Azerbaijan Republic

Republic of Azerbaijan is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia,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 the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, and has an 10 km (6.2 mi) long border with Turkey in the northwest.

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first secular democratic Muslim-majority state. In 1920, the country was incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.The modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991,shortly before the dissolution of the USSR in the same year. In September 1991, the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Republic of Artsakh.The region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. These regions are internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh through negotiations facilitated by the OSCE.

Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic. It is one of six independent Turkic states and an active member of the Turkic Council and the TÜRKSOY community. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 182 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations, including the United Nations (since 1992), the Council of Europe, the Non-Aligned Movement, the OSCE, and the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. It is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Azerbaijan also holds observer status in the World Trade Organization.

Tourism
Shahdag Mountain Resort is the country's largest winter resort.
Tourism is an important part of the economy of Azerbaijan. The country was a well-known tourist spot in the 1980s. However, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the Nagorno-Karabakh War during the 1990s, damaged the tourist industry and the image of Azerbaijan as a tourist destination.

It was not until the 2000s that the tourism industry began to recover, and the country has since experienced a high rate of growth in the number of tourist visits and overnight stays. In the recent years, Azerbaijan has also become a popular destination for religious, spa, and health care tourism. During winter, the Shahdag Mountain Resort offers skiing with state of the art facilities.

The government of Azerbaijan has set the development of Azerbaijan as an elite tourist destination as a top priority. It is a national strategy to make tourism a major, if not the single largest, contributor to the Azerbaijani economy. These activities are regulated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan. There are 63 countries which have visa-free score. E-visa – for a visit of foreigners of visa-required countries to the Republic of Azerbaijan.

According to Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2015 of the World Economic Forum, Azerbaijan holds 84th place.

According to a report by the World Travel and Tourism Council, Azerbaijan was among the top ten countries showing the strongest growth in visitor exports between 2010 and 2016,In addition, Azerbaijan placed first (46.1%) among countries with the fastest-developing travel and tourism economies, with strong indicators for inbound international visitor spending last year.

History
The earliest evidence of human settlement in the territory of Azerbaijan dates back to the late Stone Age and is related to the Guruchay culture of Azokh Cave.

Early settlements included the Scythians in the 9th century BC. Following the Scythians, Iranian Medes came to dominate the area to the south of the Aras. The Medes forged a vast empire between 900–700 BC, which was integrated into the Achaemenid Empire around 550 BC. The area was conquered by the Achaemenids leading to the spread of Zoroastrianism.

From the Sasanid period to the Safavid period

The Sasanian Empire turned Caucasian Albania into a vassal state in 252, while King Urnayr officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century. Despite Sassanid rule, Albania remained an entity in the region until the 9th century, while fully subordinate to Sassanid Iran, and retained its monarchy. Despite being one of the chief vassals of the Sasanian emperor, the Albanian king had only a semblance of authority, and the Sasanian marzban (military governor) held most civil, religious, and military authority.

In the first half of the 7th century, Caucasian Albania, as a vassal of the Sasanians, came under nominal Muslim rule due to the Muslim conquest of Persia. The Umayyad Caliphate repulsed both the Sasanians and Byzantines from Transcaucasia and turned Caucasian Albania into a vassal state after Christian resistance led by King Javanshir, was suppressed in 667. The power vacuum left by the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate was filled by numerous local dynasties such as the Sallarids, Sajids, and Shaddadids. At the beginning of the 11th century, the territory was gradually seized by the waves of Oghuz Turks from Central Asia, who adopted a Turkoman ethnonym at the time. The first of these Turkic dynasties established was the Seljuk Empire, who entered the area now known as Azerbaijan by 1067.

The pre-Turkic population that lived on the territory of modern Azerbaijan spoke several Indo-European and Caucasian languages, among them Armenian and an Iranian language, Old Azeri, which was gradually replaced by a Turkic language, the early precursor of the Azerbaijani language of today. Some linguists have also stated that the Tati dialects of Iranian Azerbaijan and the Republic of Azerbaijan, like those spoken by the Tats, are descended from Old Azeri. Locally, the possessions of the subsequent Seljuk Empire were ruled by Eldiguzids, technically vassals of the Seljuk sultans, but sometimes de facto rulers themselves. Under the Seljuks, local poets such as Nizami Ganjavi and Khaqani gave rise to a blossoming of Persian literature on the territory of present-day Azerbaijan.

