1829-32 RUSSIAN SURVEY OF THE KHANATE OF NAKHICHEVAN [NAKHJAVAN]

By George Bournoutian

The Treaty of Turkmanchay marked an end to the Second Russo-Iranian War (1826-1828). According to the treaty, the last two Iranian khanates, those of Yerevan and Nakhichevan, were annexed to the Russian Empire. The Russians combined them into a newly created Armenian Province . The Russians obtained the tax rolls and other relevant material on these two khanates from the Iranian officials. In addition, they also enforced article XV of the said treaty, which encouraged a large numbers of Armenians, whose ancestors had been forcibly deported to Iran in 1604 by Shah `Abbas I, to repatriate from the Iranian province of Azarbayjan into the Armenian Province.

The new chief administrator of the Caucasus, ordered a detailed geographical, demographic and socioeconomic survey of the Armenian Province to determine the social and economic conditions of the newly formed Armenian Province. Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Trade ordered a statistical survey only of Nakhichevan.
The current study, the first in English, focuses on the above surveys on Nakhichevan.

Mazda Publishers (2016)