Nakhichevan Uyezd

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Nakhichevan Uyezd
Нахичеванский уезд
Uezd
Coat of arms of Nakhichevan Uyezd
Coat of arms
Location in the Erivan Governorate
Location in the Erivan Governorate
CountryRussian Empire
GovernorateErivan
ViceroyaltyCaucasus
Established1840
Abolished1929
SeatNakhichevan
UchastoksFirst, second, third, and fourth
Area
 • Total4,391 km2 (1,695 sq mi)
Population
 (1916)
 • Total136,859
 • Density31/km2 (81/sq mi)

The Nakhichevan Uyezd (Russian: Нахичеванский уезд; Azerbaijani: Naxçıvan qəzası; Armenian: Նախիջևանի գավառ) was an uezd (county) of the Erivan Governorate of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. It bordered the governorate's Sharur-Daralayaz Uyezd to the north, the Zangezur Uyezd of the Elisabethpol Governorate to the east, and Persia to the south. The uezd included most of the contemporary Nakhichevan exclave of Azerbaijan and the southwesternmost part of the Syunik Province of present-day Armenia. The uezd's administrative center was the city of Nakhichevan.[1]

Geography[]

The relief of the uyezd was mainly mountainous with most of the lowland was located along the Aras River. The highest peaks of the uezd (Kambil at 11,188 feet (3,410 m); Damara-dag at 11,090 feet (3,380 m); and Mount Kapudzhukh at 12,855 feet (3,918 m) were located along the Karabakh Range, which made up the eastern boundary with the Elisabethpol Governorate. Kyuki-dag at 10,282 feet (3,134 m) rose from the Sharur-Daralayaz Uyezd in the north. The left tributaries of the Aras (the Nakhichevan-chay, Alinja-chay, and Gilan-chay) flowed through the territory of the uezd.[2]

History[]

In the Russian Empire[]

The Nakhichevan Uyezd was originally one of the territorial administrative subunits (counties) of the Armenian Oblast from 1828 to 1840, created after its annexation into the Russian Empire in 1828 through the Treaty of Turkmenchay, following the defeat of Qajar Iran.[3] The territory of the uezd roughly corresponded to the defunct Nakhichevan Khanate, and was the site of large-scale Armenian repatriation from the Isfahan region of Iran, which was enabled by the aforementioned treaty.

In 1844, the Caucasus Viceroyalty was reestablished, in which the Nakhichevan Uyezd briefly formed part of the Tiflis Governorate before its attachment to the newly established Erivan Governorate in 1849. The new governorate in addition to Nakhichevan also included the uezds of Erivan, Alexandropol, Nor Bayazet and Ordubad, however, the latter district was later abolished and incorporated into the south of the Nakhichevan and Zangezur uyezds in 1868. Not long after, further administrative reforms resulted in the detachment of the northern part of the Nakhichevan Uyezd (Daralayaz) to form part of the new Sharur-Daralayaz Uyezd in 1870.[4]

Ottoman occupation[]

On 3 March 1918, in the aftermath of the October Revolution the Russian SFSR ceded the Kars and Batum oblasts through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to the Ottoman Empire, who had been unreconciled with its loss of those territories (referred to as Elviye-i Selase) since 1878. Despite the ineffectual resistance of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic which had initially rejected the aforementioned treaty, the Ottoman Third Army was successful in occupying the oblasts, even expanding into the western districts of the Erivan and Tiflis governorates, including the former's Nakhichevan Uyezd, massacring and expelling its 50,000 Armenian inhabitants.[5]

Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the Third Army was compelled to withdraw from the Nakhichevan Uyezd to the Brest-Litovsk boundaries as stipulated in the Mudros Armistice, however, to hinder the southern expansion of the fledgling Armenian republic into the recently homogenised district, Yukub Shevki backed the emergence of the short-lived Republic of Aras with moral support, also furnishing it with weapons, ammunition and instructors.[6]

Interwar period[]

Preparations for annexation[]

The Armenian government in preparing to march into the Nakhichevan Uyezd to repatriate its refugees and reincorporate the district was ordered to halt on 18 January 1919, as the region fell under the provisional British military governorship of Captain F. E. Laughton. Laughton's governorship which was confirmed by British headquarters in Tiflis on 26 January was intended to prevent the inevitable bloodshed that would arise from the reported "irregular Muslim soldiery of up to ten thousand well-armed men" resisting any Armenian incursion.[7]

During the two months in which Major-General William M. Thomson became the senior ranking Imperial officer in Transaucasia, policy towards the Aras Republic was reversed as he became aware of the influence of Pan-Turkism in the area. Moreover, Azerbaijani agents such as Samed Bey and Turkish officers such as Colonel Halil Bey arrived to assist in the campaign against Armenian incursions and to forge a bridge between the Ottoman Empire and Azerbaijan and ultimately between Nationalist Turkey and Soviet Russia.[8] Following the Allied declaration confirming the intent of disestablishment of the British governorship and his transfer to Armenia, Gevorg Varshamian was selected to become the first governor of the district. A special committee composed of Varshamian, Acting Premier-Minister Alexander Khatisian, Dro, and General Hakhverdian finalized the details of the annexation, which is described by the notable historian on the topic, Hovannisian:[9]

