Yerevan Governorate
The Yerevan Governorate ( Russian Эриванская губерния / Eriwanskaja gubernija ) was an administrative unit in the General Caucasus Governorate of the Russian Empire . According to today's terms, it comprised most of Armenia (excluding Sjunik and large parts of Lori and Tavush ), the Autonomous Republic of Nakhichevan and the strip of territory between Ararat and the Aras River belonging to Turkey .
It bordered the Ottoman Empire and Persia , as well as, within Russia, the Kars Oblast and the Tbilisi and Elisabethpol governorates .
The area covered 27,830 km², the capital was Yerevan (nowadays rather called Yerevan ).
From the territories won in the Treaty of Turkmanschai in 1828 (the Yerevan and Nakhichevan Khanates , both Persian vassal states), the Armenian Oblast was first formed, which was reorganized into the governorate in 1850. After the end of the First World War , the Transcaucasian regions of Russia became temporarily independent, and that ended the history of the governorate.
Fruit and cotton cultivation were particularly important economically, as well as silkworms and leeches. After 1900 railway lines were built to Tbilisi , Kars and towards Persia .
In the wake of the revolution of 1905 , there were mutual massacres between the Armenian and Azerbaijani ethnic groups, and Louis Joseph Jérôme Bonaparte (1864–1932) , who was in Russian service, was dispatched to suppress them .
Around 1900 it was divided into seven Ujesdy (circles):
- Alexandropol (today Gyumri )
- Yerevan
- Etchmiadzin (capital Vagarshapat)
- Nakhichevan ( Azerbaijan Naxçıvan )
- Novobajesid (today Gawar )
- Sharur-Darlagos (capital Basch-Noraschen , today Şərur )
- Surmali (capital Igdyr , Turkish Iğdır )
population
According to the first all-Russian census of 1897, the governorate had 829,556 inhabitants.
Of these, 441,000 were Armenians, 313,176 Tatars (i.e. Azerbaijanis), 49,389 Kurds and 13,173 Russians. There were also smaller groups of Assyrians , Ukrainians, Poles and Greeks.
