- Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh celebrated the 150^th anniversary of their migration to these territories in 1978. On this occasion the Armenian people from the Maragha region of Iran erected memorial in the village of Maragha, Aghdere district (previously Mardakert), in Nagorno-Karabakh. There is an inscription Maragha-150 on the monument. In 1988 after the Armenian territorial claims on Nagorno-Karabakh the inscription on the monument disappeared.

            Under the terms of the Turkmanchai Treaty, 40,000 Armenians were resettled in Azerbaijan. Following the conclusion in 1829 of the Peace Agreement in Edirne, 90,000 Armenians who had been living in the Ottoman Empire were also resettled in Azerbaijan. The Russian authorities resettled the Armenians primarily on the territory of the Nakhchivan, Iravan and Karabakh khanates.

            As the well-known Russian diplomat and writer, A.S.Griboyedov, has written, "the Armenians have for the most part been settled on the lands of Muslim landowners... The settlers... are forcing out the Muslims... We also discussed at some length the work of persuasion to be done with the Muslims in order to reconcile them to their present hardships, which would not continue for a long time, and to rid them of the fear that the Armenians would maintain permanent possession of the lands to which they had once been allowed to move"[Griboyedov, A.S. Too Clever by Half. Letters and Notes. Baki, 1989, p. 387. (In Russian)].

            In pursuing their colonial policy in the Southern Caucasus, the leaders of the Russian Empire banked heavily on the Armenians resettled in Azerbaijan. In the work of the American scholar, Justin McCarthy, the following data are given on the colonization of the Southern Caucasus or, more accurately, of Azerbaijan by the Armenians. Between 1828 and 1920, when a policy was being implemented to alter the demographic structure of the population of Azerbaijan in favour of the Armenians and. to the detriment of the Azerbaijanis, "over two million Muslims were forcibly exiled and an unknown number of them were killed... On two occasions, in 1828 and 1854, the Russians invaded Eastern Anatolia... and on both occasions they were forced to retreat, taking 100,000 Armenians with them to the Caucasus, where they were resettled in place of the Turks (Azerbaijanis) who had emigrated or perished.

            In the war of 1877-1878, Russia seized the Kars-Ardagan district, forced out the Muslims and settled 70,000 Armenians there... During the events of 1895-1896, approximately 60,000 Armenians were resettled in the Caucasus... Migration during the First World War was fairly balanced. 400,000 Armenians from Eastern Anatolia were exchanged for 400,000 Muslims from the Caucasus" [ McCarthy, Justin. Armenian Terrorism. History as Poison and Antidote. Ankara, 1984, pp. 85-94. (In Russian)].

            According to the figures given by this American academic, 560,000 Armenians were resettled in Azerbaijan between 1828 and 1920. In this way, it was precisely after the conquest of the Southern Caucasus by Russia that the Armenian population on the territory of Azerbaijan north of the River Araks began to increase rapidly. Quite noteworthy in this same connection is also the admission of Z.Balaian: "Its (Yerevan's) residents are people who have come from other places. There are practically no true Yerevanites" [Balaian, Z. Hearth. Yerevan, 1984, p. 110. (In Russian)]. Academician A.I.Ionisian writes that "one-fourth of the population of the city of Erivan were Armenians, with the Azerbaijanis constituting a majority" [Yonisian, A.I. Armenian-Russian Relations in the 18th Century. Vol. 2, part I, Yerevan, 1964, p. 23. (In Russian)].

            In pursuit of their far-reaching goals, the Armenians succeeded in bringing about the abolition by the Russian authorities in 1836 of the Albanian Christian Patriarchate, which had been operating in Azerbaijan, and the transfer of its property to the Armenian Church. Somewhat later, in a situation where the population in the western districts of the former Albania, namely the Karabakh region, which Armenian elements were continuing to penetrate in the nineteenth century - had lost both statehood and ecclesiastical independence, there began a process of the Gregorianization (i.e., Armenization) of the local Albanian population.

            The truth of this situation was already well known in the nineteenth century. The famous Russian historian, V.L.Velichko, wrote: "An exception were the inhabitants of Karabakh, incorrectly called Armenians ..., who professed the Armenian-Gregorian faith...and who had gone through the process of Armenization only three to four centuries earlier." This was also known by the Armenian author, B. Ishkhanian, who wrote: "The Armenians residing in Nagorno-Karabakh are partly aborigines and descendants of the ancient Albanians ..., and partly refugees from Turkey and Iran, for whom Azerbaijani lands offered a refuge from persecution and oppression."[Quoted from: Aliyev, I. Nagorny-Karabakh: History, Facts, Events. Baki, 1989, pp. 73-74. (In Russian)]