In 1828 the Russian Empire occupied the independent Turkish khanate Irevan. The capital — city Irevan was renamed by Russians into Erivan.
Starting from 1828 with the aid of invaders Armenians in vast amounts were resettled from Ottoman Turkey and Kajar Iran to Karabakh, Zangezur, Gokhcha, and Erivan. Over a million Armenians were resettled here by Russians from 1828 to 1911.
In 1918 Azerbaijan who declared its independence ( The first republic: 1918–1920 ) consented to recognize Erivan as a capital city of the newly proclaimed Armenian republic in exchange for ending the Muslim carnage in Zangezur and recognition of the latter together with Karabakh and Nakhchivan as a part of Azerbaijan republic.
But Armenia violated this agreement in 1920 by attacking Karabakh and Zangezur and in the same year when Bolsheviks came to power, there wasn’t anyone who could demand the return of Erivan to Azerbaijan. Bolsheviks also didn’t recognize the agreement of the “bourgeois government”. Thus, Erivan remained in the hands of Armenia whose territorial appetites were gradually flaring up.
At the beginning of the 20s of the XX century Azerbaijani district, Zangezur was transferred by bolsheviks to the Armenian USSR. In 1936 Erivan was renamed Yerevan.
In 1948 -1952 according to A.Mikoyan’s plan over two hundred and thousand Azerbaijani Turks were deported from Zangezur and Gokhcha and their homes and buildings were given to Armenians who came here from abroad and the other Soviet republics and this is how the Turkic regions of Transcaucasia were once Armenized.
Karabakh incidents began in 1988 and Azerbaijani Turks were expelled from the Armenian USSR. There weren’t any of them in the Armenian USSR by 1989.
In 1992–1994 the Armenian armed forces with the support of Russia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and seven other administrative regions of Azerbaijan adjacent to it.
But we managed to liberate our lands which were under the control of the enemy during all these years.
Author: Amir Eyvaz
Translated by: Atilla Turk
