Diaspora

Diaspora

Three-volume set â€œThe Armenian Question in the Caucasus, Russian Archive Documents and Publications (1724-1914)â€ published in London

20 September 2011 16:20 (UTC +04:00)

APA reports that the three-volume set prepared by the European Azerbaijan Society was published in English by Garnet Publishing
(http://www.ithacapress.co.uk/epages/es109086.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es109086_es120187592164/Products/9780863724091).

â€œThe Armenian Question in the Caucasus, Russian Archive Documents and Publications (1724-1914)â€ is issued in this three-volume collection as a special topic of study for the first time in world historiography. The problem is presented basing on about 300 rare documents, materials of periodicals and publications collected from various archival files, which were revealed in Russian State History Archive (St. Petersburg) and Russia State Military History Archive (Moscow) and kept â€œconfidentialâ€ and â€œstrongly confidentialâ€ for a long time. The great majority of the documents and materials presented in this volume are made publically available here for the first time. This allows to approach differently the notion of â€œArmenian questionâ€ in general, as well as â€œArmenian questionâ€ in the Caucasus.

The documents and materials collected in the three-volume book once more prove that Armenians are newcomers in the Caucasus. The â€œArmenian questionâ€ in the Caucasus was opened while they were purposefully migrating to this region. This process widened by the Peter the Firstâ€™s order issued on November 10, 1724 and has gained regular character since the beginning of the 19th century. Commander of the Russian troops in the Caucasus Patskevich was writing in his report on May 26, 1828 that Armenian migration was successfully conducted and already 279 Armenian families were settled in Karabakh and 948 families in Iravan. According to Colonel Lazarevâ€™s report this number would exceed 5000 families. (Volume I, p. 112, 114) Armenian attempted to raise territorial and separatist claims, to realize their dream of â€œGreat Armeniaâ€, while their number was increasing in the Caucasus. They used most grave crimes against the mankind such as genocide and terrorist attacks. Volume II of the set contains materials about the genocide committed by the Armenians against the Azerbaijani people in 1905-1906. Unique documents described in the book create full idea about the scale and geography of the 1905-1906 events. One of the documents is a report of the Yelizavetpol (Gandja) District Court to the Tbilisi Courtâ€™s prosecutor, which was sent on January 5, 1906. The document says that in that year at the night to January 1, three thousands of Armenians attacked the Azerbaijani Gadabey village, killed about one hundred men, women and children, set all houses on fire and plundered all properties of Azerbaijanis (Volume II, p. 510).

The documents and materials about the role of Armenian-Gregorian church and Dashnaktsutyun party in â€œArmenian questionâ€ must be especially noted (Volume II, documents â„– 15-18; Volume III, documents â„– 7-9).

Russian archive documents contain a lot of important facts about identifying real essence of â€œArmenian questionâ€ not only in the Caucasus, but in Turkey. In April, 1903 Secretary of General Consulate in Erzurum informed that the Armenians of Tbilisi committed riots in order to oblige Russia to start war with Turkey: â€œThe Armenian committees are dissatisfied with non-hurrying of Russians to conquer Erzurum provinceâ€ (Vlume I, page 499).

â€œArmenian questionâ€ remained on agenda because misleading information was spread about it. The materials of the leading mass media organizations of that period on judicial trial held in Peterburg in 1912 against the members of the Dashnaktsyutun party deserve the attention as an opinion of public community. The article in â€œRusskoye Znamyaâ€ newspaper reads that unfortunately, the trial is held behind closed doors: â€œEntire Russian people must know everything about this process and it is impossible to conceal the details from the people. Russian people must know that who are Armeniansâ€. (Volume III, page 290). This approach still keeps its actuality.

Undeniable materials and facts collected in 3-volume book gave an opportunity to unveil all realities of the â€œArmenian questionâ€. The documents covering the 200-year period clearly showed how the Armenian question was coordinated with the different periods of the history. These facts have a great significance for clarifying contemporary fictions about the â€œArmenian questionâ€.