«ԶՈՐԱՎԱՐ ՍԵՊՈՒՀ» ՊԱՏՄԱՔԱՂԱՔԱԿԱՆ ՎԵՐԼՈՒԾԱԿԱՆ ԿԵՆՏՐՈՆԻ ՊԱՇՏՈՆԱԿԱՆ ԿԱՅՔ

ПЕРЕСЕЛЕНИЕ АРМЯН ЕРЕВАНСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ

ВАЛЕРИЙ ТУНЯН

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59630/25792644-2023.1.24-3
ABSTRACT
Engaged historians accuse Russian autocracy of turning the Yerevan Khanate into an artificial “Christian outpost”, of “planting different ethnic components in the region”, while they see “Azerbaijani lands” everywhere. The siege of the Fortress of Yerevan in 1804 appears to them to be an attempt of implementing "a plan to create an Armenian buffer as the most important support in the fight against Muslim states."
Meanwhile, after the unsuccessful siege of the Yerevan fortress, the head of Georgia P.D. Tsitsianov, in order to stabilize the situation in Kartli-Kakheti, withdrew 11,000 families (55,500 people) from the Yerevan re-gion, and a year later, another 1,000 families (5,500 people) from Kotayk. In two years, the Yerevan region lost about 65,000 Armenians, which changed the demographic appearance of the Ararat valley.
It was accounted for by political and economic reasons. The ethno-social base of the autocracy in the newly annexed region was expanding, which made it possible to maintain stability in Georgia and undermine the economic foundations of the Yerevan Khanate. The issue of the resettlement of Armenians from Yerevan and its environs was considered at the meeting of the State Council in 1808, but without decision making. As a result, a short-term de-Armenization of the Ararat country took place.