One group, convinced that conciliation and accommodation pointed the way to ascendancy, upheld the policy espoused by Stepan Korganian in Kars and advocated a cautious, peaceful approach to gaining Muslim obedience and loyalty. The second group, probably the majority, believed that Armenia must take swift advantage of the favorable British disposition while it lasted; valuable time must not be lost in a thorough, progressive military occupation. Instead, an Armenian civil administration should be installed in Nakhichevan at the earliest possible moment. This meant, of course, that scores of hostile Muslim villages would dominate the expanse between Erevan and Nakhichevan, but, with the Armenian army in control of the railway and the important towns along its route, the outlying areas would eventually submit. It was this policy that prevailed, in part on the strength of British suasion.

As Nakhichevan was strongly disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan,[10] Khan Tekinskii, an envoy representing the latter in Armenia actively worked to prevent Armenia's annexation of the district. Since his arrival, he kept the Azerbaijani government updated through encoded messages, appealing for large sums of money to bolster the Muslim resistance and urging a show of force on Armenia's northeastern frontier to relieve the pressure on Sharur-Nakhichevan. Unbeknownst to Tekinskii, the Armenian intelligence corps had learned to decipher his messages, providing them to the cabinet and the chief of staff.

Under Armenian administration[]

On 3 May 1919, the Armenian government publicly announced its extending of jurisdiction into Nakhichevan, which was backed by the advanced of Dro, who was accompanied by British military representative General K. M. Davie. However, the Armenian advance was halted at Davalu by order of the General Thomson who was incensed by the continuance of Armenian defiance in Zangezur, believing it to be encouraged by Armenian agents and thus a "severe breach of faith". Following the appeals of Khatisian and Davies who expeditiously met with Thomson in Tiflis, the injunction was lifted and the Armenian advance continued along the railway line. Shortly thereafter, Khatisian and company via train sped ahead of Major General Shelkovnikian's advancing column in Sharur, arriving at the city of Nakhichevan on 13 May where they were greeted by Kalb Ali Khan Nakhichevanskii, the Aras Republic's minister of war who relented to the seemingly inevitable Armenian administration. Hovannisian points out the close resemblance of Khatisian's demand to the Muslims of Nakhichevan with the demand of Dr. Sultanov to the Armenians of Karabakh.[11] The repatriation of thousands of refugees into the Sharur-Nakhichevan began during the summer of 1919, however, it was abruptly halted by the Muslim uprisings in July.

Despite the apparent defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish agitators and emissaries from Kemalist Turkey were reported by Armenian intelligence to have been encouraging sedition among the Muslim inhabitants of Sharur-Nakhichevan, culminating in a series of anti-Armenian uprisings on 1 July 1919.[12]

Muslim uprising[]

On 14 July 1919, Khan Tekinskii implored his government to intervene and support the uprisings, however, the Azerbaijani cabinet facing the threat of the Volunteer Army on the northern frontier responded with limited covert assistance including hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition and 300,000 Russian imperial rubles which were sent to Nakhichevan through northern Persia, and on July 20 an additional 4 million rubles which were dispatched to Khan Tekinskii through Tiflis.

Kemalist Turkish military attachés including Halil Bey and several other officers who were deceptively listed as deserters slipped over the border from old Bayazit on the night of July 17–18 and took command of the Muslim cavalry in Sharur, bolstering the strength of the rebels. By 20 July, the city of Nakhichevan was enveloped in interethnic fighting, followed by the Armenian station guards being overwhelmed and the derailing of a train carrying relief goods. On 22 July, Muslim insurgents captured the police station and surrounded the Armenian garrison in the northern sector of Nakhichevan, whereupon the Armenian artillery began shelling the lower areas. In the bitter fighting of the next two days, the Muslims, suffering heavy casualties, were unable to dislodge Shelkovnikian's 500-man garrison. To the north, however, the Armenians were in retreat: on 22 July the partisans, directed by Colonel Halil, attacked all the posts in Sharur, forcing Karakeshishian's column to retreat with the Armenian inhabitants of Bash-Norashen. On 26 July, an Armenian armored train was trapped by the insurgents who had cut the rails near Bash-Norashen and weakened the bridge to the north. As the train approached the last car derailed, ultimately resulting in the disgraceful abandonment of the train. The Armenian border guards and refugees at Julfa were forced to seek haven across the bridge in Persian Jolfa, from where they were transported to Tabriz. About 6,000 refugees from the Araxes valley reached the Zangezur and Nor Bayazet uyezds by way of mountain paths and streams, others fled into the highlands of Daralagiaz, the rest living west of the Nakhichevan-Julfa railway line were left to their fate.[13]

