On the resettlement of Armenians from Persia to Yerevan and the Karabakh Khanates according to the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay

A. Griboyedov “An essay on resettlement of Armenians from Persia to our regions,” 1828

Your Grace wanted to know from me about the real methods which were used for resettlement of the Armenians from Azerbaijan (i.e. the resettlement of Armenians from South Azerbaijan, which was under Persian control, according to the Treaty of Turkmenchay 1828, and North Azerbaijan, which belonged to the Russian Empire) and about their position in our regions today.

This is the truth about the issue, which I know. Colonel Lazarev was thought to be the main initiator of the migration; he stated about it publicly, but without any reason, as the Armenians didn’t know him; they wanted to be residents of Russia and live under its laws. The Treaty gave them a right to this. The resettlement was organized due to Prince Argutinsky and Gamazov, while other officers acted, following them. Colonel Lazarev thought only about writing proclamations which were rather inappropriate, about the formation of a regular Armenian militia, thinking about including Karabakh itself and other regions, which had their own authorities and couldn’t allow separatism, into his idea, which was rather thoughtless. Prince Argutinsky criticized him for his behavior several times. All other activities by Colonel Lazarev were also boastful and useless. I should only say that he is an empty person, but not immoral; he cannot steal or do bad things deliberately.

During the distribution of cash benefits to natives from Urmia many riots took place. They took place due to the hastiness of the withdrawal of our troops from the province. Money was given to everybody without discrimination; and the money didn’t play a supportive role, as it was distributed inappropriately. However, that was the only case which I was aware of.

 

 

That’s how the resettlement took place. But everything was organized thoughtlessly and ineffectively in the places of their new settlement. A committee was established to control the situation; but it didn’t know anything. Moreover, it had detailed instructions from Your Grace how to act in this case:

1)      The Armenians were settled to lands which belonged to Muslims. This was alright in summer. The Muslim owners stayed in camps and had few opportunities to communicate with the newcomers.

2)      No wood was prepared to build houses or any facilities for the new residents. It wasn’t done in time. Today it is impossible to correct this mistake. Newcomers are cramped for room, as well as the Muslims, who are indignant for obvious reasons. Your Grace knows that all local residents should be considered as a resettled population, as all of them became refugees during wartime, and now their position is very poor.

3)      There was no order about the distribution of cash benefits: some get 1 ruble, others – 2 rubles; people simply said that they were poor and got the money, even though there was no evidence. 25 rubles which are given at once are much more important than the same sum divided into several parts and given at different times. There are no regular prices for bread or how much the community will need to sow next year.

By telling Your Grace about the poor activities of the Committee for Resettlement, I should note that if experienced and professional people served there (there are none of them), even for them it would be a difficult task. The regional administration has no information about the lands and villages which are situated on the other side of the Araks River; no information on the number of residents in the villages on thus side of the Araks. I don’t even mention domains: nobody knows who owns what. Therefore, the Committee had no source of information which was necessary for it. The local regional head denies that he has initiated the resettlement of a large number of the Armenians to the opposite side of the Araks; he said that they asked Your Grace to let them stay in places where they had come, and that Your Grace let them do so. Colonel Prince Argutinsky thinks that the measure can still be fulfilled. This official deserves to be called a reliable person for the authorities.

30 thousand rubles and 2 thousand chervonets which are allocated as benefits to the new residents will be used much more reasonably. If Your Grace would give the same sum twice as soon as possible, You will improve the position of the residents finally. Your Grace should only compare the number of residents who will later pay taxes to the treasury with an average estimation of the situation in Russia in general, and Your Grace will find the sum insignificant in comparison with the advantage which it should bring.

Another very important source of benefits is the serder’s cattle, which used to be given to residents by a serder, 30 thousand heads. He benefited from the cattle not only through the fees paid by the residents, but also butter, wool, and offspring. I heard about the cattle from many people, including members of the regional administrations og Petrikov and Mendoks. Keeping the cattle is expensive and rather useless for the treasury, but giving it to the newcomers could improve their positions and households.

I asked my interpreter Dadashev to visit numerous villages and ask people whether there were crimes or abuses during ydistribution of benefits. However, nobody complained. Thus, there were no such instances.

I think that the current authorities that control the situation over resettlement, especially Prince Argutinsky, won’t repeat the mistakes of their predecessor, Major Vladimirov.

We also discussed with Prince Argutinsky that the Muslims should make peace with the newcomers, as the troubles wouldn’t last long. We should dispel their prejudice that the Armenians will occupy their lands forever. I told this to the head of the police, members of the administration, and the khans.

Your Grace would make a truthful good deed if You ordered the Tiflis State Expedition to send several officials here. There is a lack of professional people, writers and interpreters. I think several students of the Armenian school in Tiflis could be chosen for this.

Speaking about the new residents, I think they are much more useful than our Georgian Armenians, who bring no benefits to the treasury, as the Armenians who have come from Persia are mainly craftsmen and bakers.