The local dynasty of the Shirvanshahs became a vassal state of Timur's Empire, and assisted him in his war with the ruler of the Golden Horde Tokhtamysh. Following Timur's death, two independent and rival states emerged: Kara Koyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu. The Shirvanshahs returned, maintaining a high degree of autonomy as local rulers and vassals from 861, for numerous centuries to come. In 1501, the Safavid dynasty of Iran subdued the Shirvanshahs and gained its possessions. In the course of the next century, the Safavids converted the formerly Sunni population to Shia Islam, as they did with the population in what is modern-day Iran. The Safavids allowed the Shirvanshahs to remain in power, under Safavid suzerainty, until 1538, when Safavid king Tahmasp I (r. 1524–1576) completely deposed them, and made the area into the Safavid province of Shirvan. The Sunni Ottomans briefly managed to occupy parts of present-day Azerbaijan as a result of the Ottoman-Safavid War of 1578–1590; by the early 17th century, they were ousted by Safavid Iranian ruler Abbas I (r. 1588–1629). In the wake of the demise of the Safavid Empire, Baku and its environs were briefly occupied by the Russians as a consequence of the Russo-Persian War of 1722–1723. Despite brief intermissions such as these by Safavid Iran's neighboring rivals, the land of what is today Azerbaijan remained under Iranian rule from the earliest advent of the Safavids up to the course of the 19th century.

Contemporary history

After the Safavids, the area was ruled by the Iranian Afsharid dynasty. After the death of Nader Shah (r. 1736–1747), many of his former subjects capitalized on the eruption of instability. Numerous self-ruling khanates with various forms of autonomy emerged in the area. The rulers of these khanates were directly related to the ruling dynasties of Iran, and were vassals and subjects of the Iranian shah. The khanates exercised control over their affairs via international trade routes between Central Asia and the West.

Thereafter, the area was under the successive rule of the Iranian Zands and Qajars. From the late 18th century, Imperial Russia switched to a more aggressive geo-political stance towards its two neighbors and rivals to the south, namely Iran and the Ottoman Empire. Russia now actively tried to gain possession of the Caucasus region which was, for the most part, in the hands of Iran. In 1804, the Russians invaded and sacked the Iranian town of Ganja, sparking the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813. The militarily superior Russians ended the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813 with a victory.
Following Qajar Iran's loss in the 1804–1813 war, it was forced to concede suzerainty over most of the khanates, along with Georgia and Dagestan to the Russian Empire, per the Treaty of Gulistan.

The area to the north of the river Aras, amongst which territory lies the contemporary Republic of Azerbaijan, was Iranian territory until it was occupied by Russia in the 19th century. About a decade later, in violation of the Gulistan treaty, the Russians invaded Iran's Erivan Khanate. This sparked the final bout of hostilities between the two, the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828. The resulting Treaty of Turkmenchay, forced Qajar Iran to cede sovereignty over the Erivan Khanate, the Nakhchivan Khanate and the remainder of the Lankaran Khanate, comprising the last parts of the soil of the contemporary Azerbaijani Republic that were still in Iranian hands. After incorporation of all Caucasian territories from Iran into Russia, the new border between the two was set at the Aras River, which, upon the Soviet Union's disintegration, subsequently became part of the border between Iran and the Azerbaijan Republic.

Qajar Iran was forced to cede its Caucasian territories to Russia in the 19th century, which thus included the territory of the modern-day Azerbaijan Republic, while as a result of that cession, the Azerbaijani ethnic group is nowadays parted between two nations: Iran and Azerbaijan. Nevertheless, the number of ethnic Azerbaijanis in Iran far outnumber those in neighboring Azerbaijan.

