In November 10, 1724 Peter I the Great send general M.Matyuskin and brigadier Levasev to Baku to arrange the settlement and transfer of ethnic Armenians to Baku, Derbend, Shirvan, Salyan and Iranian Gilan and Mazandaran.

This arrangement was changed and fullfilled in February 29, 1828 with the Treaty of Turkmenchay when general Paskevich and S.A.Qriboyedov started the settlement of Armenians into Azerbaijani regions such as Nakhchivan, Erivan and Karabakh.

By 1832 only half of the total population of the Erivan Khanate remained Azerbaijani. Only 5 years after the creation of the Armenian Oblast.

In 1850 the Armenian Oblast was reorganized into a governorate of the Russian Empire. The countless massacres of Azerbaijanis by Armenians with the aid of Russians continued and by 1897 only 37% of the Erivan Governorate remained Azerbaijani.

The first clashes between the Armenians and Azerbaijani took place in Baku in February 1905. The conflict spread over to the other Azerbaijani Khanates in the same year.

When both Azerbaijan and Armenia declared independence, tensions grew and the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict ignited in Baku when Armenia claimed almost all Azerbaijani lands as part of the Armenian Republic. The Armenian Republic was also involved with a war with the Georgian Republic.

Early in March 1918, in just 3 days, over 15,000 Azerbaijanis were massacred in Baku alone by Armenian and Bolsheviks (Communist Russian) units led by Stepan Shahumyan (Armenian Communist). According to some experts the exact number of massacred Azerbaijanis is still uncertain as it ranges from 15,000 to 20,000.
Later in 1923 the city of Khankendi in Karabakh was renamed to Stepanakert by the Soviet Union, to honor Stepan Shahumyan for his Massive March Massacre in Baku.

Other regions with ethnic Azerbaijani population suffered as well, over 70,000 Azerbaijanis were massacred in Nakhchivan alone. More than 30,000 Azerbaijanis were massacred in Karabakh. Over 4,000 Azerbaijani-Jews were massacred in Guba.

During the short independence of Azerbaijan, the state was mainly busy with defense against Armenian and Russian invasion and massacres. After liberation by the Ottoman army, rebuilding, governmental and cultural reforms became the priority of the Azerbaijani state. It was the first democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world. Not to mention it was amongst the first countries in the world to adopt suffrage to women. Azerbaijan preceded even such developed countries as the United Kingdom and the United States.

Stalin was put in charge of the Soviet Caucasus Plan by Vladimir Lenin. In order to calm the region down, Stalin compensated several Azerbaijani regions to Armenia.

Today this conflict continues as Armenia occupies about 20% of Azerbaijan, which resulted in the displacement of one million Azerbaijanis. What else can you call two centuries of persecution, annexations and massacres except GENOCIDE.

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