(Griboyedov A.S. Collected works in two volumes, v. 2 – Pravda Publishing House, Moscow, 1971, p. 339-341)

 

May 26, 1828 - A report of I.F. Paskevich to I.I. Dibich on resettlement of Armenians from Persia to RussiaBecause of the reason that I knew how enormous difficulties can follow any movement of large numbers of immigrants, especially without any preparation or other measures, to a country which is scant with local aid and devastated by war, I may not think in advance about the troubles that can emerge when thousands of Christian families came to our area from Aderbijan, and although after the capture of Erivan I was made an offer and assured that I will not have difficulties, and that the resettlement of Christians will not have a negative effect on Russia’s interests, oppositely it will affect Russia positively, it won’t create any additional expenses for the government, but I decided not to interfere in this matter, unless the Armenian communities sent their deputies to me after the capture of Aderbijan, who came to Deykargan, without demanding any condition or requirements, wanted from us permission for settlement in the towns of Russia as the only mercy.I could not stay ignorant to their requests and considering that the settlement of lying empty lands by people who were defeated and industrious and from same faith can be beneficial for us, I was kind to the deputies and gave them permission, but I did not promise any pecuniary aid or assistance except the plea about being free from tax and considerations for some period of time.After signing an agreement in Turkmanchay and returning back to Tabriz, I got warning about how needy those Christian immigrants are, and that without cash assistance from the Russian government they will undergo inevitable disasters when crossing the borders, I also got information about incomes and benefits they attained in the field of agriculture in Persia, about their unanimous decision of leaving real estates and some of their properties. After this I could not stop their migration and let them rely on the government of Persia, which would show its vindictiveness, I also could not stand negligible to the requests of Christians about the help of material assistance and I mobilized industrious and respectful figures among the Armenians, stab-officer Lazarev, lieutenant-colonel Argutinski and other officers to help immigrants to come to our area for deployment and aid the place where the immigrants dwell, I established a special committee in former Erivan, where the Armenian administration is located now, and allocated 50 thousand silver roubles, and ordered to lend this money to needy people in the form of a loan. You can be informed about details of this decree from my report № 340 dated on March 3rd.Meanwhile, eminent Nerses assigned bishop Stephan and archimandrite Nicolay to help us in this issue, I ensured them with relevant orders to the heads of committees to provide them with required help, but I could not get any information from those chairmen, and according to the reports of Lazarev I see that, seeing that propaganda off, those clergymen had no impact on immigrants.Alongside these, despite the fact that the Persians resist, expatriation of Christians from Aderbijan to our lands is carried out successfully, as we see from the latest reports I received, and at the moment 279 families in Karabakh and 948 families in Yerevan are settled, while according to Lazarev, the number of overall immigrants covers 5000 families.Reasons mainly causing this situation:1. Persians's management methods by compressing Christians with different kinds of tax payments and injustice.2. Staying of our troops in Aderbijan, under the auspices of which immigrants could approach the borders unafraid of any robbery or violence.3. Money lent with great courtesy to the immigrants, so they were able to restore their cattle ranch and to purchase cattle to improve their living conditions and finally,4. Loyalty and praiseworthy attempts of stab-officer Lazarev, lieutenant-colonel prince Argutinski and other officers in his servitude, even extraneous officers, according to Lazarev, when immigrants were crossing mountains in snowy and windy weather, Kabardin's and Kazakh stab-officer Shamshe's troops lent their horses to the immigrant families and walked on those hard passages on foot. Lazarev convinces us that all costs spent on Armenian immigrants from budget will be reimbursed, as their faithfulness to Russians has been proven a long time before and they also proved themselves by working hard. With all the success and benefits from the migration of Christians and with the obvious benefits they can bring, I cannot consider the inevitability of future difficulties and expenses that is most likely to occur during the migration, because immigrants should be provided with food and seeds not only for the current but also for the subsequent year until the harvest, and considering the below-mentioned reasons, I have great suspicion about the implementation of this:1) The Erivan and Nakhchivan governorates, selected for settlement of immigrants, are in a state of impoverishment and have shortages of adequate bread supplies, 2) All cases concerning the surplus of food and sustenance are assigned for provision of the army, and this is the main point I focused on, 3) War with Turkey obstructs us from ensuring bread supplies from nearly sanjaks, which have it 4) Persians also preclude us from attaining bread supplies from the provinces which belong to them; and even taking into account that I took all the measures depending on me for not allowing Christians to starve, ordered stab-officer Lazarev not to move families who cannot manage to take sustenance till the harvest, that is, the 1st of July, because it would be so much better to leave all those Christians in Persia, rather than expose them to hunger here, so I cannot guarantee food to all immigrants until they have their own crops to feed themselves, and I think that assistance to those families requires a substantial amount of money, but I am not capable of paying more than the allocated money.I feel responsible to inform your Excellency about the above-mentioned data.Adjutant-General Count Paskevich ErivanskyCentral State Military-History archive, Military Registration Archive, document 978, folio 22-26, excerptSource:

May 26, 1828 - A report of I.F. Paskevich to I.I. Dibich on resettlement of Armenians from Persia to Russia

Because of the reason that I knew how enormous difficulties can follow any movement of large numbers of immigrants, especially without any preparation or other measures, to a country which is scant with local aid and devastated by war, I may not think in advance about the troubles that can emerge when thousands of Christian families came to our area from Aderbijan, and although after the capture of Erivan I was made an offer and assured that I will not have difficulties, and that the resettlement of Christians will not have a negative effect on Russia’s interests, oppositely it will affect Russia positively, it won’t create any additional expenses for the government, but I decided not to interfere in this matter, unless the Armenian communities sent their deputies to me after the capture of Aderbijan, who came to Deykargan, without demanding any condition or requirements, wanted from us permission for settlement in the towns of Russia as the only mercy.