After the collapse of the Russian Empire during World War I, the short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic was declared, constituting the present-day republics of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. It was followed by the March Days massacres that took place between 30 March and 2 April 1918 in the city of Baku and adjacent areas of the Baku Governorate of the Russian Empire. When the republic dissolved in May 1918, the leading Musavat party declared independence as the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR), adopting the name of "Azerbaijan" for the new republic; a name that prior to the proclamation of the ADR was solely used to refer to the adjacent northwestern region of contemporary Iran. The ADR was the first modern parliamentary republic in the Muslim world. Among the important accomplishments of the Parliament was the extension of suffrage to women, making Azerbaijan the first Muslim nation to grant women equal political rights with men. Another important accomplishment of ADR was the establishment of Baku State University, which was the first modern-type university founded in the Muslim East.

By March 1920, it was obvious that Soviet Russia would attack Baku. Vladimir Lenin said that the invasion was justified as Soviet Russia could not survive without Baku's oil. Independent Azerbaijan lasted only 23 months until the Bolshevik 11th Soviet Red Army invaded it, establishing the Azerbaijan SSR on 28 April 1920. Although the bulk of the newly formed Azerbaijani army was engaged in putting down an Armenian revolt that had just broken out in Karabakh, Azerbaijanis did not surrender their brief independence of 1918–20 quickly or easily. As many as 20,000 Azerbaijani soldiers died resisting what was effectively a Russian reconquest.

On 13 October 1921, the Soviet republics of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia signed an agreement with Turkey known as the Treaty of Kars. The previously independent Republic of Aras would also become the Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Azerbaijan SSR by the treaty of Kars. On the other hand, Armenia was awarded the region of Zangezur and Turkey agreed to return Gyumri (then known as Alexandropol).

During World War II, Azerbaijan played a crucial role in the strategic energy policy of the Soviet Union, with 80 percent of the Soviet Union's oil on the Eastern Front being supplied by Baku. By the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in February 1942, the commitment of more than 500 workers and employees of the oil industry of Azerbaijan were awarded orders and medals. Operation Edelweiss carried out by the German Wehrmacht targeted Baku because of its importance as the energy (petroleum) dynamo of the USSR. A fifth of all Azerbaijanis fought in the Second World War from 1941 to 1945. Approximately 681,000 people with over 100,000 of them women went to the front, while the total population of Azerbaijan was 3.4 million at the time. Some 250,000 people from Azerbaijan were killed on the front. More than 130 Azerbaijanis were named Heroes of the Soviet Union. Azerbaijani Major-General Azi Aslanov was twice awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Independence

Following the politics of glasnost, initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev, civil unrest and ethnic strife grew in various regions of the Soviet Union, including Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region of the Azerbaijan SSR. The disturbances in Azerbaijan, in response to Moscow's indifference to an already heated conflict, resulted in calls for independence and secession, which culminated in the Black January events in Baku. Later in 1990, the Supreme Council of the Azerbaijan SSR dropped the words "Soviet Socialist" from the title, adopted the "Declaration of Sovereignty of the Azerbaijan Republic" and restored the flag of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic as the state flag. As a consequence of the failed coup which occurred in August in Moscow, on 18 October 1991, the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopted a Declaration of Independence which was affirmed by a nationwide referendum in December 1991, while the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist on 26 December 1991. The country now celebrates its Independence Day on 18 October.

The early years of independence were overshadowed by the Nagorno-Karabakh war with the ethnic Armenian majority of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by Armenia. By the end of the hostilities in 1994, Armenians controlled up to 14-16 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh itself. During the war many atrocities were committed including the massacres at Malibeyli and Gushchular, the Garadaghly massacre, the Agdaban and the Khojaly massacres. Furthermore, an estimated 30,000 people have been killed and more than a million people have been displaced. Four United Nations Security Council Resolutions (822, 853, 874, and 884) demand for "the immediate withdrawal of all Armenian forces from all occupied territories of Azerbaijan." Many Russians and Armenians left and fled Azerbaijan as refugees during the 1990s. According to the 1970 census, there were 510,000 ethnic Russians and 484,000 Armenians in Azerbaijan.

