited to bringing the settlers to the border. After that the management of the works was entrusted to the Committee established under the Iravan Temporary Administration. The Committee was to send its representatives to meet the party of settlers at the border.  These representatives would then accompany the settlers to the new settlements. This duty for Karabakh was entrusted to Prince Abkhazov, Head of the Military Customs District. 

In his 16-article directive sent to the Iravan Temporary Administration, Paskevich stated that the Committee should allocate land plots according to the number of relocated families and guide their settlement in the places provided for them. The Committee should try to arrange the relocated villages in the same order, separately and in neighbourhood with each other as they were used to live in the former territories. Those who lived in mountainous conditions should be placed in mountainous places and those who lived in plain places also in plain places in order to avoid disease and death of the population; conditions should also be created to preserve their customs and economic skills. It should be avoided that Christians should be accommodated in Muslim villages, and separate districts and mahallas should be created for Christians. Christians living around Muslim villages should be resettled with their co-religionists, and Muslims living around Christian villages should also be resettled with their co-religionists.  Resettlers should not be placed on landlords’ land but on state land. Equal amounts of debt should be given to the settlers before the new harvest for the initial sowing of grain. The debt given to revitalise the farm should be interest free and should be repaid after 4 years from the date of issue within the next 6 years. The availability of water resources and health conditions should be considered while selecting sites for settlement. Special reports should be made on the accommodation of each family and reports on total expenditure. 

Lazarev and his representatives sent to the field, violating the Turkmenchay Treaty and the directives given to them, tried to forcibly resettle Armenians. In this regard, Abbas Mirza twice appealed to Lazarev that his subordinate officers should stop forcibly resettling Armenians and adhere to the terms of the Turkmenchay Treaty.

As the process of resettlement was delayed and Armenians were hindered, Lazarev addressed Christians on 30 March 1828.  At the beginning of his address he points out that some ill-wishers, spreading false information, spread fear on those who want to resettle, at the same time, he lists the benefits provided for them by Russia.  He wrote: “In Russia you will see that you, like other subjects of His Majesty, will have equal rights with all others, you will forget all hardships, there you will acquire a new homeland inhabited by Christians, you will see no more humiliation of your holy religion.  You will see Christians scattered in different provinces of Iran gathered together.  Hurry! Time is precious. Soon the Russian army will leave Iran, and then your resettlement from there will become more difficult and we will not be responsible for your safety.  Though you will incur some losses, you will regain everything in a short period of time and forever.”

Lazarev’s address in Armenian was spread among the Armenians living in Iran. On 9 March 1828 Lazarev from Khoy wrote a report to Paskevich, in which he indicated that 4500 families, having resettled, had moved to the other side of the Araz River. And in a report sent on 27 May, he indicated that 500 families of Muslim Kurds expressed a desire to move from Kurdistan to Iravan province.

However, in a letter sent to Lazarev dated 29 February, he was instructed to prevent their resettlement.

But contrary to Paskevich’s directive to place Armenians not on landowners’ lands but on state ones, most Armenians were placed on landowners’ lands.  In the work entitled “Notes on the resettlement of Armenians from Iran to our provinces”, the authorship of which is attributed to Griboyedov, it is said: it is not enough that Armenians are placed on the landowners’ lands, thus oppressing Muslims, but they are also provided with privileges.  Although Muslims are the aggrieved party, in fact local Muslims should be considered as settlers. During the war, the ruler had displaced them from their lands and they were living in misery. At the time of the Armenian resettlement, most Muslim families were nomadic, and they were unaware of the placement of Armenian settlers in their homes. On 1 October 1828, Griboyedov, in his letter sent to Paskevich, pointed out that the resettlement of Armenians in Nakhchivan had resulted in disturbances and unrest there. He wrote that discontent of Tatars (Azerbaijanis) had reached its peak.  To show the validity of the discontent, he attached to the letter a table of the location of the relocated Armenians.

This table shows that the majority of Armenians who moved were placed in Muslim villages. The resettled were not accommodated in the villages mixed with Armenians. Griboyedov saw a way out of this situation in resettlement of 500 Armenian families from Nakhchivan province to Derelegoz. Later this proposal was realized. On 24 December, Colonel Lazarev in his final report on the results of the resettlement of Christians in Russia, written to Count Paskevich-Erivansky, indicated that the resettlement work began on 26 February 1829 and was completed by 11 June 1829. During this period 8249 Christian families (only about 100 of them were Assyrian families, the rest were all Armenian) were resettled in Iravan, Nakhchivan and Karabakh provinces. 16000 chervonets and 400 roubles in silver were spent from the treasury for resettlement works; 1500 Armenian families who wished to resettle remained in Iran because Lazarev did not find an opportunity to resettle them too. During the resettlement of Armenians, the Armenian officers subordinated to Lazarev especially distinguished themselves. Prince Melikov led the resettlement of Armenians in Uzumchu and surrounding villages, Prince Argutinsky-Dolgorukov in Tabriz and surrounding villages and then in Salmas province, Collegiate Assessor Gamazov in Maragin Khanate and Urmia villages, and Prince Shalikov in Khoy province. As it was mentioned earlier, I. Chopin conducted a cameral census in the Armenian province in 1829-1832. According to his statistics, 366 Armenian families comprising 1715 people resettled from Iran were placed in the city of Iravan, 265 families comprising 1110 people were placed in the city of Nakhchivan and 36 families comprising 182 people were placed in the city of Ordubad.

The resettled Armenians were placed in 119 villages of Iravan province, 61 villages of Nakhchivan province and 11 villages of Ordubad district. In total, Armenians were placed: in Iravan province 4599 families comprising 23,568 people, in Nakhchivan province 2137 families comprising 10,652 people, in Ordubad district 250 families comprising 1340 people.  As a result, 6949 families comprising 35,560 people were resettled to the Armenian province. If in the newly created Armenian province the number of Muslims was 81.749 people (16.078 families), the number of Armenians was 25.131 people (4428 families), then after the resettlement of Armenians from Iran their number reached 60.691 people (11.377 families).  Due to this resettlement, the number of Armenians rose from 23 per cent to 43 per cent. Considering that in total 6949 out of 8249 families resettled from Iran were placed in the Armenian province, then it can be concluded that the remaining 1300 families were resettled in Karabakh and Zangazur.

 

Nazim Mustafa,

Doctor of Philosophy in History