I could not stay ignorant to their requests and considering that the settlement of lying empty lands by people who were defeated and industrious and from same faith can be beneficial for us, I was kind to the deputies and gave them permission, but I did not promise any pecuniary aid or assistance except the plea about being free from tax and considerations for some period of time.

After signing an agreement in Turkmanchay and returning back to Tabriz, I got warning about how needy those Christian immigrants are, and that without cash assistance from the Russian government they will undergo inevitable disasters when crossing the borders, I also got information about incomes and benefits they attained in the field of agriculture in Persia, about their unanimous decision of leaving real estates and some of their properties. After this I could not stop their migration and let them rely on the government of Persia, which would show its vindictiveness, I also could not stand negligible to the requests of Christians about the help of material assistance and I mobilized industrious and respectful figures among the Armenians, stab-officer Lazarev, lieutenant-colonel Argutinski and other officers to help immigrants to come to our area for deployment and aid the place where the immigrants dwell, I established a special committee in former Erivan, where the Armenian administration is located now, and allocated 50 thousand silver roubles, and ordered to lend this money to needy people in the form of a loan. You can be informed about details of this decree from my report № 340 dated on March 3rd.

 

Meanwhile, eminent Nerses assigned bishop Stephan and archimandrite Nicolay to help us in this issue, I ensured them with relevant orders to the heads of committees to provide them with required help, but I could not get any information from those chairmen, and according to the reports of Lazarev I see that, seeing that propaganda off, those clergymen had no impact on immigrants.

Alongside these, despite the fact that the Persians resist, expatriation of Christians from Aderbijan to our lands is carried out successfully, as we see from the latest reports I received, and at the moment 279 families in Karabakh and 948 families in Yerevan are settled, while according to Lazarev, the number of overall immigrants covers 5000 families.

Reasons mainly causing this situation:

1. Persians's management methods by compressing Christians with different kinds of tax payments and injustice.

2. Staying of our troops in Aderbijan, under the auspices of which immigrants could approach the borders unafraid of any robbery or violence.

3. Money lent with great courtesy to the immigrants, so they were able to restore their cattle ranch and to purchase cattle to improve their living conditions and finally,

4. Loyalty and praiseworthy attempts of stab-officer Lazarev, lieutenant-colonel prince Argutinski and other officers in his servitude, even extraneous officers, according to Lazarev, when immigrants were crossing mountains in snowy and windy weather, Kabardin's and Kazakh stab-officer Shamshe's troops lent their horses to the immigrant families and walked on those hard passages on foot. Lazarev convinces us that all costs spent on Armenian immigrants from budget will be reimbursed, as their faithfulness to Russians has been proven a long time before and they also proved themselves by working hard. 

 

With all the success and benefits from the migration of Christians and with the obvious benefits they can bring, I cannot consider the inevitability of future difficulties and expenses that is most likely to occur during the migration, because immigrants should be provided with food and seeds not only for the current but also for the subsequent year until the harvest, and considering the below-mentioned reasons, I have great suspicion about the implementation of this: 1) The Erivan and Nakhchivan governorates, selected for settlement of immigrants, are in a state of impoverishment and have shortages of adequate bread supplies, 2) All cases concerning the surplus of food and sustenance are assigned for provision of the army, and this is the main point I focused on, 3) War with Turkey obstructs us from ensuring bread supplies from nearly sanjaks, which have it 4) Persians also preclude us from attaining bread supplies from the provinces which belong to them; and even taking into account that I took all the measures depending on me for not allowing Christians to starve, ordered stab-officer Lazarev not to move families who cannot manage to take sustenance till the harvest, that is, the 1st of July, because it would be so much better to leave all those Christians in Persia, rather than expose them to hunger here, so I cannot guarantee food to all immigrants until they have their own crops to feed themselves, and I think that assistance to those families requires a substantial amount of money, but I am not capable of paying more than the allocated money.

I feel responsible to inform your Excellency about the above-mentioned data.

Adjutant-General Count Paskevich Erivansky

Central State Military-History archive, Military Registration Archive, document 978, folio 22-26, excerpt

Source:

http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/Dokumenty/Kavkaz/XIX/1800-1820/Prisoed_vost_armenii_II/281-300/286.htm

http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/Dokumenty/Kavkaz/XIX/1820-1840/Griboedov_A_S/peresel_arm_1828.htm