History of Irevan Khanate

The history of the Irevan Khanate is an integral part of the rich material and cultural history that the Azerbaijani nation has been developing for millennia. The Irevan Khanate was one of the Azerbaijani states, Khanates, established in the wake of the collapse of Nadir-shah's empire in the mid-18th century. Currently the territory of the Armenian Republic, until quite recently - early 19th century - it was an Azerbaijani state of Irevan Khanate. The oldest indigenous population of this land was the aboriginal owners of the territory, the Azerbaijani Turks. The territory where the Irevan Khanata came to existence is one of the oldest Turkish lands. Hurrits, Cimmerians, Scythians, Saks, Huns and other numerous Oghuz and Kipchak Turks who were closely involved in the formation of the Azerbaijani people inhabited this region, in particular the lands around the Goycha lake, and left a profound historical and cultural trace. Significant historic events and processes described in «Kitabi-Dede Gorgud», a heroic epos of the Azerbaijani and other Turkic nations, took place in the territory of Irevan Khanate, in this area. The «Oghuzname» commissioned by the great ruler of Azerbaijan, Uzun (Long) Hassan (1468-1478), the «Kitabi-Diyarbakriyya» narrated that the warlord Oghuz, the predecessor of the Oghuz Turks, lived, died and was buried in this area, on the shores of the Goycha sea. The khan of khans, warlord Bayandur, and many other Oghuz Turk rulers also lived and died, were buried in these lands.

The territory of the Irevan Khanate had always been part of Azerbaijan, from the most ancient times, excepting periods when the land was occupied by different invading empires. These lands were also one of the regions of the most close-knit Azerbaijani Turk community.

Up to the Russian conquest in the early 19th century Azerbaijani Turks constituted the absolute majority of the Irevan Khanate's population. It should be noted that until the Armenian Catholicos center was moved to the Irevan (Chukhursad) region in 1441, there had been no Armenian villages or land parcels in this area. Even the very village of Uchkilse (Valarshabad), the headquarters of the Armenian Catholicos, was gradually taken away by the Armenians from the Azerbaijani Turks, using various means, starting from 1443. The Azerbaijani state of Irevan Khanate was ruled by the Khans of the famous Turkic dynasty of Qajars that played a fundamental role in the development of Azerbaijan's statehood. The entire governance system, social, political, cultural and economic life was an integral part of the overall historic development system of Azerbaijan that had gone on for millennia. The Irevan Khanate was no different from any other Azerbaijani Khanates that existed at that time. Numerous residential places, such as villages and towns, pertaining to the Azerbaijani people, as well as thousands of historic monuments, such as fortresses, mosques, minarets, carvanserai, hammams (baths) were built throughout the history of the Irevan Khanate in its territory. All locales in the region had Azerbaijani names (toponyms). Even the Armenian sources confirm this undisputable fact. There were countless ancient Oghus Turk cemeteries in the Khanate, wherein numerous statues of rams, and tombstones that pertain to the history of the Azerbaijani people were installed. All of these were the seals of the Azerbaijani people's cultural history... However in the early 19th century the South Caucasus stepped into a time of bloody tragedies. The Russian Empire, seeking to take over the region, waged wars on the Azerbaijani Khanates. Before long, South Caucasus became the arena of the Russian Empire's bloody wars against the Qajari Iran and Ottoman Empire.

Taking over the Irevan Khanate that sat on the border with the Ottoman Empire and Qajari Iran was an important part of the Russian Empire's conquest plans. During the First Russian-Iranian war over the lands of Azerbaijan in 1804-1813 the Irevan Khanate was assaulted by the Russian troops twice (July 2 - September 3, 1804; October 3 - November 30, 1808). However the Irevan Khanate did not succumb to Russia and managed to preserve its independence. The people of the Khanate rose to fight for their homeland under the wise and courageous leadership of Muhammad Hussein-khan Qajar (1784-1805) and Husseingulu-khan Qajar (1806-1827), and bravely resisted the Czar's troops. The governing circles of the Russian Empire, that incurred great losses, decided to turn to more endearing means in order to take over the Irevan Khanate. The Commander in Chief of Russia's South Caucasus forces, General Gudovitch made a promise, on behalf of the Russian Emperor, to the brother of the Irevan lord (Husseingulu-khan Qajar - editor's note), Hassan-khan Qajar to let him go free and, on top of that, to appoint him the ruler of the entire Khanate, save for the fortress and city of Irevan, should he surrender. Hassan-khan Qajar refused this offer made on behalf of the Russian emperor.

