In different periods of history, the area where the city of Iravan is located was part of Urartu, Sasanian, Arab Caliphate, Sajis, Salaris, Shaddads, Seljuks, Eldeniz, Elkhanis, Teimuris, Bahars, Bayanduris, Safavids, Afshars, Iravan Khanate, Gajars and Russian states. Only after the establishment of the first Armenian state in the South Caucasus in 1918, the city of Yerevan became the capital of Armenia. The main reason for this was the transfer of numerous Armenian families to the region and the establishment of a so-called Armenian administration in Yerevan with the aim of strengthening the Christian influence in Yerevan from the time of Tsarist Russia. The socio-economic development of the city of Iravan as a center belongs to the periods of the Chukhur-Saad beylarbey and the Iravan khanate. In medieval historical sources, the name of the city is mentioned as Ravan and Iravan. In 1950, Armenian historians closed the history of the city of Yerevan with the discovery of the remains of Erebuni (Iripuni) fortress, which was built during the reign of the Urartian king Argishti I, during the excavations on the Bloody hill in the southeast of the city of Yerevan. Erebuni Castle was built only for military fortification purposes, and no urban infrastructure was ever formed around it. In fact, just as the Urartians have nothing to do with the Armenians, the ancient Erebuni fortress had no connection with the current city of Yerevan either from a spatial or historical point of view. There was a considerable distance between the settlement of Yerevan, which was already formed as a city in the Middle Ages, and the Erebunu fortress, which was discovered during archaeological excavations in 1950. Only after the second half of the 20th century, the territory of the city of Yerevan expanded and included the Bloody hill where the Erebuni fortress is located. It is clear from the cuneiform inscriptions of the Urartians that B.C. In the first quarter of the 8th century, until the Ararat valley (the left bank of the Araz River and the lower reaches of the Arpachay) was occupied by the Urartians, that area was called the country of the Aza people. Urartian tsar of Yerevan I Argishti BC. Its identification with the city of Erebuni (Irpuni), founded in 782, is a clear example of falsification of history. The hypothesis put forward by academician Boris Piotrovsky for the sake of his wife, who is an Armenian by nationality, "It is possible that the name of the city of Urartu Erebuni continues to live in the name of the city of Yerevan (Irevan), the capital of Armenia", allowed Armenians to solemnly celebrate the 2750th anniversary of Yerevan in 1968. With this, Armenians showed the world that the city of Yerevan was even 30 years "older" than ancient Rome. The famous Armenian writer Khachatur Abovyan writes in his article "A short historical essay of the city of Yerevan": "Armenian writers do not even mention the name of the city of Yerevan until the beginning of the 13th century. From this time, that is, from 1209 (according to AD), they call it a "small place". According to the popular legend, the name Yerevan is derived from the name of the Armenian tsar Ervand or from the words yerevil, yerevan, i.e. saw, was seen, and it is said that Noah called it that when he first saw dry land from the top of Ararat in these places, that is, in the area where the city is located. This is completely fictitious. Rather, this city has become famous since 1441, when the Persians (i.e. the Karagoyunlu emirs) conquered it during the reign of Jahan Shah. From that time to 1827, Iravan was occupied by the Persians and the Turks, and it continuously passed from one people to another people... Including the last Iravan Sardar, Iravan city and its district were occupied by 10 pashas by the Turks and 33 khans by the Persians at different times. managed...". Iravan province was occupied by Arab troops in 658. During the Caliphate period, the administration of the South Caucasian emirates was usually entrusted to the Turks. (A separate list is given in the book about who ruled the province of Iravan during the Arab caliphate) The famous Turkish traveler-geographer Evliya Çelebi attributes Iravan as a settlement to the beginning of the 15th century. According to his writings, in 810 AH (1407-1408), a merchant named Khaja Khan Lahijani, one of the merchants of Amir Teymur, entered the very fertile land of Ravan, settled here with his family members, and becoming richer day by day through rice cultivation, became the foundation of this large village. has put Avliya Çalabi further adds that Shah Ismail, the head of the Safavid state, instructed his vizier Ravangulu Khan to build the fortress in 915 AH (1509-1510), and he, in turn, built the fortress in 7 years and named it "Ravan". Some researchers agree with what Evliya Chelebi wrote about the history of the construction of the city and fortress of Iravan, while others believe that other authors who