Azerbaijan

In the territory of Azerbaijan, including its integral part Nagorno-Karabakh, the Gregorianization and armenianization of the Alban population was a long historical process. This was carried out in several phases:

 1. Natives population of Karabakh (local) like the population of the other northern territories of Azerbaijan (Albania) was Albanian tribes;

 2. In some parts of Albania at the beginning of the IV century, as well as here Christianity was spread;

 3. During the period of occupation and domination of the Arab Caliphate in the Northern Azerbaijan in VII-IX centuries Islam spread in the country, but the Albanians living in the mountainous part of Karabakh kept Christianity;

 4. The Armenian-Gregorian missionaries migrated in the South Caucasus, using the favorable situation as a result of occupation by the Arab Caliphate, Gregorianization of the Christian-Albanian population of the Nagorno-Karabakh, and flowed by armenianization took a lot of time.

 5. The Christian population of the Nagorno-Karabakh in letter addressed to the Russian tsar Peter I named themselves as Alban. This proves that at the beginning of the XVIII century, they still did not consider themselves as Armenians;

 6. Russia's intervention in the region, resettlement of Armenians from other countries in the South Caucasus, including Azerbaijan, served strengthening of the Armenian factor here. This policy has created a turning point in the historical fate of Gregorianized Albanians. Their armenianization stepped at the last stage;

 7. During the Russian-Iranian war (1804-1813, 1826-1828),  during the Turkmenchay and the Russian-Turkish wars of 1828 (1806-1812, 1828-1829),  in particular after the Treaty of Edirne in 1829, the resettlement of Armenians from Iran and Ottoman states in Karabakh together with other regions of North Azerbaijan  had completed the Armenianization of Gregorianized Alban population. Albanian Catholicos system was abolished in 1836. Just then they can be called in fact as Armenian;

 8. Despite all this, the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians have preserved their specificity from the Albanian roots among the total Armenian population.