The Final Borders of Armenia prior to Soviet Invasion

[SevSpitak]

According to this map, Nakhitchevan was taken over by "Azeri" troops prior to the Soviet invasion. What happened exactly in Nakhitchevan? How did we lose it (or how was it taken away from us)?

http://www.armeniapedia.org/images/0/06/DRAMap.gif

[SevSpitak]

Re: The Final Borders of Armenia prior to Soviet Invasion

Not that I didn't know, but wanted to know what others said since I know this part of our history through internet. I wonder why this thread is a failure... XD

Correct me if I'm wrong:

Basically, Nakhichevan was initially controlled by Armenian troops (in 1918), but its population consisted of considerable Turkophones. They established the Araxi republic and fought with Armenians continuously. They were an extension of the pan-turkic Musavat party (organized with the help of Young Turks), who were the first to rename the region to Azerbaijan. This caused an outrage among Iranian and Azari patriots.

In any case, when "Azerbaijan" was taken over by the Soviets, Armenian troops re-established control over the region (1920). When the Bolsheviks invaded Armenia, they had peace agreements with Mustafa Kemal.

The Bolsheviks ceded the Kars province (which at the time included Ardahan and Oltu) and Igdir to Turkey, in the treaty of Kars which was illegally ratified (as Armenia SSR never signed it). The Kars Treaty is, to this day, still illegally ratified, and thus, we can legitimately claim that Kars, Ardahan and Igdir are illegally occupied territories of Armenia.

During this time, the Bolsheviks also ceded Karabakh to Azerbaijan SSR, and Armenian control over Nakhichevan was removed for Azerbaijani control, to establish a friendship with Turkey.

Turkey exchanged some territories with Iran in order to have a tiny border with Nakhichevan. Nakhichevan was an autonomous republic in the Soviet union, merely under the protection of Azerbaijan SSR (this means Nakhichevan was not part of the Azerbaijan SSR territory).

During this time, there was a massive ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Nakhichevan. By the time Azerbaijan declared independence, there were no more Armenians in Nakhichevan, and it itself declared itself an autonomous republic of the Republic of Azerbaijan.