Northern Artsakh
Encyclopedia
Northern Artsakh is a political concept used in the Republic of Armenia to refer the region in north-western Azerbaijan
, lying north of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
(Mountainous Artsakh) and between the Kura river
and the border of the Republic of Armenia, which had a significant Armenian population from antiquity up to the 1987-1992, when Nagorno-Karabakh conflict broke out.
.
During the early medieval period, Northern Artsakh (it was more known under the name of Gardman in the Middle Ages) included some of the districts of Utik
and Artsakh
provinces of Greater Armenia
, such as Koght, Kust-i-Parnes, Gardman, Shakashen, etc.
, being later incorporated into the territory of Russia, after which it became known under the name of Elisabethpol Governorate
. During 1918-1920 period it was part of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
.
August von Haxthausen
, an ethnographer and an official from Prussia who visited Ganja in the 1850, writes:
, being divided into the following administrative units:
The following table shows the data from two Soviet censuses about the ethnic makeup of the region by districts (rayons) according to the 1939 and 1959 Soviet censuses.
In May 1991, the Soviet sceurity forces (MVD and OMON
) started the miitary Operation Ring in the region of Shahumyan, north of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast
of the Azerbaijan SSR
. Officially dubbed a "passport
checking operation", the stated goal launched by the Soviet Union
's internal and defense ministries was to disarm Armenian militia detachments which were organized in "[illegally] armed formations." The operation involved the use of soldiers who accompanied a complement of military vehicles, artillery and helicopter gunships to be used to root out the self-described Armenian fedayeen.
However, contrary to their stated objectives, Soviet troops and the predominantly Azeri
soldiers in the OMON and army forcibly depopulated many Armenians living in the twenty-four villages strewn across Shahumyan to leave their homes and settle elsewhere in Nagorno-Karabakh or in the neighboring Armenian SSR. Some authors have also described the actions of the joint Soviet and Azeri force as ethnic cleansing
.
Thus, the population of about 25 Armenian villages in Shahumyan and Khanlar districts (known to Armenians as Getashen and Martunashen) were deported to Armenia and NKAO.
Armenians of Shamkor and Dashkesan left their homes even before the military conflct started.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, lying north of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic , or Artsakh Republic is a de facto independent republic located in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia...
(Mountainous Artsakh) and between the Kura river
Kura River
Kura is a river, also known from the Greek as the Cyrus in the Caucasus Mountains. Starting in north-eastern Turkey, it flows through Turkey to Georgia, then to Azerbaijan, where it receives the Aras River as a right tributary, and enters the Caspian Sea...
and the border of the Republic of Armenia, which had a significant Armenian population from antiquity up to the 1987-1992, when Nagorno-Karabakh conflict broke out.
History
Historically, the region was known as GardmanGardman
Gardman was one of the eight districts of the ancient province of Utik' in the Kingdom of Armenia and simultaneously, together with the district of Tush, an Armenian principality. In the Early Middle Ages a feudal state of Gardman emerged on the area of Caucasian Albania...
.
During the early medieval period, Northern Artsakh (it was more known under the name of Gardman in the Middle Ages) included some of the districts of Utik
Utik
Utik was a historic province of the Kingdom of Armenia and a region of Caucasian Albania. Most of the region is located within present-day Azerbaijan immediately west of the Kura River while a part of it lies within the Tavush province of present-day northeastern Armenia.-History:According to...
and Artsakh
Artsakh
Artsakh was the tenth province of the Kingdom of Armenia from 189 BC until 387 AD and afterwards a region of Caucasian Albania from 387 to the 7th century. From the 7th to 9th centuries, it fell under Arab control...
provinces of Greater Armenia
Kingdom of Armenia
The ancient Kingdom of Armenia was an independent monarchy from 331 BC to AD 428. The peak of the kingdom's power and its integration in Hellenistic culture under Tigranes and his son Artavasdes is also referred to as Armenian Empire. After the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, the former Satrapy of...
, such as Koght, Kust-i-Parnes, Gardman, Shakashen, etc.
Under Russian Empire (1804-1918)
During the late medieval period, it formed part of Ganja khanateGanja Khanate
The Ganja khanate was a Muslim principality mostly under the dominion of Persia that existed in the territory of Azerbaijan in 1747-1805. The principality was ruled by the dynasty of Ziyadoglu , which had ruled Ganja as governors under Nadir Shah and was of Qajar extraction...
, being later incorporated into the territory of Russia, after which it became known under the name of Elisabethpol Governorate
Elisabethpol Governorate
Elisabethpol Governorate or Elizavetpol Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire, with its centre in Elisabethpol . Its area was 44,136 sq. kilometres, and it had 878,415 inhabitants by 1897....
. During 1918-1920 period it was part of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first successful attempt to establish a democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world . The ADR was founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917 by Azerbaijani National Council in...
.
August von Haxthausen
August von Haxthausen
August Franz Ludwig Maria, Baron von Haxthausen-Abbenburg was a German agricultural scientist, economist, lawyer, writer, and collector of folk songs, best known for his account of conditions in Russia as revealed by his 1843 visit.- Life :August was the last of eight sons of Werner Adolf,...
