Iranian Armenia | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1502–1828 | |||||||||
.png) Part of a map of the Safavid Empire | |||||||||
| Status | 1502–1747: Affiliated to the Iranian empires 1747–1828: Consisting of Yerevan and Nakhichevan khanates of Iran[1] | ||||||||
| Common languages | Armenian (native) | ||||||||
| Historical era | Renaissance | ||||||||
• Established | 1502 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1828 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Part ofa series on the |
|---|
| History ofArmenia |
 |
| Timeline •Origins •Etymology |
From 1502 to 1828, during theearly modern andlate modern era,Eastern Armenia was part of theIranian empire. Armenians have a history of being divided since the time of theByzantine Empire and theSassanid Empire, in the early 5th century. While the two sides of Armenia were sometimes reunited, this became a permanent aspect of theArmenian people.
Following theArab andSeljuk conquests of Armenia, thewestern portion, which was initially part of Byzantium, became eventually part of theOttoman Empire, otherwise known asOttoman Armenia, while theeastern portion became and was kept part of the IranianSafavid Empire,Afsharid Empire andQajar Empire, until it became part of theRussian Empire in the course of the 19th century, following theTreaty of Turkmenchay of 1828.
Due to its strategic significance, Armenia was constantly fought over and passed back and forth between the dominion of Iran and theOttomans. At the height of theOttoman-Persian Wars,Yerevan changed hands fourteen times between 1514 and 1736.
In 1604,Shah Abbas I pursued ascorched earth campaign against the Ottomans in the Ararat valley. The old Armenian town ofJulfa in the province ofNakhichevan was taken early in the invasion. From there, Abbas' army fanned out across the Araratian plain. The Shah pursued a careful strategy, advancing and retreating as the occasion demanded, determined not to risk his enterprise in a direct confrontation with stronger enemy forces.
While laying siege toKars, he learned of the approach of a large Ottoman army, commanded by DjghazadéSinan Pasha. The order to withdraw was given; but to deny the enemy the potential to resupply themselves from the land, he ordered the wholesale destruction of the Armenian towns and farms on the plain. As part of this, the whole population was ordered to accompany the Iranian army in its withdrawal. Some 300,000 people were duly herded to the banks of theAraxes River. Julfa was treated as a special case; he entrusted its evacuation to a renegadeGeorgian prince, Hanis Thahmaz-Ghuli Bek. He told Julfa's residents that they had three days to prepare for deportation to Iran; anyone still in town after those three days would be killed. Those who attempted to resist the mass deportation were killed outright. The Shah had previously ordered the destruction of the only bridge, and although Iranian soldiers helped the Julfaites to cross on horses and camels, the rest of the deportees had to cross on their own, so people were forced into the waters, where a great many drowned, carried away by the currents, before reaching the opposite bank. This was only the beginning of their ordeal. One eyewitness, Father de Guyan, describes the predicament of the refugees thus:
Unable to maintain his army on the desolate plain, Sinan Pasha was forced to winter inVan. Armies sent in pursuit of the Shah in 1605 were defeated, and by 1606 Abbas had regained all of the territory lost to the Turks earlier in his reign. The scorched-earth tactic had worked, though at a terrible cost to the Armenian people. Of the 300,000 deported, it is estimated that under half survived the march toIsfahan. In the conquered territories, Abbas established theErivan khanate, aMuslim principality under the dominion of theSafavid Empire. As a result of the continuous wars in the region andShah Abbas I's deportation of much of the Armenian population from the Ararat valley and the surrounding region, in 1605Armenians formed less than 20% of its population.[2][3]
Serious historians and geographers agree that after the fall of the Safavids, and especially from the mid-eighteenth century, the territory of the South Caucasus was composed of the khanates of Ganja, Kuba, Shirvan, Baku, Talesh, Sheki, Karabagh, Nakhichivan and Yerevan, all of which were under Iranian suzerainty.
