After the establishment of Soviet power in Armenia on November 29, 1920, the leadership of Armenia, which was economically dependent on Azerbaijan, began to attribute the crimes of genocide committed against Azerbaijanis during the years 1918-1920 to the previous Dashnak government. Nevertheless, the government of Soviet Armenia also sought to hinder the return of Azerbaijani refugees to their ancestral lands using various pretexts. The Armenian government mainly agreed to allow Azerbaijani refugees who had found refuge mainly in the territory of Iran, to return to the Zangibasar and Vedibasar regions on the condition that they prove they did not participate in the battles against Armenians in 1918-1920.

In the autumn of 1921, the government of the Armenian SSR adopted a resolution to halt the repatriation of the Azerbaijani refugees via the Julfa-Iravan railway line until the spring of 1922, citing the dire state of the country’s economy and the spread of contagious diseases. On the one hand, the Armenian leadership appealed to the Azerbaijani government to stop the return of Azerbaijani refugees to their homeland - to Armenia. On the other hand, they adopted a decision to resettle the Armenian refugees, those coming from the territory of Türkiye, in areas predominantly inhabited by Azerbaijanis.  The Ministry of Patronage of Armenia proposed to the Council of Ministers that the issue of resettling Armenian refugees coming from Türkiye be addressed as follows: 25,000 in Zangibasar, 60,000 in Vedibasar, 25,000 in Garnibasar, 25,000 in Dilijan district, 25,000 in Garakilsa district, and 10,000 in Novo-Bayazid district. The Armenian government did this because they wanted Azerbaijani refugees to see that their homes and entire villages were resettled by Armenian refugees upon their return to their homeland. This was part of the hostile policy implemented by the government of Soviet Armenia against the Azerbaijani population. Despite all this, the Azerbaijani people were returning to their native lands in Armenia. Azerbaijani refugees returned even though in most cases they found their houses and whole villages occupied by the Armenian settlers from Turkey and had to live together with them.  This is how more than 80 mixed Azerbaijani and Armenian settlements emerged that existed until 1988 in present-day Armenia. According to statistics, 96,500 Azerbaijanis returned to the territory of present-day Armenia from May 1921 to the end of May 1922. Among them, 26,000 Azerbaijani refugees returned to Iravan, 14,000 to Novo-Beyazid, 9,000 to Echmiadzin, 10,000 to Alexandropol, 15,000 to Zangezur, 5.5,000 to Daralayaz, 17,000 to Loru-Pambak and Ijevan.

The Azerbaijani refugees who returned to their homeland were forced to leave Armenia again, being subjected to pressure and persecution by the Dashnak factions disguised as communists. While approximately 100,000 Azerbaijanis returned to Armenia in May 1922, 84,717 Turks were registered in Armenia according to the results of the general Transcaucasian census held in 1926. Apparently, between 1922 and 1926 (considering natural population growth), at least 25,000 Azerbaijanis left the territory of present-day Armenia.

After the establishment of the Soviet power in Armenia, wealthy Azerbaijanis who returned to their former places of residence were labeled as "kulak" by the decision of the Extraordinary Commission, their property was confiscated, and they were subjected to persecution. Therefore, most of the affluent Azerbaijanis fled back to Iran and Türkiye in various secret ways.

In December 1922, a department for working with minority nationalities was established under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia by the decision of the Transcaucasia Country Committee. Later, this department was transferred to the Central Executive Committee of Armenia and was referred to as the department dealing with national minorities.

