The Establishment of The Soviet Regime In Northern Azerbaijan. Resistance Against The Invaders

In 1921, transfer the most of Zangazur to Armenia by Russia caused the isolation of Nakhchivan from other Azerbaijani lands. In 1929-1930, the transfer of large areas of the Zangilan and Ordubad uyezds of Nakhchivan to Armenia has led to a reduction in the territory of the autonomous republic to 5.5 thousand square kilometers.

Despite the hasty statement of the Azerbaijani leadership on December 1, 1920, Armenia has failed to implement its territorial claims in the mountainous part of Karabakh. Realizing their mistake, the leader of Azerbaijani government, N. Narimanov on June 8, 1921 decisively rejected the statement of the Armenian government to declare the mountainous part of Karabakh “part of the Armenian SSR.” The plenary session of the Caucasus Bureau of the Russian Communist Party, on July 4, 1921, with the participation of Stalin, S. Kirov, the leader of the Azerbaijan Communist Party and Ordzhonikidze, the leader of all South Caucasian Soviet Republics, made a decision to transfer the Nagorno Karabakh to Armenian SSR. After an unambiguous objection of N. Narimanov, at the plenary session of the Caucasus Bureau of July 5, 1921 was adopted a completely different solution: a) Taking into consideration the necessity of national peace between Armenians and Muslims, permanent relationship between the Upper and Lower Karabakh with Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh has to be kept within the borders of the Azerbaijan SSR, and to establish the Provincial Autonomy with the administrative center Shusha; b) The Central Committee of CP (b) of the Azerbaijan SSR has to determine the boundaries of the autonomous region.

Two years later, under pressure from Moscow and strong demand of Orjonikidze, Central Executive Committee (CEC) of Azerbaijan was forced on July 7, 1923, to sign a decree on the establishment of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) with the center in Khankendi, as part of Azerbaijani SSR. Moreover, by the decision of the CEC on September 18, 1923, Khankendi was renamed to Stepanakert in honor of the archenemy of Azerbaijani Turks, Stephan Shaumyan.

The leader of the Azerbaijani communists Nariman Narimanov rightly considered the providing of autonomy to Karabakh is not the end of troubles, but only the beginning of it.