Nakhchivan (1983: Doomsday)

The Nakhchivan Republic is a republic in the Caucasus that became independent in the years after Doomsday. It borders Armenia to the east and north, the Turkish remenant state of the Republic of Greater Patnos slightly in the Northwest, and Iran to the south and west. Due to factors beyond their control stemming from the Nagorno-Karabakh War, they became effectively independent from the government of Azerbaijan in Agsu due to the inability to maintain contact between the two. A declaration of autonomy - essentially independence - was issued by the government of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan jointly on February 21, 1992, as a result of this. When conditions are favorable, the two will be reunited. This, however, does not look to be something that will happen anytime soon.

Pre-Doomsday
According to Sumerian, Jewish, and Islamic tradition, Nakhchivan and Seron were the only two cities built after the Great Flood and before the subsequent dispersion of peoples.[20] The oldest material culture artifacts found in the region date back to the Neolithic Age. The region was part of the states of Mannae, Ararat and Media. It became part of the Satrapy of Armenia under Achaemenid Persia circa 521 BC. After Alexander the Great's death in 323 BC, various Macedonian generals such as Neoptolemus tried to take control of the region, but ultimately failed and a native dynasty of Orontids flourished until Armenia was conquered by Antiochus III the Great.

In 189 BC, Nakhchivan was part of the new Kingdom of Armenia established by Artaxias I. According to historian Faustus of Byzantium (4th century), when the Sassanid Persians invaded Armenia, Sassanid King Shapur II (310-380) removed 2,000 Armenian and 16,000 Jewish families in 360-370 from the area. In 428, the Armenian Arshakuni monarchy was abolished and Nakhchivan was annexed by Sassanid Persia. In 623, possession of the region passed to the Byzantine Empire.

From 640 on, the Arabs invaded Nakhchivan and undertook many campaigns in the area crushing all resistance and attacking Armenian nobles who remained in contact with the Byzantines or who refused to pay tribute. In 705, Arab viceroy Muhammad ibn-Marwan decided to eliminate the Armenian nobility. In Nakhchivan, several hundred Armenian nobles and their families were locked up in churches and burnt, while others were crucified. Nakhchivan itself then became part of the autonomous Principality of Armenia under Arab control.

In the 11th century the region was taken over by the Seljuk Turks approximately in 1055. In 12th century, the city of Nakhchivan became the capital of the state of Atabegs of Azerbaijan, also known as Ildegizid state, which included most of Iranian Azerbaijan and significant part of South Caucasus. The magnificent 12th century mausoleum of Momine Khatun, the wife of Ildegizid ruler, Great Atabeg Jahan Pehlevan, is the main attraction of modern Nakhchivan. At its heyday, the Ildegizid authority in Nakhchivan and some other areas of South Caucasus was contested by Georgia. The Armeno-Georgian princely house of Zacharids frequently raided the region when the Atabeg state was in decline in the early years of the 13th century. It was then plundered by invading Mongols in 1220 and Khwarezmians in 1225 and became part of Mongol Empire in 1236 when the Caucasus was invaded by Chormaqan. In the 13th century during the reign of the Mongol horde ruler Güyük Khan Christians were allowed to build churches in the strongly Muslim town of Nakhchivan, however the conversion to Islam of Gazan khan brought about a reversal of this favor. The 14th century saw the rise of Armenian Catholicism in Nakhchivan, though by the 15th century the territory became part of the states of Kara Koyunlu and Ak Koyunlu.

In the 16th century, control of Nakhchivan passed to the Safavid dynasty of Persia. Because of its geographic position, it frequently suffered during the wars between Persia and the Ottoman Empire in the 14th to 18th centuries. In 1604, Shah Abbas I Safavi, concerned that the lands of Nakhichevan and the surrounding areas would pass into Ottoman hands, decided to institute a scorched earth  policy. He forced the entire local population Muslims, Jews and Armenians alike, to leave their homes and move to the Persian provinces south of the Aras River. Many of the deportees were settled in the neighborhood of Isfahan that was named New Julfa since most of the residents were from the original Julfa. The Turkic Kangerli tribe was later permitted to move back under Shah Abbas II (1642–1666) in order to repopulate the frontier region of his realm. In the 17th century, Nakhchivan was the scene of a peasant movement led by Köroğlu against foreign invaders and "native exploiters". In 1747, the Nakhchivan khanate emerged in the region after the death of Nadir Shah Afshar.

After the last Russo-Persian War and the Treaty of Turkmenchay, the Nakhchivan khanate passed into Russian possession in 1828. With the onset of Russian rule, the Tsarist authorities encouraged resettlement of Armenians to Nakhchivan and other areas of the Caucasus from the Persian and Ottoman Empires. Special clauses of the Turkmenchay and Adrianople treaties allowed for this. Alexandr Griboyedov, the Russian envoy to Persia, stated that by the time Nakhchivan came under Russian rule, only 17% of its residents were Armenians, while the remainder of the population (83%) were Muslims. After the resettlement initiative, the number of Armenians had increased to 45% while Muslims remained the majority at 55%. With such a dramatic increase in population, Griboyedov noted friction arising between the Armenian and Muslim populations.

