Zangezur Uyezd

Zangezur Uyezd Зангезурский уезд
Country	Russia
Political status	Uyezd
Region	Caucasus
Established	1868
Abolished	1921
Area
• Total	7,674 km2 (2,963 sq mi)
Population  (1916)
• Total	226,398
• Density	30/km2 (76/sq mi)

Karabakh Khanate on a map of 1823

The Zangezur Uyezd (Russian: Зангезурский уезд, transliterated Zangezursky Uyezd) was one of the uyezds of Elisabethpol Governorate of the Russian Empire with its administrative center in Gerusy (Goris) from 1868 until its formal abolition and partition between the Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1921.^[1]

The area of the Zangezur Uyezd corresponded to most of the contemporary Syunik province of Armenia, and Lachin, Gubadly, Zangilan, and Shusha districts of Azerbaijan. This region is known as Zangezur.

Geography[]

The Elisabethpol Governorate as a whole consisted of the Elisabethpol, Nukha, Shusha, Zangezur, Kazakh, Aresh, Jebrail, and Jevanshir uyezds.^[2] Zangezur Uyezd was located in the southwest of Elisabethpol Governorate bordering its Jevanshir Uyezd on the north, Jebrail and Shusha uyezds in the east, Persian Empire in the south, and Erivan Governorate to the west. The area covered 6,829.7 square versts.

Almost all of the area is mountainous with many gorges and valleys of Lesser Caucasus mountain range. The altitude ranges from 10,000 feet to 12,855 feet at Mount Kapudzhukh, a range dividing Elisabethpol from Erivan Governorate. The rivers in Zangezur Uyezd are located within the Aras River basin. Bergushad (Bazarchay), Chaundur-chay, Basut-chay, Megri-chay played an important role in irrigation system of the uyezd.^[3]

History[]

Zangezur through the ages[]

During the Armenian rule, it was part of the Armenian province of Syunik, province of Vayots Dzor and Armenian Melikates until the middle of the 18th century while at times being seen as part of the Persian Empire as well.^{[citation needed]} Between the 1770s and the territory's transfer to the Russian Empire in 1813, the uyezd was part of Karabakh Khanate. In the 1850s, Zangezur Uyezd was part of Shemakha (later known as Baku Governorate). With the establishment of Elisabethpol Governorate on February 25, 1868, Zangezur Uyezd was established from parts of Shusha Uyezd, Baku Governorate, and Ordubad Uyezd of Erivan Governorate.^[3]

The Interwar period[]

Dissolution of Transcaucasia[]

After the dissolution of the Russian Empire and the formation of the independent Transcaucasian republics, including the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918, the western mountainous districts of the Elisabethpol Governorate including the Shusha, Zangezur, Jebrail, Jevanshir, Kazakh and Elisabethpol uyezds became subject to intense territorial disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan throughout 1918-1920, both of whom included these areas in their territorial pretensions that they presented in memorandums to the Paris Peace Conference.^[4]

Since the collapse of Russian authority in the Transcaucasus, the western mountainous sections of the uyezd which was mainly Armenian populated was governed by the predominantly Armenian "Central National Council of Zangezur" in Gerusy (later renamed the "Regional Council of Zangezur and Karabagh" following the arrival of Colonel Shahmazian in March 1919), which successfully repelled Ottoman attempts to subordinate the region to Azerbaijan.

The council's primary objective which had become the incorporation of Zangezur and Karabakh into Armenia yielded an uncommon fusion of Dashnak, Bolshevik, and nonpartisan councillors, 7 were natives of Zangezur, and 5 were exiled leaders of Karabakh. Within the bounds of Zangezur, the council established a general staff, an extraordinary committee for military affairs and designated chiefs for the detachments assigned to the 5 subdistricts of Sisian, Tatev, Tegh-Khndzoresk, Ghapan, and Meghri.

Following the arrival of British forces in Transcaucasia, the neighboring Karabakh Council reluctantly submitted to provisional Azerbaijani rule through the Governor-Generalship of Karabakh and Zangezur, however, the Armenians of Zangezur after learning of the fate of their eastern compatriots elected to reject any attempts by British forces to enter the region, in which they were successful despite the angry protests of involved British officers. A notable historian on the topic, Hovannisian, describes the British reactions to the Armenian defiance:^[5]

During the first months of 1919 the British commanders pressed Zangezur to accept peaceably the temporary rule of Azerbaijan. In late April, the power of persuasion having failed. General Shuttleworth himself traveled to Goris to demand recognition of Khosrov Bek Sultanov as governor-general of Zangezur. But confronted with undiminished intractibility, he retired to Baku, only to return two weeks later with a section of the 19th Light Armored Motor Battery and authorization from General Thomson to arrest all Armenian agitators. Again accorded an icy reception, Shuttleworth responded with threats of force, even aerial bombardment, but these words spoken in anger, instead of intimidating the Armenians, incited them to a boisterous armed demonstration. The 99th Brigade commander, himself now intimidated, retreated hastily to Shushi.

