Karabakh: Difference between revisions

Karabakh (Azerbaijani: Qarabağ; Armenian: Ղարաբաղ Gharabagh or Արցախ Artsakh) is a geographic region in present-day southwestern Azerbaijan and eastern Armenia, extending from the highlands of the Lesser Caucasus down to the lowlands between the rivers Kura and Aras. It includes three regions: Highland Karabakh (historical Qarabagh, present-day Nagorno-Karabakh), Lowland Karabakh (the southern Kura-steppes), and a part of Aghdam and Fuzuli.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

The word "Karabakh" is generally said to originate from Turkic and Persian, and literally means "black garden".^[6] An alternative theory, proposed by Bagrat Ulubabyan, is that it has a Turkic-Armenian origin, meaning "Greater Baghk", a reference to Ktish-Baghk (later: Dizak), one of the principalities of Artsakh during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries.^[7]

The placename is first mentioned in the Georgian Chronicles (Kartlis Tskhovreba), as well in Persian sources from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.^[8] The name became common after the 1230s, when the region was conquered by the Mongols.^[9] The first time the name was mentioned in medieval Armenian sources was in the 15th century, in Tovma Metsop'etsi's History of Tamerlane and His Successors.^[8]

Part of a series on the
History of Artsakh
Timeline
Antiquity
Artsakh
Middle Ages
Satrapy of Albania Arminiya Kingdom of Artsakh Principality of Khachen
Early Modern Age
Khamsa / Melikdoms of Karabakh Province of Karabakh Karabakh Khanate Russian Karabakh
Modern Age
Autonomous oblast First Nagorno-Karabakh War Second Nagorno-Karabakh War Independent state Dissolution
v t e

Lowland and Highland Karabakh, which was populated with various Caucasian tribes, were conquered by Armenians in the second century B.C. and organized as the Artsakh province of the Kingdom of Armenia. However, it is possible that the region had earlier been part of Orontid Armenia from the fourth to second centuries B.C.^[10] After the partition of Armenia in 387 A.D., it became a part of Caucasian Albania ruled by Mihranids under suzerainty of Sassanid Persia. The Arab invasions later led to the rise of several Armenian princes who came to establish their dominance in the region.^[11] Centuries of constant warfare on the Armenian Plateau forced many Armenians, including those in the Karabakh region, to emigrate and settle elsewhere. During the period of Mongol domination, a great number of Armenians left Lowland Karabakh and sought refuge in the mountainous (Highland) heights of the region.^[12]

In the fifteenth century, the German traveler Johann Schiltberger toured Lowland Karabakh and described it as a large and beautiful plain in Armenia.^[13] Highland Karabakh from 821 until the early 19th century was a part of Bagratid Armenia, Abbasid Caliphate, Mongol states Ilkhanate and Jalayirid Sultanate, Turkic states of Kara Koyunlu, Ak Koyunlu and Karabakh Baylarbaylik of Safavid Empire,^[14] at times ruled as vassal territories by the Armenian House of Khachen and its several lines, the latter Melikdoms of Karabakh.^[11] It was also invaded and ruled by Ottoman Empire between 1578-1605 and between again 1723-1736. In 1747, Panah Javanshir, a local Turkic chieftain, seized control of the region after the death of the Persian ruler Nadir Shah, and both Lower Karabakh and Highland Karabakh comprised the new Karabakh Khanate.^[11]