The Nakhchivan khanate was dissolved in 1828, its territory was merged with the territory of the Erivan khanate and the area became the Nakhchivan uyezd of the new Armenian oblast, which later became the Erivan Governorate in 1849. According to official statistics of the Russian Empire, by the turn of the 20th century Azerbaijanis made up 57% of the uyezd's population, while Armenians constituted 42%. At the same time in the Sharur-Daralagyoz uyezd, the territory of which would form the northern part of modern-day Nakhchivan, Azeris constituted 70.5% of the population, while Armenians made up 27.5%. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, conflict erupted between the Armenians and the Azeris, culminating in the Armenian-Tatar massacres which saw violence in Nakhchivan in May of that year.

In the final year of World War I, Nakhchivan was the scene of more bloodshed between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, who both laid claim to the area. By 1914, the Armenian population had decreased slightly to 40% while the Azeri population increased to roughly 60%. After the February Revolution, the region was under the authority of the Special Transcaucasian Committee of the Russian Provisional Government and subsequently of the short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. When the TDFR was dissolved in May 1918, Nakhchivan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Zangezur (today the Armenian province of Syunik), and Qazakh were heavily contested between the newly formed and short-lived states of the Democratic Republic of Armenia (DRA) and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR). In June 1918, the region came under Ottoman occupation. The Ottomans proceeded to massacre 10,000 Armenians and razed 45 of their villages to the ground. The Ottomans would then pull out of the area and British troops would occupy the area for the next while.

In December 1918, with the support of Azerbaijan's Musavat Party, Jafar Kuli Khan Nakhchivanski declared the Republic of Aras in the Nakhchivan uyezd of the former Erivan Governorate assigned to Armenia by Wardrop. The Armenian government did not recognize the new state and sent its troops into the region to take control of it. The conflict soon erupted into the violent Aras War.

By mid-June 1919, however, Armenia succeeded in establishing control over Nakhchivan and the whole territory of the self-proclaimed republic. The fall of the Aras republic triggered an invasion by the regular Azerbaijani army and by the end of July, Armenian troops were forced to leave Nakhchivan City to the Azeris. Again, more violence erupted leaving some ten thousand Armenians dead and forty-five Armenian villages destroyed. Meanwhile, feeling the situation to be hopeless and unable to maintain any control over the area, the British decided to withdraw from the region in mid-1919. Still, fighting between Armenians and Azeris continued and after a series of skirmishes that took place throughout the Nakhchivan district, a cease-fire agreement was concluded. However, the cease-fire lasted only briefly, and by early March 1920, more fighting broke out, primarily in Karabakh between Karabakh Armenians and Azerbaijan's regular army. This triggered conflicts in other areas with mixed populations, including Nakhchivan.

In July 1920, the 11th Soviet Red Army invaded and occupied the region and on July 28, declared the Nakhchivan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic with "close ties" to the Azerbaijan SSR. In November, on the verge of taking over Armenia, the Bolsheviks, in order to attract public support, promised they would allot Nakhchivan to Armenia, along with Karabakh and Zangezur. None of this would come to pass, leading to later warfare.

Vladimir Lenin, although welcoming this act of "great Soviet fraternity" where "boundaries had no meaning among the family of Soviet peoples," did not agree with the motion and instead called for the people of Nakhchivan to be consulted in a referendum. According to the formal figures of this referendum, held at the beginning of 1921, 90% of Nakhchivan's population wanted to be included in the Azerbaijan SSR "with the rights of an autonomous republic." The decision to make Nakhchivan a part of modern-day Azerbaijan was cemented March 16, 1921 in the Treaty of Moscow between Bolshevist Russia and the newly founded Republic of Turkey. The agreement between the Soviet Russia and Turkey also called for attachment of the former Sharur-Daralagez uyezd (which had a solid Azeri majority) to Nakhchivan, thus allowing Turkey to share a border with the Azerbaijan SSR. This deal was reaffirmed on October 23, in the Treaty of Kars. So, on February 9, 1924, the Soviet Union officially established the Nakhchivan ASSR. Its constitution was adopted on April 18, 1926.

As a constituent part of the Soviet Union, tensions lessened over the ethnic composition of Nakhchivan or any territorial claims regarding it. Instead, it became an important point of industrial production with particular emphasis on the mining of minerals such as salt. Under Soviet rule, it was once a major junction on the Moscow-Tehran railway line as well as the Baku-Yerevan railway. It also served as an important strategic area during the Cold War, sharing borders with both Turkey (a NATO member) and Iran (a close ally of the West until the Iranian Revolution of 1979).