This turn of events led to the commander of the 27th Division, Major General G.N. Cory, to permit Zangezur to remain outside the jurisdiction of the Karabakh General-Governorship in Armenian possession until the Paris Peace Conference had decided their fate, considering it a 'concession' to the Armenian government.^[6]

Aftermath of the British Withdrawal[]

Following the controversial withdrawal of British forces from the Transcaucasus in mid-1919 and the subjugation of the Karabakh Council to Azerbaijan in August 1919, Dr. Khosrov bey Sultanov beseeched his government to help him "overcome 'the Armenian bandits' blocking the routes to the summer grazing lands and to convert his titular position as governor-general of Karabagh and Zangezur into reality." His call for assistance was also prompted by the antagonizing reports of Muslim villages in Zangezur being pillaged by irregular Armenian forces and its inhabitants fleeing into Azerbaijan as refugees. Accordingly, the Azerbaijani army began to plan its invasion of Zangezur with the strategic objective of reaching the rebelling Nakhichevan and Sharur-Daralagez uyezds and incorporating them into Azerbaijan.

On 3 November 1919, the Azerbaijani army, supplemented by auxiliary Kurdish cavalry launched a full-scale attack into the Armenian-controlled section of Zangezur, successful in briefly occupying some bordering Armenian villages before being decisively defeated and forced out by the local Armenians, led by partisan commanders Colonel Shahmazian and Garegin Nzhdeh:^[7]

Preliminary skirmishes involving the Kurdo-Tatar partisans of Haji-Samlu were followed by a general Azerbaijani offensive at dawn on November 4. Under cover of a dense fog, the advancing regiments flanked the Armenian forward trenches and captured the first line of defense. By the next afternoon Bayandur, Khnadsakh, Korindzor, and Tegh had fallen, Khoznavar was in flames, and Azerbaijani artillery was bombarding the heights (Kechel-dagh) overlooking Goris. At nightfall Azerbaijani crescent-shaped fires burned on these heights. Elsewhere, Muslim bands from Sharur-Nakhichevan invested Nors-Mazra and other villages near Sisian, and two Turkish-officered platoons cut across the rugged Zangezur mountains from Ordubad into the Muslim stronghold of Okhchichai. Throughout Zangezur the imperiled Muslim population took heart in anticipation of liberation by the Azerbaijani army.

Such hopes were cut short, however, by the counterattack Shahmazian mounted on November 6 after concentrating all available units on the Goris front. Artillerymen ... made direct hits on the Azerbaijani positions on Kechel-dagh, which was recaptured by Armenian companies ... The Kurdish irregulars were the first to break ranks and scatter into the mountains around Minkend, while the Azerbaijani regulars withdrew toward Tegh and the vale of Zabukh. Having gained the initiative, the Armenians charged the Azerbaijani lines, decimating Edigarov’s cavalry regiment in cross fire, reportedly inflicting several hundred casualties on the infantry, capturing 100,000 rounds of ammunition and six machine guns near Khoznavar, and putting two cannons and more than twenty machine guns out of commission. By November 9 the Azerbaijani army was retreating in disarray toward Zabukh and the northern mountainous bypaths to Karabagh. Within a week after the invasion began, the Armenians of Zangezur were celebrating an impressive victory.

Armenian authority prevailed in the western half of the Zangezur Uyezd until the Sovietization of Armenia. After the establishment of Soviet rule in the Transcaucasus, Zangezur was initially to join Soviet Azerbaijan, which was considered practically necessary for connecting the protectorate of Nakhichevan to mainland Azerbaijan, instead however, the Zangezur Uyezd was transferred from Azerbaijan to Armenia as a "symbol of socialist friendship" by the Kremlin, a direct result of Garegin Nzhdeh's demands during the February Uprising.^[8]

During the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party's arbitration of borders in 1921, the eastern Kurdish and Azerbaijani populated areas of the Zangezur Uyezd were reattached to Azerbaijan, forming the Lachin, Zangilan, Gubadly districts and a small southwestern part of the Shusha District of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. In Armenia, the districts of Meghri, Kapan, Goris and Sisian were formed in place of the abolished uyezd.

Demographics[]

Russian Imperial Census of 1897[]

According to Russian census, there were 137,871 people living in the uyezd in 1897, of which 71,206 were Turkic-Tatar speaking, 63,622 were Armenian speaking, 1,807 were Kurdish speaking, 1,236 were Russian speaking and other minorities.^[9]

In 1918-1920, the ethnic proportions of the region changed. General Andranik brought 30,000 to 40,000 Armenian refugees from the Ottoman Empire, mainly from Mush and Bitlis. Part of the Armenian refugees from Anatolia remained in the Zangezur Uyezd, whereas many others were resettled throughout the Erivan Governorate (nowadays Yerevan and Vayots Dzor, where they took the place of the expelled Azerbaijani population in order to make Armenia's key regions ethnically homogeneous).^[10]

There were 326 villages. The population was engaged primarily in agricultural farming, gardening, sericulture, cotton-growing, cattle-breeding and development of copper fields. The lowland area was used for growing cotton, which produced 20,000 pounds of cotton per year. Vineyards covered as much as 4,494 desyatinas of land, producing 106,860 lbs of grape. Nearly 3,728 lbs of silk pods were being collected in 1890. According to statistical data from 1891, there were 9,784 horses, 83,000 of cattle, 780 buffalos, 133,648 sheep, 4,600 goats, 7,008 donkeys and 1,505 mules in the uyezd.^[3]

Caucasian Calendar of 1917[]

The 1917 Caucasian Calendar which produced statistics of 1916 indicates 226,398 residents in the Zangezur Uyezd, including 113,973 men and 112,425 women, 225,469 of whom were the permanent population, and 929 were temporary residents. The statistics indicate an Azerbaijan majority in the district, followed closely by a sizeable Armenian minority which was the overwhelming population of the town Gerusy. Other minorities in the Zangezur Uyezd also included Kurds and Russians:^[11]

References[]