The Czar's Russia used the help of Armenians, and their treachery on the highest government level in order to conquer Azerbaijan's lands. For example, an order issued by the Czar at that time had a specific clause concerning this matter: «...I hereby grant you special discretion to use any and all means at your disposal to bring the Armenians to our side». Despite all this, the Russian Empire failed to conquer the Irevan and Nakhichevan Khanates during the First Russian-Iranian war. The indigenous Azerbaijani patriots of both Khanates fought heroically against the invaders and their Armenian helpers, and eventually won. Czar Nikolaus I, who did not wish to forget his intention to conquer the Irevan Khanate, considered the military and strategic significance of taking over the Irevan and Sardarabad fortresses, and would frequently remind that to General Yermolov. On October 21, 1826 the Russian Emperor wrote to Yermolov: «Should it be possible to conquer Irevan by the force of arms, or by an offer of gold to the Lord of Irevan, or through a secret relationship with the latter, such opportunity should not be squandered.» Czar Nikolaus I (1825-1855), who gave special importance to taking over the Irevan Khanate during the Second Russian-Iranian war (1826-1828), in his decree addressed to Yermolov on August 1, 1826 gave a specific instruction to the occupant General: «Make haste to march upon the Lord of Irevan. I should expect a response from you of such fashion: «With the Grace of God, our Lord, the ruler of Irevan is no more, and the province of Irevan has been completely conquered». You and the 15 thousand strong Russian army should suffice to accomplish this task».

The Lord of Irevan, Husseingulu-khan Qajar, his brother Hassan-khan, dubbed the «Lord of Lions», and his grandson Fatali-khan Qajar, who led the Azerbaijani patriots in their struggle, heroically defended the Irevan fortress (April 27 - June 23; September 24 - October 1) and Sardarabad fortress (April 16-17; September 14-20) against the Russian invasion in 1827. The grandson of Hassan-khan, Fatali-khan Qajar, declining the Czar General Bekendorf's demand to surrender the Sardarabad fortress, gave him a firm and unequivocal reply: «I should rather die under the ruins of the fortress before I surrender her». The heroic defender of the Irevan fortress, Hassan-khan Qajar, bore a burning fuse to a barrel of powder so as to blow up the fortress at the last minute instead of giving it to the foe. However Lieutenant Lemyakin saw that and took away the burning fuse. But the treason had already done its evil work. Armenians contacted Pashkevitch, who besieged the Irevan fortress, and informed him of where exactly the Azerbaijanis were quartered in the fortress, and where to direct the cannon fire. The Commander in Chief of the Russian troops that conquered the Irevant fortress and the Khanate using the Armenian treachery, Pashkevitch, was granted the title of a count for this «victory», as well as the Order of George of the 2nd Degree, a cash reward of 1 million Rubles, and an addendum to his title, «Erivanski», so as to signify his conquest of the fortress. The taking over of the Irevan fortress was celebrated in Saint-Petersburg, and they even had a special official parade on this occasion. Furthermore, special medals were instituted to commemorate the conquest of the Irevan fortress.

V. Potto re-counted an eyewitness' account of how the Russian troops swept through Irevan, leaving death and destruction in their wake: «I was astonished at the sight of the extent to which the walls and bastions of the south-eastern end of the fortress were destroyed. I trust that no evil fate could do in four centuries what the Russian war artillery had done in as few as four days». After the Russian colonizers defeated Iran and Turkey, under the Turkmenchay Treaty (1828) and Edirna Treaty (1829), they, seeking to realize their conquering plans against the Qajari Iran and Ottoman Empire, by creating a stronghold of Christianity from which to spread and roll out, started to relocate the Armenians who lived in said countries to the lands of the Northern Azerbaijan, mostly Irevan, Nakhichevan and Garabagh Khanates, as well as the areas of today's Republic of Georgia inhabited predominantly by Azerbaijanis, on a mass scale. General Pashkevitch, who conquered the Irevan and Nakhichevan Khanates, even gave specific instructions as to where exactly the Armenians relocating from Iran should be directed in Azerbaijan: the Armenian re-settlers should be directed at the provinces of Irevan and Nakhichevan so as to increase, to the greatest extent possible, the numbers of Christian population therein. Thus, from February 26 through June 11, 1828, i.e., over a period of three and a half months, 8249 Armenian families, in other words, at least 40 thousand Armenians were relocated from Iran to Northern Azerbaijan - the Irevan, Nakhichevan and Garabagh Khanates. Shortly after that, another 90 thousand Armenians were relocated from the Ottoman Empire to the Northern Azerbaijan. The relocation of Armenians from Iran and Turkey to Northern Azerbaijan is an undisputable historic fact, clearly ascertained by numerous archive materials, especially the official government documents that regulated the relocation of Armenians.