Under Russian rule, Karabakh (both Lowland and Highland) was a region with an area of 13,600 km² (5,250 sq mi), with Shusha as its most prominent city. Its population consisted of Armenians and Muslims (mainly Azerbaijanis, called Azerbaijani Tatars by Russians, and the Kurds). According to George A. Bournoutian, referring to an initial survey carried out by the Russians in 1823 (official one was published in 1836) who had tallied the number of villages (though not the number of people) and assessed the tax basis of the entire Karabakh khanate, which also included the large territory Lowland Karabakh, Highland Karabakh was almost overwhelmingly Armenian in population.^[15][16] Additionally, the assumption for demographic disbalance is that Shah Abbas I's massive relocation of Armenians in 1604-05 their numbers began to decrease gradually, eventually becoming a minority among their Muslim neighbors.^[17] According to Anoushiravan Ehteshami and other writers, referring to the Russian tsarist census taken in 1823, the Azeris made up the majority with 78% of population whilst Armenians were 22% in the whole area of Karabakh (Highland and Lowland).^[18] According to 1823 census results, Karabakh was 91% Azeri and 9% Armenian. In following years, the number of Armenians increased due to migration policy of relocating Armenians to Karabakh and moving Azeris out of Karabakh. Thus, the percentage of Armenians increased to 35% in 1832 and 53% in 1880. These were also seen as consequences of Russo-Turkish wars of 1855-1856 and 1877-1878 because Russians saw Azeris as unreliable and allies to their ethnically close Turks.^[19][20] After 1828, about 57,000 Armenians are believed to have been relocated to Karabakh and Yerevan province by Russians, when about 35,000 Azeris were moved out.^[21] It is also claimed that the Armenians moved by Russians to Karabakh were being repatriated.^[16] In 1828 the Karabakh khanate was dissolved and in 1840 it was absorbed into the Kaspijskaya (Caspian) oblast, and subsequently, in 1846, made a part of Shemakha Governorate. In 1876 it was made a part of the Elisabethpol Governorate, an administrative arrangement which remained in place until the Russian Empire collapsed in 1917.

After the dissolution of Russian Empire Karabakh, Zangezur and Nakhchivan were disputed between newly established republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan.^[22] Fighting between two republics broke out. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, British troops occupied the South Caucasus. The British command affirmed Khosrov bey Sultanov (an appointee of the Azerbaijani government) as the provisional governor-general of Karabakh and Zangezur, pending a final decision by the Paris Peace Conference. But in 1920, Azerbaijan and Armenia were sovietized and Karabakh's status was taken up by the Soviet authorities.^[23]

In 1923, parts of Karabakh were made a part of the newly-established Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO), an administrative entity of the Azerbaijan SSR, leaving it with a population that was 94% Armenian.^[24][25] During the Soviet period, several few attempts were made by the authorities of the Armenian SSR to unite it with the NKAO but these proposals found no support in Moscow.

In February 1988, within the context of Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika policies, the Supreme Soviet of the NKAO voted to unite itself with the Armenia.^[26] By the summer of 1989 the Armenian-populated areas of the NKAO were under blockade by Azerbaijan as a response to Armenia's blockade against Nakhichevan, cutting road and rail links to the outside world. On July 12 the Nagorno-Karabakh AO Supreme Soviet voted to secede from Azerbaijan, which was rejected unanimously by the Supreme Soviet of USSR, declaring NKAO had no right to secede from Azerbaijan SSR under Soviet Constitution.^[27] Soviet authorities in Moscow then placed the region under its direct rule, installing a special commission to govern the region. In November 1989 the Kremlin returned the oblast to Azerbaijani control. The local government in the region of Shahumian also declared its independence from the Azerbaijan SSR in 1991.^[28]

In late 1991, the Armenian representatives in the local government of the NKAO proclaimed the region a republic, independent from Azerbaijan. Portions of the lowland Karabakh are now under the control of the Karabakh Armenian forces. The region's Azerbaijani and Kurd inhabitants were forced to leave the territories remaining under Armenian control.

The Azerbaijan population of the region speaks the Karabakh dialect of Azerbaijan which has been heavily influenced by the Persian,Russian and Turkish languages.^[29] It was the most extensively spoken of all azerbaijanian dialects until the Soviet period when the dialect of Baku became the official tongue of the Azerbaijan SSR.^[5]

Karabakh is the place of endemic tulip species Tulipa karabachensis.

• Bournoutian, George. "Rewriting History: Recent Azeri Alterations of Primary Sources Dealing with Karabakh." Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies. 1992, 1993, pp. 185–190.