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Ethnic structure

  


At the beginning of the XX century Armenian historian of Armenian origin N. Adons had written about the origin of Armenians that in VII century BC at a result of inflow of kimmer tribes Frigian Armenians that were driven out from Asia Minor passed the Euphrates River and mixed with local Aramaic population. From mixture of arrived frigians and Aramaic aborigines the foundation of Armenian people was laid Two names of Armenians Haik and Armenius is the best evidence about the composition of their. At the beginning of the last century another Armenian author B.Ishkhanian wrote: "... the real home of the Armenians is Asia Minor, that is, beyond the borders of Russia and in Transcaucasia, except some Armenian provinces (mainly in Yerevan province) Armenians were scattered in different parts of the Caucasus during the last centuries".
The fact that Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) was one of the regions of Albania was confirmed by the Armenian historians of the Middle Ages Ananiya Shiraksky, Moisey Khorensky and etc. In Moses Kalankatsky’s "History of Albania" no information about living of Armenians in the territory of Artsakh was provided. 

Census materials of 1823 of Karabakh province shows that one city and 629 rural settlements were in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in the same period. From these villages 436 were Azerbaijani, 161 –Armenian 2 mixed, 30 villages were not specified in the ethnic affiliation. The Census of 1823 shows that even settlements with 1 or 2 homes of Armenians were marked as Armenian villages. This fact shows that the villages with unspecified ethnic origin were of Turkish origin. 
Historical facts prove that during the Russia-Iran war only the population of Turkish origin had left Karabakh khanate. Census of year 1823 did not register the leaving of Armenians from Karabakh. On the contrary, the materials of the same census shows that during 1817-1823 the Armenian population from various parts of Iran and Khoy, Bayazid, Van was settled in Karabakh khanate. On April 24 Paskevich had instructed Lazarev that head the policy of settlement, to settle the major parts of settlers, particularly the poor in Karabakh.
In 1911, Russian researcher N.Shavrov showed that between 1828 and 1830 years, 40,000 Armenians from Iran, 84600 from Turkey were settled in Transcaucasia and they were settled in areas with zero Armenian population, in the Yelizavetpol and Erivan provinces, especially in the mountainous part of Yelizavetpol province and on the shores of Goycha lake. Shavrov wrote that from 1 million 300 thousand Armenians currently living in Transcaucasia more than 1 million are newly arrived Armenians.
Article XV of Turkmenchay Treaty signed on February 10, 1828 envisaged the transfer of the Armenians. Committees were established in Yerevan and Nakhchivan to organize the resettlement of the Armenians. Displaced persons were given the most important benefits: they were exempted for 6 years from taxes and paying, and they were granted funds at the expense of compensation received from Iran. According to Decree issued by Russian Emperor Nicholas I in March 21,1828, the Azerbaijani khanates of Nakhchivan and Erivan were abolished, and in their place "Armenian district" ruled by the Russian rulers - the new administrative structure has been established. In 1849 the province was renamed as Yerevan province. In late 1922, the issue of the division of the mountain and lowland Karabakh into administrative-territorial units once again was raised. The commission consisting of Garayev, Dovlatov and Mirzoyan prepared and presented the offer to the Plenary Committee of the Transcaucasian region. With the recommendation of the regional Committee the Communist Party of Azerbaijan on July 1, 1923, the Nagorno-Karabakh was given the right to autonomy and the decision was announced on July 7. Thus the NKAO was formed.
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was formed in favor of the Armenians due to the indifferent attitude of then leadership basing not on the geographic position but ethnic status. For example, Azerbaijani Turk villages, at the vicinity of the 10-20 km to Agdara region were not included in the region but Armenian villages located 40-60 km away from the region were included in the administrative structure of the region. So the lowland and mountainous part of the Karabakh was separated from each other.
During the census of 1989 the number of Azerbaijanis among the population of the region reached 40.6 thousand. Periodical deportation of Azerbaijanis from the historical homelands had its negative impact on this growth figures. 



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