Today, there exists a little-known but well-organized movement in Armenia called "The National Council of Nakhijevan Armenians." The movement is based upon the principle of patriotism and the survival of the race. The first gathering of Nakhijevan Armenians took place in the city of Yerevan on January 30, 1918, in order to address the mounting insecurity that the Armenian population was facing in front of advancing Turkish forces following the collapse of the Russian empire. The meeting was chaired by the well-known Armenian hero, General Karekin Nejdeh. At that meeting, an executive body was formed to administer the situation that existed.

Karekin Nejdeh was born Garegin Ter Haroutunian in the village of Geznoud, Nakhijevan, Armenia in 1886. In 1905 he enrolled in the Bulgarian military academy. In 1912 Nejdeh joined a brigade as a 2nd lieutenant commanded by General Antranig to fight against the Turks. After the proclamation of the Independent Republic of Armenia on May 28, 1918, Nejdeh busied himself with the organization of the Armenian army. In the fall of 1919 the Turko-Tartar intrigues were started in the province of Goghthan (or Gothn). The Armenian government appointed him commander of the region to suppress the rebellion and pacify the region. Thereafter, in 1920, he moved into Karabagh, and later to Zangezour where he remained to continue the fight against the Bolsheviks until July of 1921. This stand came to be known as the heroic stand of Siunik, or Mountainous Armenia, a glorious page in the history of the Armenian struggle for freedom. This effort enabled the escape and rescue of thousands of Armenian intellectuals and national leaders from the vengeance of the Soviets in February of 1921. This act of rescue is considered the crowning glory of Nejdeh's military career. He was as great an orator and organizer as he was a military leader.

To him, the "zeal for the house of his Lord" was the fatherland of Armenia, the land of his forefathers which he loved passionately. He spoke of the centuries-old Armenian struggle for liberation, the great Armenian Revolution, the unequal fights with the enemy, the heroic stands, the proclamation of the Independent Republic, the loss of the Republic, the need of recovering the lost independence, the enemies of the Armenian people -- the Turk and the Soviet -- and the compelling urge of arming the Armenian remnants with the armor of faith and invincibility. He spoke of the Armenian virtues which flow from the national fountainhead, the people itself, the nation, the race, not in the morbid and abused sense of the concept which the Nazis vitiated into racial superiority, but in terms of human dignity, pride and self-assurance.

A brief history of the present autonomous Republic of Nakhijevan corresponds to the Sharur district of Ayrarat province, to the Nakhijevan and Goghtn (now Ordoubad) districts of Vaspurakan province, the Yernjak, Shahaponk and Jahuk districts of Siunik province of Historical Armenia. In 1828, after the Turkmenchai Treaty, Nakhijevan was incorporated first into the Armenian province (Armyanskaya oblast) created by Russia (1828-1840), then after its dissolution, into the province of Yerevan (1849-1918). At the end of 1918 and up until 1920, the territory of Nakhijevan was part of the First Republic of Armenia until the Kars Treaty which was signed on October 13, 1921.

After the establishment of the Armenian Soviet Republic on December 2, 1921, Nakhijevan was de jure part of Soviet Armenia. This reality corresponded with the position of the supreme authorities of the Azerbaijan Revolutionary Committee which, on November 30, 1920, declared Nakhijevan and Artsakh (Karabagh) as undivided parts of Soviet Armenia. This special declaration of the Revolutionary Committee of Azerbaijan was affirmed by leading figures of Soviet Russia, in December 1920-January 1921.

Trampling on the basic rights of the Armenian people, especially those of Armenians of Nakhijevan, Russia and Turkey, without participation of representatives of the Armenian people, signed an illegal and illegitimate treaty on March 16, 1921, by remitting Nakhijevan under the "protectorate" of Azerbaijan. This act permitted the annexation, by Soviet Azerbaijan, of a part of the Armenian homeland.

Under brutal suppression of Bolshevik Russia, this act was reconfirmed in the Treaty of Kars on October 13, 1921, which was signed between Turkey and the Transcaucasian republics. This act ratified the partition of Armenia and the forcible detachment of the Nakhijevan region from the motherland. Thereafter, by an arbitrary decision of the highest leadership of the Soviet empire, and ignoring, at least in appearance, the agreement by the signatories of this Treaty (Georgia, Turkey and Armenia), Azerbaijan declared Nakhijevan as an autonomous republic on February 9, 1924. With this illegitimate decision, the Soviet Union and Soviet Azerbaijan violated the articles of March 16, 1921 and October 13, 1921 Treaties, which were themselves illegal, by which the Nakhijevan region was not annexed to Azerbaijan as a constituent part of that country, but only was put under its "protectorate."

As a result of Azerbaijani aggression during the 1918-1920 period, with the collaboration of Turkey, the demographic picture continued to shift in favor of the Azerbaijanis. Nevertheless, the Armenians constituted a substantial part of the population of the Autonomous Republic of Nakhijevan from 1920 to 1960's. From 1921 and on, Azerbaijan ran a successive policy of violation of the human and national dignity of the Armenian population of Nakhijevan, aiming at the ousting of Nakhijevan Armenians from the land of their ancestors, as a result of which the region was fully cleaned from its indigenous Armenian population, between 1921 and 1989.

Today, about 400,000 Armenians of Nakhijevan, having been deported to the Republic of Armenia and to many countries of the world, are deprived not only of the right of resettlement on the land of their ancestors, but also from the right and possibility of visiting the dwellings, the churches, the monuments and the cemeteries built by them.

After 70 years of Soviet suppressed rule, Nakhijevan Armenians, by the initiative of Hayrabed Sahakian, organized a general gathering in December 1989, as an initial step towards the formation of the Nakhijevan Compatriotic Union, which came into being in Yerevan on March 24, 1990. The Union gathered to elect its executive body. Raphael Hambartsumian (historian and political activist) was president from 1998-2000. The current president is Vazken Ter Harutunian, the grandson of Karekin Nejdeh's professor in Russian language and literature in Yerevan State University (YSU). The Compatriotic Union has its cultural center, Women's Association and publishing house.

World representatives of the National Council of Nakhijevan Armenians are: Oleg Shesdinski-Aghavelian and Karen Mikayelian (Russian Federation), Antranig Bedrossian (Canada), Dr. Prof. Djany Mirzabekian (Iran), Kevork Yazedjian (Syria-Lebanon), Gayaneh Khachatrian (Georgia), Arkam Ayvazian (Greece and Cyprus), Hilda Panossian (France), Hagop Megrdchian (USA-LA), Ardavast Avakian (USA-East), Albert Messerkhanian and Ohannes Gedjakouchian.

A monthly newspaper "Nakhijevan" has been published by the Compatriotic Union in Armenia since April 1999. Its aims are to cover not only subjects pertaining to Nakhijevan, but also Armenia, Artsakh, and the Diaspora. The "Nakhijevan" monthly in its initial editorial stated that: "It will continuously explore paths towards the restoration of Armenia's rights to its historical homeland. Its pages will freely reflect opinions, approaches and methods for resolving the question.

The editorial board consists of: Editor-in-Chief Raphael Hambartsumian; other members are: Raphael Ghazarian (RA Academy of Oriental Sciences-Academician), Arman Manarian, Antranig Bedrossian (Canada), Sos Sarkisian, Vladimir Sarkisian (RA Academy of Oriental Sciences-Academician), Karen Sembatian, and (the late) Vahe Oshagan (USA).

COUNCIL DECLARATIONS