We and our sworn “ally”

A brief chronology of the Age-old “Friendship” and “Brotherhood” between Armenia and Russia

• June 12, 1724 – According to the Russian-Turkish agreement signed in Constantinople, the Russians recognized Eastern Armenia and Eastern Georgia as integral parts of the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, Armenians of Artsakh were encouraged to continue the struggle against the Turks, promising immediate military assistance and keeping the secret from the Turks about their agreement in Constantinople.

• March 1729 – Armenian forces led by centurions Avan and Tarhan once again send a delegation to the Russian army to receive the promised military aid. The Russians not only failed to fulfill their promise but also prohibited the well-known commanders of the Artsakh war from returning to their homeland.

• September 1804 – General Tsitsianov’s Russian corps loots the Holy Etchmiadzin.

• April 1805 – The second robbery of the cathedral by General Nesvetaev.

• October 1827 – General Paskevich, who captured the Yerevan fortress from the Persians, openly persecuted Armenian intelligentsia, including Nerses Ashtaraketsi, who made a significant contribution to the creation of Armenian militias.

• 1828-29 – During the Russo-Turkish War, the Russians plundered Armenian settlements in Western Armenia.

• March 11, 1836 – By the decree of Nicholas I, the rights of the Armenian Church were restricted.

• April 10, 1840 – By the decree of Nicholas I, the Armenian Region, created on March 21, 1828, was abolished.

• 1879 – In the annual report submitted by the Yerevan governor to the tsarist government, it was emphasized that most Armenian parish schools could hardly serve as disseminators of education, and “…therefore, it is hardly advisable to leave the educational work of Armenians in private hands.”

• In 1885, 1897, and 1903, Armenian schools were closed. The tsarist government began to implement a policy of open Russification.

• 1890s – During the days of Abdulhamid’s massacre, the tsarist government openly supported the Red Sultan.

• 1896 – By special order, 230 Armenian primary schools were transferred from the administration of the Armenian Church to the Ministry of Education of Russia. Teaching in the native language was allowed only for the Armenian language and religion, and the hours allocated for them were reduced.

• June 12, 1903 – Law on the confiscation and nationalization of property belonging to the Armenian Church in the Russian Empire. People’s struggle against tsarism.

• 1905-1906 – Armenian-Tatar clashes and massacres in the Caucasus, provoked by the Russian government.

• 1912 – The St. Petersburg trial of Armenian intellectuals.

• 1914-1916 – The intentional slow advancement of Russian troops on the Caucasian front and the tactic of sudden retreat, as a result of which the Turks managed to fully implement the Armenian Genocide in Western Armenia.

• March 3, 1918 – The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Soviet Russia and the “Quadruple Alliance.” According to Article 4 of the Reconciliation and an additional Russian-Turkish agreement, the Russians recognized Western Armenia as a territory of the Ottoman Empire.

• 1920-1922 – The Kremlin maintained warm political relations with both Kemal’s government and the Ittihad leaders. Talaat, Enver, Djemal, Khalil Pasha, and others secretly met and negotiated with the Russian political elite.

• May 1920 – Incitement of an anti-government uprising against Armenian authorities. Occupation of Artsakh by Russian-Azerbaijani military formations.

• 1920 – On July 5, the Russians captured Goris. In one of the well-known pogroms, Khalil Pasha, a Turkish military figure who became a friend of the Bolsheviks, declared in Goris that if the Armenians of Zangezur did not recognize the sovereignty of Azerbaijan, they would face the fate of the Western Armenians.

• The Russian military-political leadership was not concerned with Khalil’s anti-Armenian statements, but with his safety, and on the spot, measures were taken to organize the safe passage of the Turkish general to Nakhichevan.

• July-August 1920 – Occupation of Nakhichevan and Zangezur by Russian-Azerbaijani troops.

• 1920, August 4 – In Goris, the Bolsheviks kill deputies of the RA Parliament Arshak Shirinyan and Vaan Khoren.

• August 10, 1920 – Artsakh, Zangezur, and Nakhichevan, occupied by Russia, are declared “disputed territories.”

• August 24, 1920 – Russian-Turkish treaty on “heartfelt and sincere friendship.” Western Armenia and part of Eastern Armenia were recognized as an integral part of the Turkish homeland.

• Russians promised to continue supplying weapons and ammunition to the allied Kemalists, arm the Turkish army, and help Kemal in his fight against the Entente and its ally, Armenia.

• September 1-8, 1920 – At the first congress of the peoples of the East, convened in Baku at Lenin’s behest, with Enver Pasha attending as a delegate, a “holy war” was declared against international imperialism and its ally, the Republic of Armenia.

