Armenians in Baku
|
|
|
|
||
| 1851 |
|
|
5.5% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1886 |
|
|
28.3% | |
| 1897 |
|
|
17.1% | |
| 1926 |
|
|
20% | |
| 1939 |
|
|
14.7% | |
| 1959 |
|
|
17.2% | |
| 1970 |
|
|
16.4% | |
| 1979 |
|
|
14.1% | |
| 1989 |
|
|
10.0% | |
| 1999 |
|
|
0% | |
| 2009 |
|
|
0% | |
| 1939-1989 figures include data from the city of Baku proper and the Baku municipality (gorsovet). |
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Armenians once formed a sizable community in Baku, the current capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Though the date of their original settlement is unclear, Baku's Armenian population swelled during the nineteenth century, when it became a major center for oil production and offered other economic opportunities to enterprising investors and businessmen. Their numbers remained strong into the twentieth century, despite the turbulence of the Russian Revolutions of 1917, but almost all the Armenians fled the city between 1988 and January 1990. By the beginning of January 1990 only 50,000 Armenians remained in Baku compared to a quarter million in 1988; most of these left after being targeted in a pogrom that occurred prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the early stages of the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
The earliest attestations of the Armenians living in Baku date around the 5th century (500 AD) when Vachagan III the Pious (King of Artsakh) ordered to build the first Armenian church in the territory of nowadays Baku. Later, in the 7 th century Armenian philosopher, mathematician, geographer, astronomer and alchemist Anania Shirakatsi in his most famous work Ashkharatsuyts (Geography) listed Alti-Bagavan as one of the 12 districts of the Province Paytakaran (one of the 15 Provinces of Armenia), which linguist and orientalist Kerovbe Patkanov in his translation identifies as Baku.
Orientalist and academician Vasily Bartold referring to the 15th century Persian historian Hamd Allah Mustawfi Qazwini, speaks about the existence of an old Armenian church in Baku and the 15 th century Arab geographer Abdar-Rashid al- Bakuvi in his writings mentions that the majority of the population of Baku (Bakuya) were Christian.
Baku saw a large influx of Armenians following the city's incorporation into the Russian Empire in 1806. Many took up jobs as merchants, industrial managers and government administrators. Armenians established a community in the city with churches, schools, and was the scene of a lively literary culture. The favorable economic conditions provided by the Imperial Russian government allowed for many Armenians to enter the burgeoning oil production and drilling business of Baku. Armenians along with Russians constituted the financial elite of the city and local capital was concentrated mainly in their hands. The Armenians were the second most numerous group in the judiciary. By 1900, Armenian-owned businesses formed nearly one third of the oil companies operating in the region. The growing tension between Armenians and Azeris (often instigated by the Russian officials who feared nationalist movements among their ethnically non-Russian subjects) resulted in mutual pogroms in 1905–1906, planting the seed of distrusts between these two groups in the city and elsewhere in the region for decades to come.
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Wikipedia