Armenians expatriated to the other parts of the world, as well as the Caucasus from these lands. They settled in Cilicia (small mountainous area in Northern Syria) during the war between the Arab Caliphate and Byzantine Empire in the 7th and 8th centuries AD.
In the 11th century, Seljuk Turks invaded Armenia following its annexation to Byzantium. Armenians living in Cilicia established the Armenian reign. They migrated to many world countries from this land. In fact, Armenia is not their historical land.
Historians confirmed the fact that “Armenia”, “Armina” and “Armini” does not have any links to Armenians who call themselves “hayk” and Hayastan. This is a geographical concept, not an ethnic concept.
Although Herodotus and other historians spoke about the local Caucasian nations widely throughout their works, one cannot come across the name of Armenians. Historical sources proved that two Armenian warlords defeated the Romans in the state of Salavki, which was situated in today’s Syria. Following that, those two Armenians took the authority and declared the main part of Syria as Armenia with the massive resettlement of Armenians here.
According to Strabo, when those Armenian warlords clashed with each other, one of them came to the Caucasus in the 2nd century B.C. He invaded several provinces of ancient Azerbaijani state of Midiya and created the second small state of Armenia. ‘Great Armenia’ which has been made up by Armenians was not in the Caucasus. However, it was the first Armenian reign located in the state of Salavki in Syria near Euphrates river.
When the head of the Armenians settled in the Caucasus, Tigran was defeated by Rome in 69 B.C, Armenian state began to weaken. Armenia was run by Artsakh who was Parfiya tsar’s son. As can be seen, Artsakh has never been part of Armenia but Armenia has belonged to Artsakh.
After Sassanid’s victory over Rome in the 4th century BC, the first Armenian state established in Syria was controlled by Persians. Later, Armenians started to move Asia Minor – current territories of Turkey.
During the Ottoman and Safavid era, the Armenians who sought shelter in the territories of these two mighty empires mainly served within the Janissary Army of the Ottomans and were engaged in small business.
According to the terms of the Gulistan and Turkmenchay treaties signed after the end of the Russia-Iran wars in 1813 and 1828, Tsarist Russia who have tried to create a "buffer zone" between two Muslim neighbors - Turkey and Iran and to change the demographic balance in favor of Tsarism, relocated Christian Armenians massively to the South Caucasus region. Nevertheless, the archive documents on the census of the population held in Karabakh and Iravan khanates proved that the number of Armenians was incomparably less than the Azerbaijanis.
To sum up, the historical facts also confirm the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s statement: “The main aim of the policy pursued by the Armenian nationalists against our people by military, political and ideological means during nearly two hundred years was to deport the Azerbaijani people from their native lands, to seize new territories and create a mythical “Greater Armenia”.
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