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3УДК 94(479.24)
SOME FEATURES OF THE DEPORTATiON OF WESTERN AZERBAiJANi TURKS
FROM THE ARMENiA SSR iN 1947-1953
ASAD QURBANLi
Leading Researcher of the A.A.Bakikhanov Institute of History of the ANAS doctor of philosophy in history, associate professor
Annotation. In the article, some features of the deportation of the aboriginal Azerbaijani Turks in 1947-1948, from the historical lands - the Armenia SSR were extensively studied with irrefutable facts. and the deprivations he faced were revealed on the basis of archival documents. The tragedies and deprivations faced by the displaced people in the Kur-Araz lowland region, where they were relocated, where they did not even have the usual everyday life and lived in unfavorable climatic conditions, were revealed on the basis of archival documents.
Keywords: Azerbaijani, Armenia, deportation, lowland, feature.
In recent years, in domestic historiography, much more attention has been paid to studying the problem of the resettlement of Azerbaijani Turks from the Armenia SSR to the Kur-Araz lowland of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1947-1953.
For decades, this problem was not studied due to known reasons, and it was openly spoken only after the 1990s. The truth about this national tragedy was revealed for the first time in A.Pashayev's series of articles published in "Respublika" and "Veten Sesi" newspapers and published in 1995. It is reflected in the book "Relocation" [12].
Despite the deportation of the Azerbaijani Turks from the Armenia SSR, from their historical and ethnic lands, neither in the Soviet historical literature nor in the official state documents related to the deportation, the resettlement of the Azerbaijanis has not been included among the peoples who were deported in the Soviet Union in the 20s-40s of the 20th century. [9].
Extensive study of the deportation problem of Azerbaijanis began after President H.Aliyev's decree in 1997, "On the mass deportation of Azerbaijanis from their historical and ethnic lands in the Armenia SSR in 1948-1953" [9].
The extremely important and just decree rightly stated: "Decisions No. 4083 dated December 23, 1947 and No. 754 dated March 10, 1948 of the Soviet of Ministers of the USSR were the next historical criminal act against the Azerbaijani people... Unfortunately, The fact of the deportation of Azerbaijanis from the territory of the Armenia SSR in 1947-1953 has not been properly investigated during the last 50 years, these events have not been given a legal and political assessment" [9].
Researching the deportation of Azerbaijanis from the Armenia SSR, in order to give a legal and political assessment of this historical crime against Azerbaijanis at the state level and to bring it to the international community, a high-level state commission consisting of officials, prominent scientists and public figures under the chairmanship of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan H.A.Aliyev was established [9].
Undoubtedly, although it was assumed that this decree would have open and investigate the black pages of our history, the resettlement of Azerbaijanis from the Armenia SSR in 1948-1953, the individual names of the people who were guilty of this resettlement, and at the same time, the determination of the scale of this tragedy, the loss of tens of thousands of lives. and it would have given impetus to the process of restoring their violated rights, the work of the commission in this field had not been completed, the process had been completely stopped. There is still no information about the work done by the commission.
However, besides this, it should be noted that there is blank spaces in the published scientific articles and books related to the study of the problem. This is due to the fact that the repartition of Armenians to the Armenia SSR was not taken into account while studying the problem. However, the deportation of Azerbaijani Turks was related to the repatriation and other issues. Therefore, the
article focused on re-examining the topic on the basis of historical facts is comprehensive and deep study of deportation in this direction, and at the same time reflects the true picture of history as it is.
In the mid-20th century, the next stage of the cleansing of Azerbaijanis from their historical lands in the territory of the Armenia SSR began.
The decision of the Soviet of Ministers of the USSR "On the relocation of collective farmers and other Azerbaijani population from the Armenia SSR to the Kur-Araz lowland of the Azerbaijan SSR" dated December 23, 1947 gave a new impetus to the ethnic cleansing policy of the Armenians against the aboriginal Turkish (Azerbaijani) population.
The political interpretation of the decisions of the central government regarding the resettlement of Azerbaijanis also confirms that the Azerbaijani population was resettled in various forms and methods by the Armenian official and nationalist circles.
Acquaintance with archival materials related to forced resettlement and following the process of deportation of Azerbaijanis from Armenia shows that the deportation process was carried out on the basis of the historical-ethnic hostility of the Armenians against the Azerbaijani population, and was a continuation of the ethnic cleansing policy in a new form.
According to the population census of 1939, in the Armenia SSR, before the resettlement of the Azerbaijani population in 1948, 130.900 Turkish (Azerbaijani) people lived in the Armenia SSR and according to an Armenian source on the eve of the resettlement in Vedi, Qarabaghlar, Gukasyan, Basarkecher, Qafan, Amasiya and in other regions of Armenia SSR Turkish (Azerbaijani) people constituted the majority of the population" [8, p. 59].
In the 40s - 50s of the 20th century, the realization of deportation, the deportation of Azerbaijanis from the Armenia SSR was widespread in the USSR, and this policy was carried out in an organized manner at the state level.
In the decision No. 4083 of the Soviet of Ministers of the USSR "On the relocation of collective farmers and other Azerbaijani population from the Armenia SSR to the Kur-Araz lowland of the Azerbaijan SSR" dated December 23, 1947, in 1948-1950, 100 thousand people from the Armenia SSR, in 1948 - 10.000 people, in 1949 - 40.000 people, and in 1950, 50.000 people were supposed to be resettled [2, l.3].
