Presentation of the book “Baku and the Armenians” in “Noravank”
On November 9 in “Noravank” Foundation took place the presentation of the book “Baku and the Armenians (1859-1950)” and a press conference on the subject. The initiators of the meeting were “Noravank” Foundation and “Yerkir” NGO.
Many representatives of the Armenian mass media were present at the press conference. In his welcoming speech the executive director of “Noravank” Foundation Gagik Harutyunyan pointed out the book’s political and scientific significance. He mentioned that the tragic history of the Armenians in Baku is a component part of the Armenian community’s history.
The history of the Armenians in Baku has come to prove that by the time many Armenian communities have become a history, a fact which is threatening today’s communities as well.
Pointing out undoubted significance of the monograph, the head of “Yerkir” union program R. Tatoyan mentioned that the history of Armenians in Baku stressed up the actuality of the idea of repatriation for realization of which governmental approach is necessary.
Than the work was represented by the author himself – Kh. Dadayan.
He thoroughly studied the wide-ranging robbery committed in Baku by Azerbaijani Musavat government together with local Azerbaijani and Turkish troops, which lasted for about two months. For about 30 thousand Armenians out of 88 inhabited there were victimized and tortured because of their national identity (the author calls it Armenian genocide in Baku).
After the events in 1918 the International Inspection Commission of the Union Powers established in the same year in England, France and the US decided to render material compensations to the ones who suffered losses on April 1919. Together with the Russians, Georgians, Germans, Austrians, Jews, Czechs, French having capital investment and real estate in Baku losses suffered by Armenians in Baku were also considered to be liable to be compensated by the largest sum - 453.184.126 rubles. In the face of the English general Tomson the commission declared Turkey to be a debtor and respondent.
According to Kh. Dadayan’s re-calculations, done by generally accepted methods, today’s Azerbaijan is the assignee of the republic of Azerbaijan of 1918-20 (accordingly taking the responsibility of compensation) according to its constitution and owes the successors of the ones slaughtered or suffered losses in Baku 134 million 149.279 pounds, 674.461 out of which it owes to the Armenians. Turkey’s sum of material compensation constitutes 4 billion 552 million 32.960 pounds, 3 billion 518 million 847.403 out of which it owes to the Armenians.
In the book the author broadly covers the role the Armenian resources in the process of making Baku industrial, economic, trade and cultural centre, of course Russia’s regional policy directed to develop Baku and Tbilisi also furthered it.
Since 1850 the representatives of the Armenian trade capital in Transcaucasia began investing in oil industry and in the future became one of the leaders in the field. In the course of time the Armenian capitals in Baku contributed their share in the other fields of industry: cargo transportation by sea, tobacco industry, trade and bank system etc. Among influential and very rich Armenians in Baku one may mention Aleksandr Mantashyan, Hovanes Mirzoyan, Stepan Lianosyan, Ghukasyan brothers, Khosrov Aban Yuzbeshyan and the others.
In the book much attention is paid to the role the Armenian capitalists had in the issues of charity, education, church building and in general in preserving the Armenian identity. for this purpose “Humanitarian association after Saint Grigor Illuminator” was founded in Baku in 1864.
In his work (written on the basis of studying rich documentary, statistic, archival and other resources) the author also presents the developments in Transcaucasus and in particular in Azerbaijan which followed and was the outcome of the Bolshevist revolution of 1917. Attaching great importance to the Azerbaijani factor in the framework of panturkizm and its foreign policy in this region, Turkey actively responded to these developments.
At the end of the meeting G. Harutyunyan and Kh. Dadayan answered the questions the journalists were interested in.