The Armenian resettlement to Northern Azerbaijan had a specific purpose, i.e., to establish a permanent state for them. Armenian officers serving in the Russian army were expectedly very active in implementing this treacherous policy. Armenian Generals did not shy away from openly stating their goals. The Russian Coloner of Armenian origin Gazaros Lazaryan (Lazaryev), who personally led the rapid execution of this bloody policy, said in his message to the Armenians who were being resettled from Iran to Northern Azerbaijan: «...There (i.e., Northern Azerbaijan - editor's note) you shall gain a new land of Christendom... You shall witness as the Christians (i.e., Armenians - editor's note) who had been scattered throughout Iran are brought together in a single place. Make haste! Time is of the essence. Soon the Russian troops shall leave Iran, whereafter your relocation should become somewhat more difficult, and we shall not be responsible for your safety anymore. Fear not to lose little for you shall soon gain everything, and you shall have it for all times». Armenians who had been accustomed to migrating all the time were being persuaded that «It is better to feed on the Russian grass than to eat the Iranian bread». An interesting and undisputable historic fact is that the famous Russian artist V.I.Mashkov painted a picture of the Armenian resettlement to Northern Azerbaijan in 1828. Although they did relocate Armenians on a mass scale, the Czar's government failed to upturn the demographics of the Irevan Khanate in a single blow. General Pashkevitch, the conqueror of the Irevan Khanate, admitted that even after the Armenian resettlement, Azerbaijani Turks still accounted for the three quarters of the Irevan province's population. Inter alia, the occupant General had to reckon with this fact - he had to dismiss and exile to Bessarabia the Armenian arch-bishop Nerses, a member of the Irevan Temporary Administration, who had crudely violated the rights of the indigenous Azerbaijani Turkic majority in order to make more favorable conditions for the Armenian minority, as well as dismiss and send back to Russia the Chief of the Irevan Temporary Administration General Krasovski, who had enabled the arch-bishop to do as he pleased. The acclaimed Russian researcher N.Shavrov wrote in 1911, after having thoroughly examined the resettlement of Armenians to South Caucasus, and the numbers of the Armenian resettlers: «Of the 1 million 300 thousand Armenians who presently live in South Caucasus, more than 1 million are not indigenous to this land. We (i.e., Russians - editor's note) brought them here». The Russian Empire, by bringing Armenians to Azerbaijani lands in South Caucasus starting from the 1820-1830-ies, sought to distort the traditional ethnic and political, and religious landscape of this region that had harmoniously developed and existed since the times of old. A new Christian ehtnos that was completely alien to South Caucasus was established on Northern Azerbaijan's lands bordering with Iran and Turkey. Before long, the Russian colonizers, embarked on a path of administrative and territorial reforms designed to disrupt the historic governance traditions and independent mindset of the Azerbaijani people. On March 21, 1828, on one of the days of Novruz festivities celebrated by the Azerbaijani people, Nikolaus I issued a decree that liquidated the Irevan and Nakhichevan Khanates of Azerbaijan, and established the false «Armenian province» for the Armenians resettled from Iran and Turkey.

This was the first step towards establishing an Armenian state on Azerbaijan's lands in South Caucasus, or, to be more exact, in the Irevan Khanate. Inter alia, in 1828, even after the Armenian relocation campaign had come to an end, of the 1125 villages in the «Armenian province» 1111 were inhabited by Azerbaijani Turks. Yet another step was taken in 1840 to disrupt the ancient governance traditions and independent mindset of the Azerbaijani people: the «Armenian province» was liquidated, and a few regions were established in its stead: Irevan, Yeni Bayazid, Gumru, Surmali, etc. In 1849, a new administrative and territorial unit was established on these Azerbaijani lands - the Irevan province. The establishment of the Irevan province was effectively another step towards establishing a state for Armenians in the Western Azerbaijan. Thereafter the process of resettling Armenians from Iran and Turkey to the Irevan province, as well as other Azerbaijani lands became even faster.

