The Stages of Implementation of the Policy of Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide of Armenians in the Eastern Cis-Caucasus (11th-20th cc.) (Continuation of the Third Part)

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the motives and implementation stages of ethnic cleansing and genocidal policy perpetrated towards the indigenous Armenian population during the 11th-20th centuries in the Eastern Cis-Caucasus – in the territory stretching from the Kur Valley to the Apsheron Peninsula, on the basis of various primary sources (archival documents, statistical materials, periodical press, theme related literature). The work is written by a combined examination of facts, applying the principles of historical investigation and historical-comparative analysis. The level of reliability and validity of the sources through their comprehensive study has been verified. Through the combination of facts the following phases of the history of the main issue are presented: the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide of Armenians in the Eastern Cis-Caucasus were still implemented in the 11th-18th centuries when the region regularly appeared under the invasions and dominion of various conquering nomadic tribes (Turk-Seljuks, Mongol-Tatars, Tamerlane, nomadic Turkmen tribes of Kara-Koyunlu and Ak-Koyunlu, Kizilbash invasions followed by the Turkish-Persian wars, Sunni Lezgins, invasions of Nader Shah and Agha Mohammad Khan). As a result, some part of the Armenian population was deported and left native lands or forcedly accepted the Muslim religion of the conquerers. The next phase of ethnic cleansing and atrocities was the period of the Armenian-Tatar clashes (1905-1906). Later, the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide was implemented at state level already during the Musavat regime of the artificial “Azerbaijan” formation (1918-1920), and finally during the Soviet regime (1920-1990). The article substantiates the fact that the indigenous Armenian population of the region was subjected to ethnic cleansing and genocide in its cradle, just as the Young Turks carried out the extermination of the Western Armenians in 1915-1916 in Western Armenia. Therefore, that policy should be qualified as the continuation and a constituent part of the Armenian Genocide, because the Armenian Genocide with its geographical coverage (from Western Armenia and other Armenian-inhabited territories of the Ottoman Empire to Baku) was a consequence of the implementation of the complete program of Pan-Turkism. There are numerous references to the issue in the historical literature, though the comprehensive study of ethnic cleansing and genocidal policies of Armenians in the Eastern Cis-Caucasus – in the territory stretching from the Kur Valley to the Apsheron Peninsula, has not been the subject of a separate study.