War and revolution In the final years of
World War I, Nakhichevan was the scene of bloodshed between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, who both laid claim to the area. By 1914, the Armenian population had decreased slightly to 40% while the Azeri population increased to roughly 60%. After the
February Revolution of 1917, the region was placed under the authority of the Special Transcaucasian Committee of the
Russian Provisional Government and subsequently the short-lived
Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR) in 1918. When the TDFR was dissolved in May 1918, Nakhichevan,
Nagorno-Karabakh,
Zangezur (today the Armenian province of
Syunik and part of the province of
Vayots Dzor), and
Qazakh were heavily contested between the newly formed and short-lived states of the
Democratic Republic of Armenia (DRA) and the
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR). In June 1918, the region came under Ottoman occupation. The Ottomans proceeded to massacre 10,000 Armenians and razed 45 of their villages to the ground. Under the terms of the
Armistice of Mudros, the Ottomans agreed to pull their troops out of the Transcaucasus to make way for the forthcoming British military presence. Under British occupation, Sir
Oliver Wardrop, British Chief Commissioner in the South Caucasus, made a border proposal to solve the conflict. According to Wardrop, Armenian claims against Azerbaijan should not go beyond the administrative borders of the former Erivan Governorate (which under prior Imperial Russian rule encompassed Nakhichevan), while Azerbaijan was to be limited to the governorates of
Baku and
Elisabethpol. This proposal was rejected by both Armenians (who did not wish to give up their claims to Qazakh, Zangezur and Nagorno-Karabakh) and Azeris (who found it unacceptable to give up their claims to Nakhichevan). As disputes between both countries continued, it soon became apparent that the fragile peace under British occupation would not last. In December 1918, with the support of Azerbaijan's
Musavat Party,
Jafargulu Khan Nakhichevanski declared the
Republic of Aras in the Nakhichevan uyezd of the former Erivan Governorate assigned to Armenia by Wardrop. Still, fighting between Armenians and Azeris continued and after a series of skirmishes that took place throughout the Nakhichevan district, a ceasefire was agreed. This lasted only briefly, and by early March 1920, more fighting broke out, primarily in Karabakh between Karabakh Armenians and Azerbaijan's regular army. This triggered conflicts in other areas with mixed populations, including Nakhichevan.
Sovietization In July 1920, the
11th Soviet Red Army invaded and occupied the region and on 28 July, declared the Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic with "close ties" to the
Azerbaijan SSR. In November, on the verge of taking over Armenia, the Bolsheviks, in order to attract public support, promised they would allot Nakhichevan to Armenia, along with Karabakh and Zangezur. This was fulfilled when
Nariman Narimanov, leader of Bolshevik Azerbaijan issued a declaration celebrating the "victory of Soviet power in Armenia," proclaimed that both Nakhichevan and Zangezur should be awarded to the Armenian people as a sign of the Azerbaijani people's support for Armenia's fight against the former DRA government:
Vladimir Lenin, although welcoming this act of "great Soviet fraternity" where "boundaries had no meaning among the family of Soviet peoples," did not agree with the motion and instead called for the people of Nakhichevan to be consulted in a referendum. According to the formal figures of this referendum, held at the beginning of 1921, 90% of Nakhichevan's population wanted to be included in the Azerbaijan SSR "with the rights of an autonomous republic." The decision to make Nakhichevan a part of modern-day Azerbaijan was cemented 16 March 1921 in the
Treaty of Moscow between
Bolshevist Russia and Turkey. The agreement between Soviet Russia and Turkey also called for attachment of the former Sharur-Daralagez uyezd (which had a solid Azeri majority) to Nakhichevan, thus allowing Turkey to share a border with the Azerbaijan SSR. This deal was reaffirmed on 23 October, in the
Treaty of Kars. Article V of the treaty stated the following: So, on 16 March 1921 the Nakhichevan ASSR was established. On 9 February 1924, the Soviet Union officially placed the Nakhichevan ASSR under the jurisdiction of the
Azerbaijan SSR. Its constitution was adopted on 18 April 1926. as well as the
Baku–
Yerevan railway. The Azeri population, meanwhile increased substantially with both a higher birth rate and immigration from
Armenia (going from 85% in 1926 to 96% by 1979 This effectively crippled Armenia's economy, as 85% of the cargo and goods arrived through rail traffic. In response, Armenia closed the railway to Nakhichevan, thereby strangling the exclave's only link to the rest of the Soviet Union. in the USSR, 1957–1991 December 1989 saw unrest in Nakhichevan as its Azeri inhabitants moved to physically dismantle the Soviet border with Iran to flee the area and meet their ethnic Azeri cousins in northern Iran. This action was angrily denounced by the Soviet leadership and the Soviet media accused the Azeris of "embracing Islamic fundamentalism". In January 1990, the
Supreme Soviet of the Nakhichevan ASSR issued a declaration stating the intention for Nakhichevan to secede from the USSR to protest the Soviet Union's actions during
Black January. It was the first part of the Soviet Union to declare independence, preceding
Lithuania's declaration by almost 2 months.
Heydar Aliyev, the future president of Azerbaijan, returned to his birthplace of Nakhichevan in autumn 1990, after being ousted from his position in the
Politburo by
Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. Soon after returning to Nakhichevan, Aliyev was elected to the local Supreme Soviet by an overwhelming majority. Aliyev subsequently resigned from the
CPSU and after the failed
August 1991 coup against Gorbachev, he called for complete independence for Azerbaijan and denounced
Ayaz Mütallibov for supporting the coup. In late 1991, Aliyev consolidated his power base as chairman of the Nakhichevan Supreme Soviet and asserted Nakhichevan's near-total independence from
Baku. On 19 November 1990, it became the
Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic within the
Republic of Azerbaijan. == Commemoration ==