• September 18, 1920 – The Council of Propaganda and Action, formed by the I Assembly of the Peoples of the East, adopts a resolution proposing to help the Kemalists launch a campaign against Armenia and introduce the Red Army into Armenia under the pretext of preventing a “new Turkish-Armenian massacre.”

• September 23, 1920 – At the instigation of the Russians, the Turks attacked Armenia. The Armenian-Turkish war began. At the same time, forces led by Pogos Ter Davtyan and Nzhde in Syunik fought fiercely against Russian-Azerbaijani military units.

• November 29, 1920 – The Red Army invades Armenia from the northeast and declares Armenia a Soviet republic in the name of a non-existent worker-peasant uprising.

• December 2, 1920 – Sovietization of Armenia. Destruction of the first republic.

• December 1920 – January 1921 – Exile of Armenian intellectuals and command staff of the Armenian army. Murders of Armenian intellectuals in Yerevan prisons. Plunder and theft of movable and immovable property of the population.

• February 16, 1921 – March 2, February Armenian Uprising against Russian occupiers.

• According to the ill-fated Moscow Treaty of March 16, 1921, and the Kars Treaty of October 13, 1921, the regions of Kars and Surmalu were ceded to Turkey, and Sharur-Nakhichevan to Azerbaijan.

• 1921 March-July: Fierce fighting against Russian-Azerbaijani military units in Syunik.

• July 5, 1921 – By the decision of the KAV Bureau, Artsakh was transferred to Azerbaijan.

• 1921-1949 – Tens of thousands of Armenians were exiled, tortured, and shot in prisons. Organized extermination of Armenian intelligentsia.

• In July 1922, in Tbilisi (Georgia), for cooperation with the Bolsheviks, a member of the Ittihad triumvirate, former naval minister of the Ottoman Empire, and one of the main organizers of the Armenian Genocide, Jamal Pasha, arrived.

• July 25, in Tbilisi (Georgia) in front of the building of the Extraordinary Commission (Cheka), Stepan Tsagikyan, together with his friends Petros Ter-Pogosyan and Artashes Gevorgyan, successfully completed the mission to eliminate Djemal. This was followed by arrests, tortures, and exile of hundreds of young Armenians.

• Stepan Tsagikyan’s traces disappeared in the cells of the Extraordinary Commission. In 1937, Petros Ter-Pogosyan and Artashes Gevorgyan were also repressed.

• 1926 ․ Moscow forbade the Armenian Church to hold memorial services in memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

• 1930-1931 – Vayots Dzor uprising against Soviet oppression.

• 1938 Catholicos of All Armenians Horen Muradbekyan died under mysterious circumstances in Etchmiadzin in April 2006 (according to some data).

• May 30, 1953 – The USSR government states that official Moscow has no territorial claims against Turkey.

• 1966-88 – A new wave of open persecution of dissenters. Persecution, arrest, exile, execution of members of the National United Party.

• February 27-29, 1988 – Sumgait Genocide. Soviet troops “arrived” three days late.

• 1988-1990: Deportation, looting, and mass killings of Armenians living in Azerbaijan. Moscow was silent.

• January 1990 – Massacre of Armenians in Baku. Soviet troops “delayed” for seven days.

• April-May 1991 – Operation “Ring,” carried out jointly by Russian-Azerbaijani armed forces. Massacres, captivity, looting, and destruction of dozens of peaceful Armenians in Artsakh.

• 1991-2021 ․ Intensive arming of Azerbaijan by the Kremlin, including weapons of mass destruction.

• May 1994 – Bishkek ceasefire. If not for the pressure from the Russian side, Armenian forces would have occupied several Azerbaijani regions in just a few days and entered the Kura-Araks valley.

• 2016 ․ – Four-day war, provoked by Moscow. Russia’s position became more pro-Turkish, pro-Azerbaijani, and the Kremlin decided once again to sacrifice its ally Armenia to use the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem in its plans against the West. This dishonest game of Putin’s Russia against Armenia was exposed by a number of military-political analysts.

• September-November 2020: 44-day war. This was Moscow’s scenario, implemented by Baku and Ankara. Territorial concessions to Baku. Ensuring Russian presence in Artsakh and on the eastern borders of Armenia.

• The list is still being updated. At this stage, Russia, in alliance with Azerbaijan and Turkey, is implementing a complete blockade of Artsakh, demanding from Armenia the Zangezur corridor through blackmail and intimidation, and essentially putting all of Armenia under the threat of an imminent new Genocide and ethnic cleansing.

The author of the chronology is Arshaluis Zurabyan with additions from ArtATsolum