“An entity called Nagorno-Karabakh never existed in history,” President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said as he received the participants of the 53rd meeting of the Council of Heads of Security Agencies and Special Services of the CIS member countries, APA reports.

The head of state noted that there was Karabakh Khanate, which became a part of the Russian Empire in 1805:

“The Kurekchay Peace Treaty was signed, on behalf of the Azerbaijani side it was signed by the Karabakh khan, his position was called the khan of Karabakh and Shusha Ibrahim Khalil. On the Russian side, it was signed by Royal General Tsitsianov. The text of the Treaty of Kurekchay is available on the Internet and everyone can familiarize themselves with it. There is no mention of the Armenian population or any special rights of the Armenian population in it. In other words, it clearly says again, and historians know it well, that Karabakh is ancient land inhabited by Azerbaijanis who have lived on this territory for centuries, for millennia. After the Kurekchay Peace Treaty, there were two more treaties between Azerbaijani khanates and Russia – the 1813 Gulistan Peace Treaty and the 1828 Turkmenchay Peace Treaty, according to which other Azerbaijani khanates, including Iravan, became part of Russia. Also, these documents naturally referred to Azerbaijani lands. After the Sovietization of the South Caucasus, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was created. Why was it created? Because after those 19th century documents, mass resettlement of the Armenian population to the territory of Azerbaijan from Persia and Eastern Anatolia began. And by the time of Sovietization, the national composition of the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan was not the same as it was before the beginning of the 19th century. Based on this, maybe there were some other reasons too, the Soviet power, the Soviet Union created the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, not even a republic, but a region within the Azerbaijan SSR. It was exactly one hundred years ago. By the time centrifugal tendencies started to emerge in the Soviet Union, Armenian separatism and aggressive extremism raised its head. By late 1980s, informal extremist organizations were created. Unfortunately, this was not properly assessed by the Soviet leadership and in many cases it was even encouraged by it.”

Source: Azeri-Press News Agency