wrote about the older history of the city are right. The fact is that after Shah Ismail conquered the city of Iravan in 1501, he commissioned his general Ravangulu Khan to build a fortress at a strategically important place on the banks of the Zangi River. Ravangulu Khan also completed the construction of the castle in 7 years. As a result of the wars between the Ottoman and Safavid empires, the city of Iravan changed hands 14 times. Each time, it was subjected to certain destructions, and later it was restored. In 1554, Ottoman troops destroyed and captured Yerevan. In 1580, the Ottoman vizier Lela Mustafa Pasha occupied Yerevan again. Iravan Castle, described by many travelers and historians, was built in 1582-1583 by Farhad Pasha during the Ottoman occupation, on the site of the old castle. The fortress, which is 850 m long and 790 m wide, was approximately square in shape and covered an area of 7 ha. The height of the double fortress walls was 10.5-12 m. The single-layered wall of the castle passed over the cliff where the Zangi river washed its walls. The fortress had three gates: the Tabriz gate in the south, the Shirvan gate (or Meydan gate) in the north, and the Bridge gate. In 1679, a bridge called the Red Bridge was built over the Zangi River between the Square Gate and the Old City. In 1604, the army of Shah Abbas I took the city of Iravan from the hands of the Turks, but when retreating as a result of a counterattack, he implemented a "scorched earth" policy and moved the entire population of the Chukhur-Saad Beylarbey, including the population of Iravan, to the other side of Araz. In 1635, Ottoman troops captured Yerevan again. According to the Qasri-Shirin treaty concluded between the Safavids and the Ottomans in 1639, the province of Iravan, including the city of Iravan, again came under the control of the Safavids. After the fall of the Safavids, the city was occupied by the Turks in 1723. In 1733, Nadir freed Yerevan from the Ottomans. After the assassination of Nadir Shah Afshar in 1747, independent khanates were established. The city of Yerevan becomes the center of the khanate of the same name. Mosques, caravanserais, baths, and recreation parks, which are considered rare architectural pearls, were built in Iravan Castle and the city. Drinking water was brought to the city from the Kirkhbulag plateau, and thanks to new irrigation canals, Yerevan turned into a land of gardens. Although the earthquake that occurred in Yerevan on June 4, 1679 destroyed all the buildings of the city, it was soon restored with the help of the beylarbeys of Nakhchivan, Ganja, Karabakh, Tabriz and Maku. Considered one of the rare architectural pearls of the East, the Khan's Palace or Sardar's Palace was built by Amirguna Khan Qajar (1605-1625), the Sardar of Iravan, and improved by Huseynali Khan (1762-1783), Khan of Iravan in 1760-1770. In 1791, Huseynali Khan's son Muhammad Khan (1784-1805) built the Güzgülu Hall and the Summer Palace, known as the Glass Band of the palace. European travelers Jean Tavernier, Jean Chardin, Kerr-Porter, James Morier, Montpere, Cameron, Lynch and others visited Yerevan at different times and visited the Khan's palace, its Hall of Mirrors, mosques in the castle and in the city, swimming pools and baths, underground marble staircase leading down from the Zangi River. they described the way in their works. The city of Yerevan consisted of 4 massifs: Gala, Shahri (or Old Town), Tepebaşı (currently called Kond) and Demirbulag (currently called Karanki tag) massifs. Bazar Square was located between the castle and other residential areas. The city quarter extended along the right bank of the Kirkhbulag river to the Iravan fortress. The central market of the city and all its squares, many caravanserais and baths were located in this part. Tepebaşı quarter was located on the hill between Zangi river and Shahri quarter. The Tepabaşı quarter was separated from the Shahri quarter by the numerous gardens of Yerevan's famous people. The famous Khan garden and summer house belonging to Huseyngulu Khan was located on the right bank of the Zangi River. Demirbulag neighborhood was located southeast of Shahri neighborhood, east of Iravan fortress. Jafar bey mosque and bathhouse, as well as Hasanali bathhouse and Susuz caravanserai were located here. Capturing the Iravan fortress, located in a strategic position between the Ottoman state and the Gajar state, was also of great importance for Russia. However, the attempts of the Russian troops to capture the Iravan fortress in 1804 and 1808 failed. The Yerevan fortress, which bravely endured the intermittent attacks of Russian troops for more than 20 years, finally fell on October 1, 1827, as a result of the Armenians targeting the weak points of the fortress walls to the Russian command. The dark days of Yerevan have begun. Immediately after the occupation of the castle, they removed the crescent from the dome of the mosque, which was first built