If during the rule of the Dashnaks in Armenia, Azerbaijanis were subjected to physical extermination and their residential areas were populated with Armenian refugees from Türkiye, then after the establishment of Soviet Armenia, the Armenian People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs first applied to the foreign ministries of Russia and then to Britain, requesting assistance in transferring the Armenian refugees from Mesopotamia to Armenia in the autumn of 1921. In March 1922, around 9,000 Armenian refugees were brought from Mesopotamia to Batum, and from there to Armenia, settling in the northwest of Gamarli (Artashat) and Arazdayan (Vedi region). In April 1922, the so-called "repatriation" of Armenians was suspended by the decision of the Armenian SSR Central Executive Committee. Armenians brought from abroad were settled mainly in the suburbs of Iravan, in Ashtarak, Gamarli, Vedibasar, Echmiadzin, Zangibasar, and Ellar regions. The purpose was to increase the Armenian population in those regions. On the other hand, both during the rule of Dashnaks in 1918-20 and during the Soviet rule in the spring of 1921, volunteer armed groups under the leadership of Abbasgulu bey Shadlinski had inflicted heavy blows on the Dashnaks in Vedibasar. Therefore, the Armenian government was oppressing the Azerbaijanis in various ways to ensure the numerical superiority of Armenians in the vicinity of Iravan, especially in Zangibasar, Vedibasar and Daralayaz.  

It is possible to understand the repressions of Azerbaijanis in Armenia from the reports of the Turkish section of the Department for Work with Minority Nationalities, operating within the Central Committee, during the years 1922-1925. In the report submitted by the head of the section, B. Afandiyev, to the Armenian Communist Party Central Committee, it was noted that Azerbaijanis were forcibly evicted from the villages they inhabited under the pretext of creating a land fund in the republic, and were relocated to other Azerbaijani villages, while the vacated villages were resettled by Armenians from other districts. The issue of putting an end to such practices was raised before the Armenian Communist Party Central Committee. 

The cases of violence against Azerbaijanis in Armenia had reached such an extent that the population living in Daralayaz district lodged a complaint to A. Rikov, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, and Mir Jafar Baghirov, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Azerbaijan SSR, in early 1925. In May of that year, a three-member commission was set up with the participation of Bala Afandiyev to investigate the complaints of the people of Daralayaz. Commission conducted a situation assessment in Gurban Kasilan, Jghatay, Dashalti, Goyarchin, Gayali, Charkhili Gumushkhana, Istisu, Kotanli, Gabakhli, Zeyta Chatma, Gurdgulag, Goykand, Chaykand, Chul, Tarp, Terp, Jeyranli, Gendara, Gachigut, Guneyvang, Alayaz, Alkhan Payasi and Hostun villages of Daralayaz district. The conclusion reached by the commission was that there was no legitimate basis for the relocation of Azerbaijanis, and often this measure was carried out with violence. The commission's report indicated that they had imprisoned those who did not wish to migrate and even incited the population of neighboring Armenian villages to attack Turkish villages.   

In general, from 1921 to 1936, 42,000 Armenians were brought and settled in Armenia from abroad, they were allocated land and employed.

On January 3, 1930, the Transcaucasian Country Committee adopted a decision to conduct sanctioned large-scale operations to disarm anti-Soviet elements. To implement this decision, "triads" and "fives" were formed. The Armenian government used the opportunity provided by this decision to launch a repression apparatus against Azerbaijanis. 

In February 1930, thousands of Azerbaijani families were expelled from Armenia in connection with the implementation of the resolution of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) on the adjustment of the class line of the party in the village and the abolition of kulaks as a class.   

It should be noted that in those years the Azerbaijani population of Armenia outside of Iravan was settled mainly in rural areas, and therefore the most common means of persecution was labeling them as "kulaks". Starting from 1930, Azerbaijanis escaping the wave of repressions tried to flee to Türkiye or Iran at the first favorable opportunity. The campaign of mass collectivization carried out in the early 30s throughout the Soviet Union was most harshly carried out against the Azerbaijani population of Armenia. All wealthy Azerbaijanis were deprived of all property, labeled "kulak" and exiled to Kazakhstan and Siberia. Soviet punitive authorities were especially rampant in Azerbaijani villages near the borders with Iran and Türkiye. As a result, the population of Zangibasar, Vedibasar, Gamarli and Garabaghlar districts, which had been driven to extremes, rebelled.

In Vedibasar, the rebels established control over 20 villages. The rebels were led by Karbalayi Ismayil, who had been actively involved in organizing armed resistance to the Dashnaks since the 1920s. Armenian authorities sent Abbasgulu bey Shadlinski to suppress the uprising. Abbasgulu bey was killed in February 1930 according to a plan developed by the Dashnaks disguised as communists. 