For the third time in six years, Armenia fell victim to invading Turkish troops, this time under the command of General Kâzım Karabekir in September 1920 during the Turkish-Armenian War. The disastrous war for Armenia resulted in the losses of Nakhichevan, Kars and Surmalu, the latter two regions joining the Republic of Turkey through the Treaty of Alexandropol on 3 December 1920. Turkey's annexation and the assignment of Nakhichevan to Soviet Azerbaijan was confirmed in the treaties of Kars and Moscow in 1921, by virtue of the new Soviet regime in Armenia.[14] The Nakhichevan Uyezd was combined with the Sharur uchastok (sub-county) of Sharur-Daralayaz and reorganised into the Nakhichevan ASSR, with the exception of the uezd's southeasternmost strip joining the Meghri district of Soviet Armenia.[15][16]

Administrative divisions[]

The Nakhichevan Uyezd was split into 4 unnamed contiguous uchastoks (subcounties):

  • 1st (1-ий участок)
  • 2nd (2-ий участок)
  • 3rd (3-ий участок)
  • 4th (4-ий участок)

Demographics[]

The population of the uyezd was primarily engaged in cattle breeding and gardening, especially in the Ordubad area. There were practically no industrial plants or factories, however, there were salt plantations which produced approximately 250,000 pounds of salt per annum.[2]

Russian Imperial Census of 1897[]

According to the 1897 Russian Empire Census, the population of the uyezd was 100,771, of which 64,151 were Tatars (modern Azerbaijanis; 63.66%), 34,672 were Armenians (34.41%), 1,014 East Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians; 1%), and 639 Kurds (0.6%).[17] The Tatars made up the majority of the uyezd's population, including the major cities of Nakhichevan (70.1%) and Ordubad (88.7%).[18]

Caucasian Calendar of 1917[]

The 1917 Caucasian Calendar which produced statistics of 1916 indicates 136,859 residents in the Nakhichevan Uyezd, including 74,081 men and 62,778 women, 133,343 of whom were the permanent population, and 3,516 were temporary residents:[19]

Nationality Center Ordubad Rural TOTAL
Azerbaijanis 6,026 5,449 69,716 81,191 59.3%
Armenians 2,665 179 51,365 54,209 39.6%
Russians 147 86 471 704 0.5%
Kurds 0 0 517 517 0.4%
TOTAL 8,934 5,717 122,208 136,859 100.0%

References[]

  1. ^ Tsutsiev, Arthur (2014). Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus. Translated by Nora Seligman Favorov. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 59. ISBN 9780300153088.
  2. ^ a b Большой энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона. Нахичевань [Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia Dictionary. Nakhichevan Uyezd] (in Russian).
  3. ^ Bournoutian, George A. (1992). The Khanate of Erevan Under Qajar Rule, 1795-1828. Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers. p. 26. ISBN 9780939214181.
  4. ^ "Административно-территориальные реформы на Кавказе в середине и во второй половине XIX века" [Administrative-territorial reforms in the Caucasus in the middle and second half of the 19th century] (in Russian).
  5. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971–1996). The Republic of Armenia. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 27. ISBN 0-520-01805-2. OCLC 238471.
  6. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971–1996). The Republic of Armenia. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 201. ISBN 0-520-01805-2. OCLC 238471.
  7. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971–1996). The Republic of Armenia. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 231. ISBN 0-520-01805-2. OCLC 238471.
  8. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971–1996). The Republic of Armenia. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 237. ISBN 0-520-01805-2. OCLC 238471.
  9. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971–1996). The Republic of Armenia. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 238. ISBN 0-520-01805-2. OCLC 238471.
  10. ^ Tsutsiev, pp. 71–76.
  11. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971–1996). The Republic of Armenia. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 245. ISBN 0-520-01805-2. OCLC 238471.
  12. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971–1996). The Republic of Armenia. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 66. ISBN 0-520-01805-2. OCLC 238471.
  13. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971–1996). The Republic of Armenia. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 70–71. ISBN 0-520-01805-2. OCLC 238471.
  14. ^ De Waal, Thomas (2015). Great catastrophe : Armenians and Turks in the shadow of genocide. Oxford. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-19-935070-4. OCLC 897378977.
  15. ^ Tsutsiev, p. 84.
  16. ^ Договор о дружбе между Армянской ССР, Азербайджанской ССР и Грузинской ССР, с одной стороны, и Турцией - с другой, Заключенный при участии РСФСР в Карсе [Treaty of friendship between the Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, and Georgian SSR on one side and Turkey on the other, with the participation of the Russian SFSR in Kars] (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2007-04-24.
  17. ^ (in Russian) 1897 Census, Nakhichevansky Uyezd Demoscope Weekly
  18. ^ Нахичеванский уезд (1897 г.) [Nakhichevansky Uyezd (1897)] (in Russian).
  19. ^ Кавказский календарь .... на 1917 год (in Russian). pp. 367–370.

Coordinates: 39°12′58″N 45°24′38″E / 39.21611°N 45.41056°E / 39.21611; 45.41056

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