APA presents Doctor of Historical Sciences, Docent Ilgar Niftaliyev’s article titled “How did Azerbaijan lose Western Zangazur?”.
After the occupation of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic by XI Red Army on April, 1920, there were several diplomatic note verbale exchanges between Azerbaijan’s new Soviet government and Armenia in which the parties tried to justify their rights to Garabagh and Zangazur. Unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan’s threats cannot make big differences in this regard, because Baku which has lost its armed forces could only rely on Soviet Russia in the direction of its most significant issue – the restoration of the republic’s territorial integrity. Russia started to “donate” Azerbaijan’s lands to Azerbaijan to take Armenia under control and fulfill its other plans. Thus, the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan did not remove the territorial claims of Armenia from the agenda regarding Garabagh and Zangazur.
At the time, Grigory Ordzhonikidze, Secretary of the Caucasus Bureau of the Communis
t Bolshevik Party of Russia played the main role in the formation of the position of Soviet Azerbaijan regarding the Armenia-Azerbaijan territorial conflict. With the signature of Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of Soviet Russia V.Lenin, leadership to Soviet Azerbaijan’s internal and foreign policy was entrusted to Grigory Ordzhonikidze. Thus, the Azerbaijani government led by Nariman Narimanov was excluded from the direct negotiations with Armenia. In June-July 1920, during the correspondence between Ordzhonikidze, the secretary of the Caucasian office of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist (Bolshevik) Party, and Georgy Chicherin, the Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Moscow’s strategy was determined in the issue of resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani territorial conflict. In the telegrams sent to Moscow, Orjonikidze stated that it is possible to maintain Azerbaijan’s control over Garabagh and Zangazur by giving autonomy to local Armeni
ans.
In Chicherin’s reply telegrams, Orjonikidze’s persistent position was evaluated as encouraging the nationalism of Azerbaijan’s communists. Taking into account the long-term development of the regional situation and the solution of complex territorial and political issues with neighboring Trkiye, Chicherin was in favor of a compromise policy towards Armenia in order not to leave it far away. According to him, all the disputed territories, that is, Garabagh, Zangazur, and Nakhchivan should be taken under military control by Russian troops until a more favorable political conjuncture is established in the region. Chicherin’s position was decisive in Moscow’s future diplomatic steps, completed by the military operations of the Red Army in Garabagh and Zangezar.
Note that after the Sovietization of Azerbaijan in April 1920, the new authorities abolished the Garabagh General Governorship established by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1919 and created the Garabagh Revolutionary Committee in May 1920, wh
ose powers spread within the borders of the former governorate. Its chairman was Dadash Bunyatzade. However, the Garabagh Revolutionary Committee did not control western Zangazur, which was controlled by the Dro (Drastamat Kanayan) gangs, and later by the Nzhdeh (Garegin Nzhdeh) gangs. In the Muslim part of Uezd, power was divided between the Bolshevik revolutionary committee and Sultan Sultanov, the brother of former Garabagh governor-general Khosrov Sultanov, who fought against Armenian groups.
The military reports of the Red Army regarding S. Sultanov stated that “he was respected among Muslims for his sensitivity to the poorest class, his loyalty to his people, and his skillful leadership of armed groups that prevented Andranik, Amazasp, and Dro gangs from entering the borders of Zangezur.’ However, from the first days, the Bolsheviks took a more class-enemy position about the Sultanov brothers. At the decision of the Political and Organizational Bureau of the Azerbaijan Communist Party dated September 1
8, 1920, the Military Revolutionary Council of the XI Red Army was instructed to “dissolve Sultanov and his gang”. Zangazur’s Armenian Bolsheviks, in their telegrams to Baku, also tried to defame the Sultanov brothers, accusing them of serving Musavat, the massacre of Armenians, and having relations with the Dashnaks. Meanwhile, until the beginning of August 1920, Dro’s gangs were pushed from Zangazur to Darelayaz, and Nzhdeh’s forces were concentrated in the northern parts of Ordubad as a result of the military operations of the Red Army. At the same time, the entry of the Red Army into Nakhchivan at the end of July 1920 gave Moscow a reason to consolidate these military successes with real diplomatic steps. On August 10, 1920, an agreement was signed between Soviet Russia and Dashnak Armenia in Tbilisi, which legalized the deployment of Soviet troops to the controversial territories (Garabagh, Zangazur, Nakhchivan). From this moment on, the issue of the future fate of Zangazur entered a decisive stage. Bein
g aware of all the nuances of Armenia’s foreign policy, Moscow realistically assessed the prospects of cooperation with this republic allied with the Entente. Therefore, the Bolshevik leadership was very skeptical that the situation in the region would change in Moscow’s favor by promising territories to Dashnak Armenia at the expense of Azerbaijani lands.
