Liberation struggle of Artsakh (1724-1731)

Taking advantage of civil strife and internal anarchy in Iran, the Lezgins plundered the villages and fortresses of Shirvan and Artsakh. To repel these attacks of the Caucasians, the armed detachments of the meliks of Kharabakh united forces and, upon receiving the news of the Russian offensive at Caspian Sea, started organizing the Armenian liberation movement. To support the liberation struggle, centurions Avan and Tarhan moved here from the Armenian settlements of Shirvan.[11]

The Armenian meliks were supported by the clergy headed by the Catholicos of Gandzasar Esayi Hasan-Jalalyan, descendant of the noble family of Hasan-Jalalyans from Khachen.[12] After getting anointed in 1701 as Catholicos, he made Gandzasar the political center of the liberation movement, turning it into a meeting place for the spiritual and secular leaders of Artsakh, where diplomatic relations were discussed and military plans developed.

On the territory subject to the meliks of Kharabagh, defensive fortresses called "signakhs" were key for the organisation of military resistance, among which the most famous were the ones of Gulistan, Chanakhchi, Jraberd and Karaglukh. The garrisons stationed in them could conduct not only defensive, but also offensive battles.[13]

In 1724, the Armenian liberation forces joined forces with the Muslim leaders of Ganja and signed an agreement to fight together against the Ottoman troops. The Armenian military leaders also offered cooperation to Iran in its fight against the Ottoman troops. Karapet Shirvanov (Ivan Karapet) arrived in Karabakh from Russia with promises to support the liberation struggle, providing further backing to the Armenian leadership.[14][15]

In 1723, the Ottoman army captured Tiflis, the capital of the Kartli-Kakhetian kingdom, as well as Ganja. After more than three months of resistance, in which the Turkish troops lost 20,000 soldiers, Yerevan, with its population of 5,000, capitulated.[16] Following this the leaders of Gandzak joint the side of the Turks, there was no help from Iran either, thus the forces of Artsakh and Syunik liberation struggle were left alone against the Turkish forces, which entered Karabakh first.

Gandzasar monastery - the seat of the Catholicos of Aghvank Esayi Hasan-Jalalyan

In 1724, the Ottoman commanders got the Catholicos of Etchmiadzin Astvatsatur I to write a letter addressing the Armenians of Artsakh and the Catholicos of Gandzasar Esayi Hasan-Jalalyan, asking him to lay down their arms and accept Turkish subjugation. Despite the letter, Hasan-Jalalyan and his associates refused to surrender and prepared to fight the Ottoman army.[17]

In March 1725, three detachments of the Ottoman army invaded the province of Varanda, thus creating a threat to the Small Signakh. The Armenian population placed about 6,000 Turkish soldiers in the villages, and the self-defence forces managed to destroy them with a surprise attack at night. Two Turkish pashas were killed and a third was taken prisoner. This victory increased the morale and combat capability of the Armenian units. The Armenians had already sent a delegation to the Russian army and were rejected, but now they decided to send another delegation to Tabriz, to Tahmasp, the heir to the throne of Iran. In the same year, the Armenian delegation, headed by priests Anton and Kyokhva Chalabi, returned to Karabakh from Russia, conveying a negative response from the Russian side. The Armenians wrote another letter to Peter the Great, not knowing that the emperor had already died.[18]

The second Turkish invasion was also unsuccessful. In 1726 a 40,000 Ottoman army was unable to take the Shushi fortress and returned to Ganja.[19][11] After this battle, the Armenians, for the third time, sent a delegation led by Kyokhva Chalabi to the Russian Empress Catherine I.[17]

The Ottoman army started gaining advantage over Armenian liberation forces of Artsakh after the death of Davit Bek and Esayi Hasan-Jalalyan. In 1728, Turkish armies were able to occupy the Azerbaijan province of Iran. The Catholicos of Gandzasar, having learned about the signing of the Russian-Turkish treaty of 1724, became inclined to the idea of negotiating with the Turkish side. The liberation forces, disappointed in Russian promises, were inclined to do the same.

At the beginning of 1729, the second part of the Armenian liberation forces sent a new delegation led by Avan and Tarhan to the Russian military leadership, but, having received a negative response, they did not return.[20][21] In the years 1729-1731, the struggle against the Turkish conquest was continued by the signakh of Gulistan, whose commander was Avraham Sparapet. The liberation struggle of the meliks of Kharabakh came to an end.[22] At the same time, there was a split in Syunik. Disagreements between Mkhitar Sparapet and Ter-Avetis led to the capture of the Halidzor Fortress.[23]

The commander Tahmāsb Qoli Khan, who managed to suppress the Afghan uprising and repel the Ottoman invasion, restored the borders of Iran in a few years and in 1735 signed a new peace with the Ottoman Turkey and Russia.[24] He became the new ruler of Iran, known as Nadir Shah. He was supported by the Armenians in his fight against the Ottoman troops. In gratitude, the Shah visited Etchmiadzin, attended the liturgy and allocated 1000 tomans for the restoration of the throne of the Supreme Patriarch, decorating the temple with a golden chandelier weighing 15 kg. Prominent figures of Eastern Armenia, such as Melik Egan of Dizak, Melik Shahnazar of Gegharkunik, Melik Hakobjan of Erivan and others, were part of Nadir Shah's army.[25]

After accession to the throne, Nadir Shah removed the melikdoms of Karabakh from subordination to the Ganja beylerbek and transferred them directly into the authority of his brother, Ibrahim Khan, the sipah of Iranian Azerbaijan,[26] and in matters of importance, the meliks were instructed to apply directly to Nadir Shah himself. After the death of Nadir Shah, the Armenian-populated melikdoms fell into vassal dependence from the newly formed Karabakh Khanate.[27]

• Syunik rebellion
• Battle of Halidzor

• Zhamkochyan H. et. all (1975). History of the Armenian people from the beginning to the end of the 18th century. Yerevan: Yerevan State University.
• Parsamyan V.A. (1963). History of the Armenian people. II (IX-XIX centuries). Yerevan: Haypetusmank.
• Maghalyan A. (2007). Melikdoms of Artsakh and melik houses of the 17th-19th centuries. Yerevan: National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia "Gitutyun".
• Malik Telunts (2016). "THE LIBERATION MOVEMENT OF 1722 TO 1730 IN SYUNIK AND ARTSAKH AND RUSSIA. THE TERRITORIES AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES OF ARTSAKH AND SYUNIK" (PDF) (1) (Goris State University ed.). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Aivazian A. (2001). "The Secret Meeting of Armenians on Lim Island in 1722: Concerning the Possible Involvement of Western Armenians in an All-Armenian Liberation Movement". Iran & the Caucasus (Iran & the Caucasus ed.). Brill. 5: 85–92. doi:10.1163/157338401X00099. JSTOR 4030848.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• George A. Bournoutian (2001). Armenians and Russia, 1626-1796: A Documentary Record. Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers. ISBN 9781568591322.

• Armenian Virtual College - LESSON 7. THE ISSUE OF ARMENIA’S LIBERATION: XV – XVII CENTURIES