Once the Armenians were relocated the South Caucasus stepped into an age of bloody massacres. Armenian bandits armed and supported by the Russian colonizers launched a series of genocidal assaults on the Azerbaijani people, and the Turkic-Muslim nations of South Caucasus in general. Superpowers used Armenians as a tool in order to execute their geopolitical goals and plans with respect to South Caucasus, and in return they assisted them in establishing a state on Azerbaijan's historic lands - the former Irevan and Nakhichevan Khanates. Finally, on May 29, 1918, the government of the newly established People's Republic of Azerbaijan, without any consideration to the will of the nation, pressured by the superpowers, yielded the ancient Azerbaijani city of Irevan, along with approximately 9.5 thousand sq.km area around the city, to Armenians. In other words, a piece of homeland was given to the foe. And on this land of Northern Azerbaijan so freely given away, on the territory of the former Irevan Khanate, an Armenian state was established. May 29, 1918! This is the date when the first ever Armenian state was established in Northern Azerbaijan, and in South Caucasus in general. It is universally known that there had been no Armenians whatsoever in South Caucasus before that. The establishment of the Armenian state on the Azerbaijani lands of Irevan and Nakhichevan Khanates conquered by the Russian Empire was followed by brutal falsification and distortion of Azerbaijan's history. Armenian nationalists, with the help and involvement of their Russian patrons, started to write false Armenian history. Titles and texts of all archive documents and records, even the treaties that the Russian Empire had signed with Azerbaijani Khanates, Iran and Turkey were falsified. Armenians who had secured key positions in the top leadership of both Russia and Soviet Uniont, government agencies and departments easily accomplished their goals. As a result, the alien Armenians who had been relocated to South Caucasus by Russia starting from the 1820-1830-ies, were termed «the oldest indigenous population» of the region, while the truly indigenous Azerbaijanis who had the lands of their forefathers taken away from them and given to the Armenians, were dubbed «alien», «migratory predators», etc. Armenian nationalists never ceased to promote false and distorted information about Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis for all the world to see.

Armenians managed to get J. Stalin, Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, to sign a directive on December 23, 1947, deporting Azerbaijanis from their historic and ethnic lands - the lands of their forefathers in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. As a result, in 1948-1950, over 100 000 Azerbaijanis were relocated from the lands of their forefathers, an area of highland climate, to the hot-weathered Mil-Mugan lowland of the Azerbaijan SSR. While the directive signed by J. Stalin set a timeframe for relocation - 1948-1950, in reality, the relocation of Azerbaijanis went on until 1953 and beyond, with tens of thousands more of aboriginal population driven away from their homes.

Thus, almost all of the predecessors of the Armenians who currently live in the former Irevan Khanate (currently the Republic of Armenia) were resettlers from Iran and Turkey, in times of old, and, in more recent times, from Syria, Greece, Lebanon, Bulgaria and Romania. Those Azerbaijanis who escapted the 1948-1950 deportation and stayed on in their homes in Armenia, were slaughtered and driven away by Armenian armed gangs in 1988, around the time of the Soviet Union's collapse. Thus, the Armenians who managed to have a state of their own established in 1918 in the North-Western Azerbaijan, the former Irevan Khanate, and who back then constituted an ethnic minority, managed still to turn Armenia into a single ethnos country 70 years later, in 1988. And thus, Azerbaijanis who gave a piece of land for Armenians to create a state of their own in the Irevan Khanate's territory 70 years ago lost their millennial Homeland! Thereafter the Armenian armed forces breached Azerbaijan's internationally recognized borders and invaded the country.
And so, the current territory of the Republic of Armenia belonged to Azerbaijan 180 years ago. Azerbaijanis were the aboriginal population of this land. Whereas Armenians are aliens, or, to be more exact, invasive aliens in South Caucasus. The land this ethnic group lived upon and calls the «Republic of Armenia» is a land that belongs to Azerbaijan. This truth shall live as long as the Azerbaijani nation lives.

From the book «Irevan Khanate»
By Yagub Mahmudov,honoured researcher, corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, PhD in History, Professor.