After the suppression of the uprising of Azerbaijani villages in Armenia, a significant part of the rebels managed to escape to Iran and Türkiye. However, under the pretext of bringing the rebels to justice, widespread persecution and arrests of Azerbaijanis began in the republic. Another reason for repression was the supposed familial relations of Azerbaijanis living in Armenia with Iran and Türkiye, and their alleged connections with "counter-revolutionary" forces who had migrated to these countries. 

As a result of the national discriminatory policy carried out under the pretext of cleansing Armenia of counter-revolutionary and anti-Soviet elements, there were practically no Azerbaijani cadres left in the republic. The oppression of Azerbaijanis reached such a scale that even official Moscow, traditionally pursuing a policy of "divide and rule", was forced to recognize the fact of discrimination against Azerbaijanis in Armenia. In November 1936, the Presidium of the Council of Nationalities of the USSR Central Executive Committee discussed the issue "On the state of work among national minorities in Armenia". The resolution adopted on this issue stated that the department for work with national minorities under the Central Executive Committee of Armenia was unjustifiably liquidated.  It was also noted that the cultural and educational needs of national minorities had not been met, the training of national cadres for the central apparatus, the provision of Turkic and Kurdish cadres to the minority settlement areas, and the conduct of official records in the languages of these peoples were in an unsatisfactory state.       

In that decision, the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union had instructed the Central Executive Committee of the Armenian SSR to restore the department for work with national minorities within a short period, to staff the administrative apparatus in the regions inhabited by the Turkish and Kurdish population with national cadres, to train personnel from among the national minorities, and to issue a decree on allocating land in the national collective farms of Turks and Kurds for their use in perpetuity.   

In the autumn of 1937, a wave of repression intensified in Armenia, as elsewhere in the USSR. A delegation consisting of A. Mikoyan, N. Yezhov and L. Beria arrived in Armenia to expose anti-Soviet elements, enemies of the people, and Trotskyist-Bukharinist agents. Meetings were held in Iravan, Leninakan (Gumru) and other major cities of Armenia, at each of which the next "group" was "exposed". This campaign carried out under direct orders of Moscow, provided the Armenian leadership with a convenient opportunity to cut off the roots of Azerbaijani intellectuals once and for all. During the campaign under the leadership of A. Mikoyan, Moscow was informed that the Azerbaijanis living in the Araz and Upper Arpachay regions of Armenia allegedly intended to move to Türkiye en masse. Therefore, Azerbaijanis living in the villages of Vedi, Zangibasar, Garabaghlar, Echmiadzin, Hoktemberyan, Amasiya (Aghbaba) regions bordering Türkiye were subjected to massive repression, and thousands of families were exiled to the steppes of Kazakhstan in the autumn of that year. Azerbaijani population in Armenia was falsely accused of various charges: "conducting anti-Soviet propaganda" among the population, " inciting them to flee to Türkiye and Iran", "establishing secret contacts with Turkish and Iranian intelligence officers" and providing them with "intelligence information."  

Based on the testimonies of false witnesses provided by the NKVD (the secret police agency in the former Soviet Union), thousands of Azerbaijanis were subjected to the most severe punishments from deportation to shooting, by the decision of the "troyka", without any investigation or court verdict.

After the death of Joseph Stalin, the criminal cases of Azerbaijanis who had been subjected to repression in the 1930s were reviewed, and they were all acquitted since the accusations against them were found to be baseless.

In the 1930s, about 50,000 Azerbaijanis were subjected to repression, either exiled, imprisoned, or executed by a firing squad in the territory of present-day Armenia, with a considerable number forced to flee to Iran and Türkiye. 

In general, the repressions brought about against Azerbaijanis in the territory of present-day Armenia in the 1920s and 1930s of the 20th century were not objectively assessed either from the political-legal or scientific-theoretical point of view. 

 

Nazim Mustafa

Doctor of Philosophy in History