History
The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary notes that according to legend the city of Nakhchivan was founded by Noah, and the date of the town on the Persian sources in 1539 BC.
In the 2nd century, Nakhchivan was already known to Ptolemy under the name Ναξουὰνα. The city of Nakhchivan, a capital of Nakher country, has been named after naker Turks. Herodotus wrote that the river of Araz flows from the mountains of Matean to the country of Nakhar. Furthermore, Naker tribe, which evolved into powerful province of Midiya of the ancient Azerbaijan kept the main armed forces either in the country or in the territories subordinated to the country. They actively took part in army building along with massagets, another powerful Turkic tribe. The fight of nakers against Alexander the Great together with Turkic saks and massagets is widely known. Iranian historian and geographer of the 14th century Hamdollah Mostowfi in his book Nuzhat al-kulub (hearts delight), believed that Sassanid Iranian military commander was the founder of Nakhchivan, who lived in the end of 6th century.
At the end of the 18th century, city became the capital of independent Nakhchivan khanate. Armenians have been moved from Iranian and Ottoman empire areas to the present lands of Azerbaijan with support of the Russian empire after 1820ss. 8 000 Armenians have been forcibly settled in Karabakh, Nakhchivan and Iravan during three months of 1828, 45 000 Armenians – in Goycha and Gamarli regions in 1830, as well as 65 300 additional Armenians – in Iravan in 1831. The number of Armenians, who moved and settled in Caucasus by Russia in 1823-1830, 1845 years reached to 1 million and those areas were areas of two Azerbaijani states – Iravan and Nakhchivan khanates, bordering with Turkey. Consequently, demographic state has been changed; this area has been converted to Christianity thanks to the moved Armenians, Azeri Turks have been forcibly left 1500 villages out of 2310 ones and fictitious “Armenia province” has been created.
Read more about this topic: Nakhchivan (city)
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