On the other hand, the successful counterattacks of the Turkish troops during the military operations started by the Armenian government against the Ankara government at the instigation of the Entente at the end of September 1920, caused concern in Russian diplomacy about the possibility of unfavorable political consequences for it. Above all, Moscow feared that the defeat of the Dashnak government could strengthen Turkish influence not only in Armenia and Georgia but also in Soviet Azerbaijan, which is politically close to Moscow. However, the Kremlin leadership also understood that attempts to stop the Turkish offensive conflicted with the interests of t
he strategic anti-Entente alliance with the Ankara government. Therefore, Moscow began to accelerate the Sovietization process of Armenia. On the eve of the Sovietization of Armenia, Joseph Stalin made several statements on the future fate of Zangezur and Nakhchivan in Baku on November 4 and 9, 1920. Their essence was to give these territories to Soviet Armenia.
In this way, Moscow tried to close the direct borders between Azerbaijan and Trkiye. The actual implementation of this plan began at the end of November 1920 after the Sovietization of Armenia. By the decision of the Political Bureau and the Organizational Bureau of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party dated November 30 and the declaration of the Baksovet dated December 1, 1920, it was announced that Zangazur and Nakhchivan would be given to Soviet Armenia. These decisions were once again established in the 3rd clause of the agreement between the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), and the Armenian SSR dated Decem
ber 2, 1920. According to this agreement, all territories of Yerevan governorate, including Nakhchivan, as well as Zangazur district, were recognized as territories of Armenia.
Unlike Zangazur, in the case of Nakhchivan, which at that time was under the control of Turkish forces, the Bolsheviks had to quickly retreat and recognize it as part of Azerbaijani territory with the Soviet-Turkish Treaty signed in Moscow on March 16, 1921. Although the decision of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party on November 30 envisioned transferring the entire Zangazur uezd to Armenia, in the summer of 1921, only the western part of the uezd, where Armenians constituted the majority, was united with Armenia after the Red Army defeated the bandit groups of Nzhdeh, which had settled there. On July 16, 1921, the Revolutionary Military Council confirmed the capture of all of Zangazur and the escape of the remaining Armenian-Dashnak forces to Iran. Thus, the unification of the western part
of Zangazur with Armenia was completed.
The transfer of part of Zangazur to Armenia was mainly due to strong pressure from Soviet Russia and the anti-Azerbaijani activities of non-nationalist forces within the leadership of Azerbaijan. In addition, the misguided actions of Azerbaijani Bolshevik leaders, who served the ideals of world revolution and extreme internationalism, can be considered among the reasons for the loss of part of Zangazur. Soon after, Nariman Narimanov himself realized and admitted the bitter consequences of this decision. In a letter to V. Lenin in 1921, he wrote: « If the majority of Azerbaijan’s Muslim communists… had been in a nationalist mood, believe me, Armenia would not have taken Zangazur. » In another letter to Lenin of a similar nature, Narimanov again admitted: « Azerbaijan, even at a time when it was impossible due to political considerations, renounced its lands in favor of Armenia. »
In a report prepared by the People’s Commissariat of Land of the Azerbaijan SSR on Octob
er 25, 1922, information was provided about the changes in Azerbaijan’s borders after its Sovietization, noting that 405,000 desyatins of land (4,500 sq. km.) from the former Zangazur uezd had been given to Armenia.
In June 1921, the Council of People’s Commissars of the Armenian SSR approved the republic’s first administrative division, consisting of 8 uezds and 33 sections. Shortly after, Zangazur was also added as the ninth uezd, and it was divided into two uezd – Meghri and Zangazur. However, in the decree of the Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee dated May 19, 1921, Zangazur was already absent from the census documents related to the territory of the Azerbaijan SSR. In reality, this was a step toward completely erasing Zangazur from Azerbaijan’s memory. Even later, when the “Azerbaijan Soviet Encyclopedia” was published, while trivial writings about many minor regions of the world were included, the name of the Zangazur uezd was deliberately omitted for this very reason.
After the western part of the Z
angazur uezd was given to the Armenian SSR in the summer of 1921, Eastern Zangazur was incorporated into the Gubadli and Jabrayil uezds. Following the establishment of the illegitimate Armenian autonomy in Nagorno-Garabagh in 1923, Eastern Zangazur was included in the Jabrayil and Kurdistan (formerly Gubadli uezd) uezd. On February 18, 1929, by the decision of the Transcaucasian Central Executive Committee, the villages of Nuvadi, Eynadzor, and Tugut, which were part of the Eastern Zangazur region of the Jabrayil uezd, were transferred to the Mehri uezd of the Armenian SSR. After the abolition of the uezds in 1929, the territory of Eastern Zangazur was incorporated into the Garabagh Mahal. Following the transition to the district division in 1930, the Lachin, Zangilan, and Kalbajar districts were established in the territory of Eastern Zangazur, and 1933, the Gubadli district was also formed.
Source: Azeri-Press news agency