Thread by @OdearOgy, 10 undeclinable facts - why #Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is #Armenia A HOLY THREAD#ArstakhStrong [...]

10 undeclinable facts - why #Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is #Armenia

A HOLY THREAD

#ArstakhStrong
#StopAzerbaijaniAggression

#1
In around 180 BC, Artsakh became one of the 15 provinces of the Armenian Kingdom and remained so until the 4th century.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Kingdom

#1.1
While formally having the status of a province
Artsakh possibly formed a principality on its own. That means that at least for 2100 years (from 180 BC to 1921) Artsakh has been Armenian.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh#cite_note-13

#2
Ancient inhabitants of Artsakh spoke a special dialect of the Armenian language; we know about this from the author of the Armenian grammar Stepanos Siunetsi who lived in around 700AD.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_language

#2.1
Also, according to Strabo (Geographica, Book XI, chapter 4), in the 1st century BC, the population of Armenia, up to the Kura River, spoke Armenian.

Source: Strabo (Geographica, Book XI, chapter 4)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographica

#3
Strabo and authors of the 1st and 2nd centuries—Claudius Ptolemaeus and Pliny the Elder—unanimously approve, that the border between Greater Armenia and Caucasian Albania is the river Cyrus (Kura).
Sources:
Claudius Ptolemaeus. Geography, 5, 12

#3.1
Authoritative encyclopedias on antiquity also name the Kura southern border of Albania.
#Artsakh is much to the south of this river.
Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, 6, 39

Nagorno Karabakh: History
http://www.cilicia.com/History.htm

#4
According to "Geography" (Ashkharatsuyts) by 7th-century Armenian geographer Anania Shirakatsi, Artsakh was the 10th among the 15 provinces (nahangs) of Armenia and consisted of 12 districts.

#5
In the early 4th century, Christianity spread in Artsakh.
At the beginning of the 5th century, thanks to the creation of the Armenian alphabet by Mesrop Mashtots, an unprecedented rise of culture began in Armenia.

#5.1
#Artsakh included, Mesrop Mashtots founded one of the first Armenian schools at Amaras Monastery in Artsakh.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesrop_Mashtots

#6
In 1921, in its need to appease Turkey (not having any legal right to do that), the Bolsheviks transferred #Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to Azerbaijan, along with the Nakhichevan area.

#6.1
From the areas declared disputable, only the small area Zangezur (a strip separating Nakhichevan from Azerbaijan proper) has been left for Armenia. This final decision to transfer Karabakh was made rather abruptly and arbitrarily.

#7
On July 4, 1921, the Caucasian Bureau of the Russian Communist Party Central Committee decided during a plenary session that Karabakh would be included in Armenia.

#7.1
However, on the next day, July 5, 1921, Stalin intervened and thus it was decided that Karabakh had to be included in Soviet Azerbaijan – this decision was taken without deliberation or vote.

#7.2
As a result, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) was established within the Azerbaijan SSR in 1923. Most of the decisions on the transfer of the territories and the establishment of new autonomous entities were made under pressure from Joseph Stalin.

#7.3
And he is still blamed by both Azerbaijanis and Armenians for arbitrary decisions made against their national interests.

#8
The church of St. Grigoris of the Amaras Monastery (established in the 4th century, rebuilt in the 19th century) is an Armenian monastery in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaras_Monastery

#9
Gandzasar is a 13th-century Armenian Apostolic cathedral (historically a monastery) near the village of Vank in the Republic of #Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
It has historically been the region's most important church.

#9.1

One of the best pieces of Armenian architecture of the mid-1200s, the building is best known among scholars for its richly decorated dome.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandzasar_monastery

#10
Dadivank, also known as Khutavank, is an Armenian monastery in the Shahumyan Region of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic). It was built between the 9th and 13th centuries.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dadivank