Karabakh Joins Soviet Azerbaijan

How Karabakh Was Attached to Soviet Azerbaijan (1920-1921)

In late November 1920, as Bolshevik forces closed in on Armenia from the east and Turkish nationalists pressed from the west, Azerbaijan’s Baku Soviet issued a declaration on December 1, 1920 (the day before Armenia was sovietized) announcing that Karabakh, Nakhichevan, and Zangezur would belong to Armenia. Publicized in Pravda and praised by Stalin as a historic act, the decree was never implemented. By spring–summer 1921, Karabakh and Nakhichevan were back under Soviet Azerbaijan. The Moscow and Kars treaties with Turkey (March and October 1921) confirmed this reversal.

Telegram. 1 December 1920

This message sent by the government of Soviet Azerbaijan to the Armenian republic reported its decision to cede Armenian territories. The decision was first read at a formal session of the Baku Soviet and was later printed in several newspapers.

As of today the bcroer disputes between Annenia and Azerbaijan are declared resolved. Nagorno Karabakh, Zangezur and Nakhichevan are considered part of lhc Soviet Republic of Armenia.

Chainnan of Azerbaijan's Revkom [Revolutionary Commillcc) N. Narimanov
Commissioner of Foreign Affairs
Huseinov

Original Source: Komunist, December 2, 1920. no. 2

Simon Vratzian, the last prime minister of the Republic of Armenia, on the Azerbaijani decision ceding Karabakh, Nakhichevan and Zangezur to Armenia.

On December first, when Armenia had not yet been sovietized, the formal session of the Baku Soviet took upon the issue of the "Sovietization of Armenia." Ordzhonokidze, the military commissar of the 11th army, orated: "Comrades, it will indeed be difficult to find a more auspicious gather ing than this . . . Today, in tbis hall, the Baku proletariat welcomes the birth of the Soviet Armenian Republic … "

At the same meeting, the president of the Revolutionary Committee of Azerbaijan, Nariman Narimanov, read out the declaration of the Revkom [Revolutionary Committee], in which it was stated that Soviet Azerbaijan is graciously ceding Nagorno Karabakh, Zangezur and Nakhichevan to brotherly Armenia.

For Ordzhonokidze, this too was an occasion for high oratory: "Comrades, the appearance of Comrade Narimanov at this meeting is very dear. He read to us his declaration. The names of Zangezur, Nakhichevan, and Karabakh are alien to Russian ears. Zangezur, all bare mountains, has no bread or water. There is nothing there. As for Nakhichevan, it is all made up of malaria-r idden swamps and nothing else. And what is there in Karabakh? Nothing. And now Comrade Narimanov states: 'Take these for you. Thke those infertile lands for Armenia.' It was as though Azerbaijan was getting rid of an ex1ra burden. Yet, in those infertile lands, in the Caucasus, resided the knot of the so called Armeno-Muslim conflict."

Ordzhonokidze, recalling the bloody Armeno-Thrkish clashes of the Tsarist era, continued, "And today the leader of the Azerbai jan Republic enters the scene and declares that, 'The conflict belongs to the past …' This is an act of great significance, one which is unprecedented in the history of mankind."

Eventually it became clear that neither Narimanov's nor Ordzhonokidze's speeches were sincere; rather, they had the intention of deceiving the Armenian bolsheviks and the public in general. Karabakh and Nakhichevan remained and still continue to remain under Azerbaijani rule. A deceit which, indeed,"is unprecedented in the history of mankind."

Stalin, too, expressed his fascination regarding this event. "On December 1st," he wrote in the December 4th issue of Pravda. "Soviet Azerbaijan is willingly turning over to Soviet Armenia Zangezur, Nakhichevan and Nagorno Karabakh … The centuries-old animosity between Armenia and the surrounding Muslims was solved by one stroke, by the establishment of brotherly harmony among the proletariats of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey."

Original Source: Simon Vratzian, Haastanj Hanrapetutiun [Republic of Armenia]. Paris, 1928.

Announcements of Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement on disputed territories. 12 June 1921

Based on the declaration of the Revolutionary Committee of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan and the agreement between the Socialist Soviet Republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is hereby declared that Nagorno Karabakh is henceforth an integral pan or the Socialist Soviet Republic of Armenia.

Signed by Chairman A. Miasnikian and
Secretary M. Garabegian,
the Peoples Commissars of the Armenian Socialist Soviet Republic

June 12, 1921, Yerevan.

Original Source: Archives of the Historical Museum of Yerevan

Change in Soviet policy regarding the status of Karabegh. 3-5 July 1921

[3 July 1921.] The plenary session of the Caucasian Bureau of Soviet Russia's Communist Party Central Commitee composed of Kirov, Makharsatian, Nasikian, Nazaretian, Narimanov, Stalin, Orakhelashvilu, Ordzhonokidzc, and others, examined the issue of Nagorno Karabakh and decided to attach Nagorno Karabakh to Soviet Armenia.

(5 July 1921.] The same plenary session met, reviewed 1he issue again, and decided "that considering the necessity of national harmony between Muslims and Armenians, the economic linkage between upper and lower Karabakh, and its permanent ties to Azerbaijan," Nagorno Karabakh should be left within the boundaries of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, while declaring it an autonomous region with Shushi as its administrative center.

Original Source Hrand Avetisian, The Communist Youth League of Transcaucasia under the Flag of Proletarian Internationalism

Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan finalizing the incorporation of Karabagb into Azerbaijan. July 1923

1. To form, as part of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, an autonomous Armenian region in Karabakh with Khankend as its center.

2. The administrative organs of the autonomous region are the regional executive and the local soviets.

3. Until such time when a regional executive committee can be organized, to create a provisional revolutionary committee whose responsibilities will include the invitation of the regional soviet conference within two months, for the purpose of instituting a permanent executive organ.

4. The financial and technical resources for the region's executive committee will be provided from the general resources of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic; immediate arrangement to be made in this regard by the Azerbaijani central comrnit1ee.

5. To invite a mixed commission composed of representatives from Nagorno Karabakh, Plains Karabakh, Kurdistan and the Central authorities of the Azerbaijani S.S.R. to devise the region's constitution, facilitate the transformation of authority to the autonomous region, and to determine the borders of the region, all by no later than August 15.

Signed
Vice President of the Central Executive M. Gasumov and
Secretary M. Khanpudaghov

Original Source: G. A. Hovhannisian. The Establishment of Soviet Rule in Nagorno Karabakh.

Source: Girair J. Libaridian (ed.), The Karabakh File: Documents and Facts on the Region of Nagorno Karabakh 1918-1988 (Cambridge, MA and Toronto: The Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Documentation and Research, 1988).