[COLUMNIST] Being expelled from ones own home - The reality of Western Azerbaijan in the light of historical facts

It was “necessity” to establish a Christian state in the South Caucasus in line with the interests of Tsarist Russia and Iran. Political geography makers (map “artists”) had decided on this. An ethnic community was found, and the land was sought for the establishment of a “state” for the said community.

It was also of great importance that Anatolian Ottoman Türkiye`s relations with other Turkic States were cut off geographically. The last periods of the weakened Ottoman Empire. People of ethnically Armenian origin living in Anatolia and Iran were immigrated to the region now known as Armenia at various intervals.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Western Azerbaijan had to suffer the pain of this project. Because the Christian Armenians who were immigrated to the region, with the encouragement of those who brought them there, forced the local Muslims to migrate from their homeland. In fact, Hitler`s Lebensraum was continued against Muslim Azerbaijanis throughout the 20th century, beginning in the mid 19th century long before the bloody fascist leader.

Russian historian Nikolai Nikolaevich Shavrov states the following in one of his studies: “At the beginning of the century, more than 1,300,000 Armenians were settled in Transcaucasia, more than 1 million of them were not natives of the region, they were settled by us (Russia).”

Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov was insistently recommending the establishment of a Christian state in the region by immigrating Armenians from Iran to Azerbaijani lands in the information documents he sent to his capital while he was working as the Ambassador of Tsarist Russia in Tehran. The decree of the Russian Emperor Nicholas I dated March 21, 1828 is about the first steps of establishing/determining a homeland for the Armenians brought to Azerbaijan.

The scientific studies of the prominent American historian Justin A. McCarthy on the subject reveal how the process of creating a homeland and state for the Armenians was carried out as if with a laboratory study. Russian historian Stepan Pavlovich Zelinsky, who has made important studies on the history of the city of Irevan, which is now turned the capital city of Armenia, confirms the facts about the emigration of Christian Armenians to the regions where the Muslim Azerbaijani people live.

Regarding all these facts, I consciously do not cite historical Azerbaijani sources as an example. This is extremely important as it is seen that the Azerbaijani theses about the fact of the creation of an artificial state called Armenia on Azerbaijani lands are also confirmed by foreign sources. It is very interesting that the projects of Tsarist Russia were continued with enthusiasm without interruption by the USSR administration. Muslim Azerbaijani people from the region of present Armenia were mainly forced to migrate to different regions of the present Azerbaijan Republic in 1905-1906, 1918-1920 before the USSR, and after the USSR in 1948-1953, 1988-1991. As the "natural" continuation of bloody immigration policies, names of settlements, rivers, streams, lakes, forests, etc. which were unique to Azerbaijan were changed quickly, cemeteries, mosques, historical places and buildings were destroyed. The process of building the Armenian nation-state was requiring such vandalism.

In 1920, with the instructions of Moscow and the decision of the Central Bureau of the Communist Party of the Azerbaijan SSR and the Caucasus Bureau of the Russian Communist Party, the Zangezur region of Azerbaijan was united into Armenia. In other words, the geographical construction process of a new “state” was thus completed.

In addition, another important point is that the life for the Muslim Azerbaijanis, the indigenous people of Armenia at that time, was rendered uninhabitable situation as a result of various governmental policies of Moscow and the Armenia SSR. It is well remembered that Muslim Azerbaijanis who were not admitted to the higher education institutions of the Armenia SSR were directed and encouraged to the educational institutions of the Azerbaijan SSR. In terms of job opportunities after education, Azerbaijanis were always facing obstacles created by the government of Armenia SSR.

Every year, on June 20, the world celebrates World Refugee Day to show that it cares for people who have had to flee their homeland. World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations on behalf of refugees around the world.

In 1989, a non-governmental organization named Azerbaijan Refugee Association was established. It is a democratic civil organization in order to express the common pain of hundreds of thousands of people who have been expelled from their homeland, to announce to the world that their basic human rights have been violated during the last 150 years, and to seek solutions to their problems. Azerbaijan Refugee Association became more active by reorganizing as Western Azerbaijan Community in 2022.

The Community declared the Return Concept in January of this year within the framework of international law. In this context, relations with international institutions such as the UN, European Union, European Council, European Parliament, UNESCO, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have been established.

The foundation purpose, essence and activities of the Western Azerbaijan Community are within the framework of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The main mission of the Community is to call and aim to remedy the grievances created for them due to activities contrary to international law.

Being able to return to their homeland in peace and dignity and to visit the holy places and the remains of the graves of their relatives are the most basic human rights. Returning to their lands, living there and being integrated into Armenian society is not a bad thing, it is an initiative that the Government of the Republic of Armenia should support. Getting rid of monoethnicity will only bring great benefits to Armenia.

Several times the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan reiterated integration calls towards the citizens of Armenian origin living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, in whose hands it is very clear that they are being held captive. Unfortunately, we do not see the similar approach of the Government of the Republic of Armenia towards the exiled Azerbaijanis.

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* Dr. Elsevar Salmanov is the First Secretary-Consul of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan.