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Karabagh is a region of 1,699 square miles with a current population of approximately 153,000 people, of whom 80 percent are Armenian. Its name means "black garden." The area is known for its rugged beauty, its wild mountains, and its inaccessibility to the rest of the Caucasus.
In ancient times, the region of Karabakh and most of eastern Transcaucasia was inhabited by a people called Albanians, not to be confused with the people of the same name now living in the Balkans. According to Greek geogropher Strabo (1st C.B.C), Karabagh, which then encompassed both the mountainous Nagorno-Karabagh of today and larger lowlands, surrounding it, had a highly developed economy and was famous for its cavalry. Caucasian Albanians maintained close contacts with the Armenians. In the fifth century, shortly after the Armenians converted to Christianity, the Albanians too adopted the Armenian brand of Christianity. The first church established in Karabagh, in the region now known as Martuni, was established by Gregory the Illuminator, first Cathalicos of Armenia. Tradition has it that Mesrob Mashtotz, the monk who created the Armenian alphabet, founded the first school in Karabakh.
Given the centrality of religion to social life during that period, it is not surprising that in the following two centuries the Albanians merged with the Armenians. The nobility intermarried, the region's bishops were often Armenian, and by the seventh century the seperate identity of the Albanians was lost.
The territories of both Mountainous Karabagh and the larger surrounding lowlands became parts of the Armenian provinces of Utik, Sunik and Artsakh. In the seventh and eighth centuries much of this area was conquered by Arabs, who converted the portion of the population to Islam. In Karabagh, only a very small-minority was converted. The situation in Karabagh changed radically in the eleventh century when the ethnic Turkish invasions began. The Turks had emerged from Central Asia, had conquered Iran, and founded the Seljuk Turkish dynasty, which first raided, then invaded Armenia. From 1020 on, these invasions destroyed much of Armenia, and Karabagh, especially in the lowlands, suffered greatly. By the mid-eleventh century, the Armenians kingdom was destroyed. But the feudal principality of Sunik, which occupied the mountainous territory in the southeast of today's Soviet Armenia and Mountainous Karabagh survived and became beacons to the rest of Armenia. In the following centuries, thousands of Armenians found refuge in Karabagh, under the protections of the native lords.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Karabagh gave rise to the pioneers of the Armenian emancipatory struggle. Representatives of the region attempted to interest the monarchs of Russia and other European powers in embarking on a "crusade" to liberate the Armenian plateau, the eastern portion of which were occupied by the Ottoman Turkish and Persian Empires. During the 1720's, the rebellion of the Armenians of Sunik and Karabakh, le by David Beg, achieved notable though temporary success. The Russian Empire, expanding southwards in the Transcaucasus, annexed the Territory of Karabagh in 1805.
The Russian annexation of Karabgh was officially recognized by Persia in the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813. Thus Karabagh came into the Russian Empire earlier than the areas of Yerevan and Nakhichevan, which were ceded to Russia by Persia in the Treaty of Turkmenchai in 1828. This earlier annexation benefited Karabagh in some ways, but also created a major problem for the future. Because of the time it came into the Russian Empire, Karabagh could not be joined in 1813 to the as-yet-annexed Armenian territories of which its history and population made it a natural part. Yerevan and Nakhichevan, when they were annexed by the Tzarist empire in 1828, were organized in the Armianskoy region, later the Yerevan province. Here, as in other empires, decisions made by colonial administrators laid the foundations for future difficulties.

During the first months of the Russian revolution of 1917, the situation in Karabagh was relatively calm. The Russian army had penetrated deep into the Ottoman Empire, and there was no Turkish threat to Karabagh. But the end of 1917 the Russian army had disintegrated, and in February 1918 the Ottoman Turkish army moved into Armenia. The Ottoman Turks threatened Yerevan and made a desperate drive to oil-rich Baku, then held by a multi-ethnic coalition of Bolsheviks (headed by the Armenian Stepan Shaumian) and small Armenian military forces. While this struggle went on, representatives of the Armenians,. Georgians, and Azeris met and formed the short-lived Transcaucasian Federation. By May, 1918 this federation failed and three seperate, independent republics were proclaimed: Armenia, Azaerbaijian, and Georgia formed the cores of today's Soviet republics in the same region. The capital of the Azerbaijani Republic was at Elizavetpol (Ganja). The new government, indifferent to the wishes of the Armenian inhabitants, claimed Karabagh, as part of the territory of the new republic. The commander of the Ottoman Turkish forces, Nun Pasha (brother of the Minister Enver Pasha), ordered the Armenians of Karabagh to submit to the new government of its ethnic ally, Azerbaijan.
In August 1918, the Armenians of Karabagh formed their own national assembly, called the First Assembly of Karabagh Armenians, which then elected a People's Government of Karabagh. This government rejected the demand that Turkish troops be permitted to enter the capital of Shushi. By th end of the summer, on Spetember 15th, the Turks took Baku. With the ethnic Azerbaijani Turks at their side, they carries out systematic masscre of the Armenian city, during which it is estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 Armenians died. When the news of that massacre came to Karabagh, Armenians understood they too were incapable of resisting successfully the regular troops of the Ottoman Turkish army. On September 25th, they submitted to the Turks and 5,000 Turkish soldiers entered Shushi. Within a week, 60 perminent Armenians had been arrested, the townspeople disarmed, and gallows ominously erected in the central square of the town. There is no telling what might have happened had the Turks stayed much longer.
Faced with the Turkish occupation, the Karabagh Armenians were looking for aid from armed Armenians outside of their boreders. The newly-founded Armenian Republic around Yerevan was much too weak to help. The only force of any consequence was the independent command of General Andranik, an ingenious guerrilla fighter and military leader, in Zangezur. General Andranik decided to help and he moved toward Shushi. This advance, however, was hindered by Muslim resistance and by lengthy discussions among Armenians, which insulted in a fatal delay. Before Andranik could reach Shushi (he got 26 miles), the First World War ended and Turkey, along with Germany and Austria-Hungary, surrendered to the Allies.
The British occupational forces would now play the key role in eastern Transcaucasus. The British ordered Andranik to stop all further military advances and to await the solution of the Armenian Question at the Paris Peace Conference. Andranik, not wanting to antagonize the British, retreated to Goris in Zanegezur. Thus the Armenians placed fate of Karabagh in the hands of the British and the Western Allies. The Armenians had every reason to expect that they would be treated well by the British; after all, Armenians had fought with the Allies and had been the victims of their enemy, the Ottoman Turks. President Wilson had pledged support for the Armenians. At the same time, the Azerbaijanis had been allies of the Turks in 1918. Despite all this, within a few months the British shifted their support in eastern Transcaucasis to the Azerbaijanis, motivated by a traditional Turkophilia and by their geopolitical assumption that they needed to favor and dominate emerging Muslim enteties in the Near East, between the Suez and India, particularly those controlling petroleum reserves.
The Armenians of Karabagh could expect help from no one, and so, on August 22, 1919, their leaders signed and agreemnt with the Republic of Azerbaijan, accepting its authority until the final decision on Mountainous Karabagh was mde at the Paris Peace Conference. By this agreement, the Armenians of Karabagh were granted cultural autonomy. This agreement established an important precedent concerning the relations of Mountainous or Nagorno-Karabagh and Azerbaijan.

("Karabagh File" of Zoroyan Institute. Edited by Gerard Libaridian)

Karabakh