• Established in 1318 as
Diocese of Nakhijevan, on territory previously not covered by the Latin church, covering historical
Armenia and present-day
Azerbaijan, presumably exempt. It was the only Latin see in the region to survive the ravaging hordes of conqueror
Tamerlane (1380s). • The
Dominican Order, whose missionaries founded it, branched out there into a new associated congregation, the
Fratres Unitores ('Uniting Friars'), which fielded all the clergy in the bishopric. From its 15th century peek with circa 700 friars in some 50 convents, by 1602 it shrinks to twelve convents pastorally serving circa 19,000 Catholic faithful. In the region of
Julfa the catholic professing settlements were the villages of
Saltagh,
Kirna, and
Aparan. In the neighboring region of Goghtn there was the village of
Gandzak, and in central Nakhichevan the village of
Jahuk. • By privileges, confirmed by
Paul III's
papal bulla Etsi ex debito on 28 February 1544, it could celebrate the
Latin rite in
Armenian language (instead of Latin) and its episcopate was chosen by an assembly representing the Dominican monasteries and the Armenian Catholic elite • Its actual see (not the title) was moved in the 16th century to more central
Aparan (now Aparan), closer to the actual Catholic communities. Under Safavid pressure the communities dwindled due to conversion to Islam and Turkification, masse conversions to Islam were noted in the 1650s In the Julfa villages in particular, by the 17th century diocesan activity seems effectively to have halted. Around 1620 Pope
Gregory XV instigated the founding of a Dominican seminary in Abaran. • Elevated on 21 February 1633 as
Archdiocese of Nakhchivan, but not Metropolitan, and indeed never had a suffragan. • Suppressed in 1847, apparently vacant since 1765, as its faithful had fled the country during the wars between Ottoman Turks and Safavid Persia. • It is without direct successor jurisdiction, but the last Archbishop took his flock to
Smyrna (now Izmir, Asian Turkey), where their Armenian community flourished. Its former territories are presently part of the larger jurisdiction of the
Apostolic Administration of the Caucasus (Armenia and
Georgia) and by the
Apostolic Prefecture of Baku (all Azerbaijan) ==Episcopal ordinaries==