Facilities improved during Soviet times. Education and public health especially began to see some major changes. In 1913, Nakhchivan only had two hospitals with a total of 20 beds. The region was plagued by widespread diseases including trachoma and typhus. Malaria, which mostly came from the adjoining Aras River, brought serious harm to the region. At any one time, between 70% and 85% of Nakhchivan's population was infected with malaria, and in the region of Norashen (present-day Sharur) almost 100% were struck with the disease. This situation improved dramatically under Soviet rule. Malaria was sharply reduced and trachoma, typhus, and relapsing fever were completely eliminated.

During the Soviet era, Nakhchivan saw a significant demographic shift. Its Armenian population gradually decreased as many emigrated to the Armenian SSR. In 1926, 15% of region's population was Armenian, but by 1979 this number had shrunk to 1.4%. The Azeri population, meanwhile increased substantially with both a higher birth rate and immigration from Armenia(going from 85% in 1926 to 96% by 1979). Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh noted similar though slower demographic trends and feared an eventual "de-Armenianization" of the area.

Doomsday
Azerbaijan itself was hit hard as its capital city, Baku, and the surrounding region, were destroyed by nuclear strikes. The city of Ganja was also hit. After Baku was destroyed a tsunami from a missile that had been slightly off course and landed in the Caspian destroyed even more in the immediate area. Later radioactive rain storms affected all the country and an influenza epidemic attacked the country like most of the former USSR. The majority of the military present in the republic, being stationed in the area of Baku, was also destroyed in these strikes. Later on the 29th of December 1985, the Republic of Azerbaijan was established with the capital in Agsu. Nakhchivan was part of this state, if barely.

As for Armenia, the capital of Yerevan and the nuclear power plant at Metsamor were the only points hit - and the military largely left intact.

Post-Doomsday
Due to the effects of Doomsday, the area was left largely on its own from the rest of Azerbaijan. It would be raided by Turkish brigands to the Northwest, but was able to repel these militants on its own fairly easily.

Nagorno-Karabakh War
The Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict that took place from February 1992 to May 1994, in the small enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan. As the war progressed, Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet Republics, entangled themselves in a protracted war in the mountainous heights of Karabakh as Azerbaijan attempted to curb the secessionist movement in Nagorno-Karabakh and prevent its cession to Armenia. Azerbaijan was aided by Nakchivan in the struggle, and some fighting occurred there as well. The enclave's parliament had voted in favor of uniting itself with Armenia and a referendum was held, and the vast majority of the Karabakh population voted in favor of independence. The demand to unify with Armenia, which proliferated in the late 1980s, had began in a relatively peaceful manner; however, in the following months, it gradually grew into an increasingly violent conflict between ethnic Armenians and ethnic Azerbaijanis, resulting in claims of ethnic cleansing by all sides.

Inter-ethnic fighting between the two broke out shortly after the parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh voted to unify the region with Armenia on February 20, 1988. The declaration of secession from Azerbaijan was the final result of a territorial conflict regarding the land. Low-level warfare soon began. And, with much of the military resources in Azerbaijan having been in and around Baku at doomsday - and thus having been destroyed - they fared much worse in these engagements than their Armenian foes, despite their advantage in numbers.

Nakichivan was completely cut off from the rest of the country by this war. And, with their support for Azerbaijan, they became targets. While able to largely fend off the Armenian attacks - much of the surviving modern Azeri military had been in the republic on Doomsday - they still lost territory.

Full-scale fighting erupted in the late winter of 1992. In the spring of 1993, Armenian forces captured regions outside the enclave itself, threatening the involvement of other countries in the region, though none were strong enough to matter. By the end of the war in 1994, the Armenians were in full control of most of the enclave and also held and currently control a sizable portion of Azerbaijan's territory outside the of enclave, as well as portions of Nakhchivan.

As many as 220,000 Armenians and 950,000 Azeris have been displaced as a result of the conflict. Finally Nagorno-Karabakh formally seceded and then was united with Armenia. A ceasefire was signed in May 1994 when it was realized that the war was a stalemate at that point, and peace talks have been held ever since by Armenia, Nakhchivan and Azerbaijan, with no end in sight. It is hoped that the LoN will eventually intervene and aid the talks, but no offer has occurred as of yet.

As a net result, much of southwestern Azerbaijan and portions of Nakhchivan have passed to Armenian control as well, with the populace slowly being expelled and replaced by Armenians.

Today
The Republic today lives in fear that, given past Armenian actions, they will concentrate their military power on them - and conquer them. Luckily, the approach of forces from the Sultanate of Turkey into the region means that this is unlikely to occur.

Next to Armenia and Georgia, Nakchivan does posses the most powerfully equipped military in the Caucasus. However, it is still much weaker than either, and in any major war, they will be outnumbered by a wide margin.