by the Ottoman commander Rajab Pasha in 1725, replaced it with a cross, installed a church bell in its minaret, and turned it into an Orthodox church. They turned the Sardar mosque in the fortress into an arsenal of Russian troops, and turned the khan's harem into a hospital. After the fall of the Iravan Khanate, the administrative building of the newly created "Armenian province" was located in the Khan's palace. In 1837, the dream of the Russian Tsar Nicholas I to see the legendary Iravan fortress, the last stronghold of the Northern Azerbaijan khanates, came true. Nicholas I, who stayed in the Khan's palace, received representatives of different classes of the city there.As a result of the earthquake, the walls of the Iravan fortress collapsed again. In 1864, the use of the Iravan fortress for military purposes was stopped. Since 1868, the Iravan city police department was located in the Sardar hall of the Khan's palace. On the basis of the request of the governor of Iravan, the Caucasian Viceroyalty allocated funds for the repair of the Sardar hall (Guzgulu hall) in 1867, 1871, 1874, 1880. In 1865, a merchant named Nerses Tahiryan bought a part of the territory of the Yerevan fortress and built a winery there (now a brandy factory). In the plan drawn up by B. Mehrabov, the technician of the city of Yerevan in 1906-1911, there are 8 mosques in the city (Tepabaşı, Shaher (Zal Khan), Sartib Khan, Blue Mosque (Huseynali Khan), Haji Novruzali Bey, Gala Mosque (Abbas Mirza Mosque), Demirbulag). , Haji Jafar) presence is indicated. At that time, the street names that sounded in Azerbaijani in the city of Yerevan were as follows: Shariat, Karvansara, Gala, Sultan, Çolmakçi, Nakhchivan, Bazar, Daşlı, Pasha Khan, Garibler Ojak, Deyrmanli, Mosque, Fahla Bazaar, Tepebaşı, Gabiristan, Naib, Mir Jafar, Rustam. Khan, Imamre, Korbulag, Bey, Katan, Dukanli, Sallaxlar, etc. There were also many caravanserais in Yerevan: Afshar, Sardar, Sheikhulislam, Tagli, Sulu, Susuz, Haji Ali, Komurcu, Gurcu, Julfa, Haji Ilyas, etc. All these caravansaries belonging to Azerbaijanis have been erased from the earth. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the streets of Yerevan were lit by gas and kerosene lanterns. In 1907, Haji Ibrahim oglu, a wealthy resident of Yerevan, initiated the construction of a hydroelectric power station on Zangi River. In 1909, another wealthy Azerbaijani of the city - engineer Khalil Bey Gasimbayov, together with his colleague Arshak Malkhasyan, applied to the city administration for the construction of a hydroelectric power station on behalf of the company "Cooperation". In 1911, a water pipeline was built to the city from the source of the Geder River (Kirkhbulag), approximately 19 km from Yerevan. In the construction of this belt, Abbasgulu Khan played an exceptional role in Yerevan. On May 28, 1918, when three independent states - Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia - were established in the South Caucasus, the National Council of Azerbaijan, with its decision dated May 29, conceded the city of Yerevan as the capital to the Armenians. However, during the Dashnak rule, which existed in 1918-1920, genocide was carried out against Azerbaijanis and vandalism actions were carried out against their material and cultural monuments. Mosques were set on fire, houses of Azerbaijanis were looted and occupied. During the years of Soviet rule, the discrimination and deportation of Azerbaijanis was an integral part of the official policy of Armenia. In 1924, the reconstruction of the city of Yerevan, carried out on the basis of Alexander Tamanyan's project, actually served to erase the traces of Azerbaijanis. The Blue Mosque housed the Iravan City History Museum, the Zal Khan (City) Mosque was turned into an exhibition hall of the Union of Artists, and all the remaining mosques except Demirbulag Mosque were razed to the ground. The Demirbulag mosque was burned by Armenian vandals in March 1988. The walls of the Sardar Palace and the Iravan Castle were demolished and their stones were used to build Sahil Boulevard. In the old city area, the neighborhoods where Azerbaijanis lived were demolished and parks, cinemas, and squares were built in their place. The city of Yerevan is the only city among the capitals of the world that boasts of its antiquity, but the age of its historical and architectural monuments is not more than 200 years old. Because all the ancient historical-architectural monuments that existed in Yerevan belonged to Azerbaijanis, Armenians wiped them all off the face of the earth. The name of the city of Yerevan has been changed twice so far. For the first time, after the Russian occupation, it was named Erivan (Ериван) in 1828, and for the second time in 1936, it was changed to Yerevan (Ереван). The bitter reality is that Yerevan, whose aboriginal population consisted entirely of Azerbaijanis, has now turned into a mono-ethnic Armenian city.
Nazim Mustafa
Ph.D in histor