Recently, the relocation of the Azerbaijani population is sometimes considered as an act of repression and sometimes as an act of deportation. Late professor L.Hasanova considers the deportation of Azerbaijani Turks from the Armenia SSR in 1947-1953 as a continuation of the Soviet deportation policy implemented in the USSR in the 30s-40s of the 20th century [13, p.98].
Archival documents on the relocation of Azerbaijanis confirm that the resettlement was not at all voluntary and had a forced nature. In the confidential information "On the mood among the Azerbaijani population of Armenia in connection with the relocation to the Azerbaijan SSR" signed by Major-General Kh. Grigoryan, the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Armenia SSR on May 3, 1948 and addressed to the I Secretary of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan C(b)P M.J.Baghirov, was stated:
"It is typical that the collective farmers unanimously accepted this decision of the government during the announcement of the upcoming resettlement at the collective farm meetings and the explanation of these measures. while they welcome and express their readiness to move, but say that they are dissatisfied with these measures during the conversations among them". Although the Minister of Internal Affairs associated this with the weak explanation conducted among the resettled population, in reality, the Azerbaijani population did not easily leave the historical lands where they lived for thousands of years. Kh. Grigoryan in the information stated that many facts have been obtained from our side that Azerbaijanis do not want to move from their places of residence" [3, l. 21].
In addition to those who were relocated, there were also refugees during these years. In the letter addressed by the Chairman of the Executive Committee of Vedi district, A.Mammadov, to the Chairman of the Soviet of Ministers of Armenia, Karapetyan, it was reported that "more than 700 families from Vedi district alone had been moved to Azerbaijan wilfully". In the information given
ОФ "Международный научно-исследовательский центр "Endless Light in Science"
by the resettlement department of the Azerbaijan SSR, it was stated that in 1948-1950 alone, more than a thousand families immigrated to Azerbaijan on their own [10, p. 43].
If one of the reasons for the emergence of such a problem and leaving their places of residence ignoring the laws of "relocation" was the fear that the resettled compatriots faced unfavorable climatic conditions in the regions where they were resettled and were subjected to bitter deprivation, the most important reason was that the Azerbaijani Turks saw no prospect for living together with Armenians. The deportations of 1948-1953 revealed this very serious factor.
The Soviet of Ministers of the USSR adopted a special decision on the repatriation of Armenians on November 21, 1945, and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR legalized the repatriation of Armenians with its decree dated October 19, 1946 [10, p. 45].
Regarding repartition, this issue was discussed at the 14th Congress of the "Dashnakstyun" party held in Cairo, the capital city of Egypt in June 1947. The directive document adopted by the Congress clearly stated that the main purpose of repartition is the need to liberate Armenian lands and expand Armenia's borders [11, v.21-22].
During these years, in parallel with the resettlement of Azerbaijani Turks from the Armenia SSR, Armenian repatriates were resettled in the Armenia SSR. As a result of this resettlement, the ethnic composition of the population in the Armenia SSR changed in favor of the Armenians. In
1946-48, up to 100.000 Armenians were brought to the Armenia SSR from Syria, Lebanon, France, USA, Egypt, Bulgaria, Romania and other foreign countries [4, l. 22].
Although the Soviet of Ministers of the Armenia SSR allowed Armenians who came from abroad considered to settle and to be accommodated in the buildings and residential houses started by Azerbaij ani population that became deserted in connection with the resettlement of the Azerbaij ani population to the Kur-Araz lowland of the Azerbaijan SSR, but the Armenians who came from abroad and were mostly urban residents did not settle in the houses of the Azerbaijanis that were in a bad social situation. Repatriates mostly built settlements around Irevan such as Zeytun, Cilicia, Nor-Aresh, Malatiya, Kirza. They settled in Leninakan, Kirovakan, Octomberyan and other cities [8, p.112].
Apparently, this policy was another Armenian trick and was only excuse for the relocation of Azerbaijani Turks from their places of residence.
The resettlement of Azerbaijani Turks from the Armenia SSR went in two directions. On the one hand, the Azerbaijani population was relocated, on the other hand, history was being falsified. In
1947-1953 alone, by the decree of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenia SSR the names of more than 60 settlements were changed.
As a result of the forced relocation, the majority of the population living in the mountainous area fell ill in the low-lying regions, where the climatic conditions were unfavorable for them, and many of the elderly and children died from the diseases [11].
Deportation of Azerbaijani Turks from their historical lands in 1948 had serious consequences. As a result of the deportation, more than 100.000 Azerbaijani Turks were moved from their places of residence to the KurAraz plain of the Azerbaijan SSR or were forced to move there [11, p.32].
Relocating them to a place where they did not have normal social and household conditions and at the same time implementing this decision in the winter months was also an anti-human and antihumanist criminal act against the Turkish population, which had just come out of the war and was living a miserable life. More than 400 Turkish-Azerbaijani villages were subjected to this relocation in Armenia.
In conclusion, it should be noted that 1) The deportation of Azerbaijani Turks was carried out at the state level. 2) The resettlement was a continuation of the traditional new ethnic cleansing policy of the Armenians. 3) The deportation revealed the anti-Turkish policy of the Armenians. 4) This policy later manifested itself in the discrimination of the Azerbaijani Turks in Armenia in all areas and laid the basis for their next migration from their historical lands to the Azerbaijan SSR.
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1.Azarbaycan qazeti. 1997- ci il. 19 dekabr.
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