, an ethnographer and an official from Prussia who visited Ganja in the 1850, writes:
Soviet era (1920-1991)
After the Soviet takeover, the region was annexed to the Republic of AzerbaijanAzerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, being divided into the following administrative units:
- Getabek (Кедабекский район)
- Dashkesan (Дашкесанский район)
- Touz (Таузский район)
- Khanlar (Ханларский район)
- Kasum-Ismayilov (Касум-Исмаиловский район)
- Ghazakh (Казахский район)
- Shamkhor (Шамхорский район)
- Shahumian (Шаумяновский район)
The following table shows the data from two Soviet censuses about the ethnic makeup of the region by districts (rayons) according to the 1939 and 1959 Soviet censuses.
| Armenians | % | Azeris | % | TOTAL | Armenians | % | Azeris | % | TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| city of Ganja (Kiorvabad) | 27,676 | 24 | 49,755 | 50.3 | 115,120 | 37,462 | 27.1 | 63,258 | 54.5 | 138,239 |
| Shahumyan | 12,048 | 85.9 | 429 | 3.1 | 14,032 | 12,707 | 77.2 | 2,744 | 16.7 | 16,459 |
| Khanlar (Goygol) | 27,316 | 63.5 | 9,191 | 21.4 | 43,050 | 16,845 | 51.7 | 13,063 | 40.1 | 32,592 |
| Dashkesan | 63 | 0.7 | 9,137 | 97.5 | 9,370 | 16,626 | 47.2 | 17,372 | 49.3 | 35,222 |
| Shamkir | 16,129 | 23.5 | 44,910 | 65.3 | 68,765 | 17,513 | 21.2 | 61,661 | 74.6 | 82,688 |
| Goranboy | 1,928 | 5.2 | 32,820 | 89.1 | 36,840 | 1,915 | 4.3 | 41,125 | 91.7 | 44,825 |
| Tovuz | 1,031 | 1.8 | 53,687 | 93.3 | 57,530 | 1,147 | 1.6 | 67,634 | 69.2 | 70,318 |
| Qazax | 824 | 2.2 | 34,846 | 93.6 | 37,220 | 700 | 1.7 | 40,290 | 95.5 | 42,185 |
| Gadabay | 442 | 1.2 | 31,950 | 83.9 | 38,100 | 294 | 0.6 | 48,320 | 91.1 | 53,047 |
| 8 districs and 1 city | 87,457 | 20.8 | 216,970 | 63.5 | 420,027 | 105,209 | 20.4 | 292,209 | 68.9 | 515,575 |
Karabakh War and aftermath
During the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Northern Karabakh (Northern Artsakh) lost its remaining Armenian population.In May 1991, the Soviet sceurity forces (MVD and OMON
OMON
OMOH is a generic name for the system of special units of militsiya within the Russian and earlier the Soviet MVD...
) started the miitary Operation Ring in the region of Shahumyan, north of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast
The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was an autonomous oblast within the borders of the Azerbaijan SSR, mostly inhabited by ethnic Armenians and created on July 7, 1923. According to Karl R. DeRouen it was created as an enclave so that a narrow strip of land would separate it from Armenia proper....
of the Azerbaijan SSR
Azerbaijan SSR
The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Azerbaijan SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union....
. Officially dubbed a "passport
Passport system in the Soviet Union
The Soviet passport is an identity document issued upon the laws of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics for the citizen of the USSR. For the general purposes of identity certification Soviet passports contained such data as name, date of birth, sex, place of birth, nationality and citizenship...
checking operation", the stated goal launched by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's internal and defense ministries was to disarm Armenian militia detachments which were organized in "[illegally] armed formations." The operation involved the use of soldiers who accompanied a complement of military vehicles, artillery and helicopter gunships to be used to root out the self-described Armenian fedayeen.
However, contrary to their stated objectives, Soviet troops and the predominantly Azeri
Azerbaijani people
The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to...
soldiers in the OMON and army forcibly depopulated many Armenians living in the twenty-four villages strewn across Shahumyan to leave their homes and settle elsewhere in Nagorno-Karabakh or in the neighboring Armenian SSR. Some authors have also described the actions of the joint Soviet and Azeri force as ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
.
Thus, the population of about 25 Armenian villages in Shahumyan and Khanlar districts (known to Armenians as Getashen and Martunashen) were deported to Armenia and NKAO.
Armenians of Shamkor and Dashkesan left their homes even before the military conflct started.
Republic of Azerbaijan
According to the 1999 Azeri official census, there were about 100 Armenians in the districts, known as Northern Arstakh: 32 in Ganja, 22 in Shamkir, 18 in Tovuzm 8 in Goranboy, 8 in Xanlar, 7 in Ağstafa, 7 in Gadabay, 6 in Dashkasan and 4 in Samux.External links
- Historical Structures of Northern Artsakh by Research on Armenian ArchitectureResearch on Armenian ArchitectureResearch on Armenian Architecture, sometimes abbreviated to RAA, is an international non-governmental organization that monitors and studies Armenian monuments located outside the borders of the present-day Republic of Armenia, such as in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey and elsewhere...
- Armenian Architectural Monuments of Northern Artsakh