The Spatial and Temporal Development of the Borderlands between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Early Twentieth Century to the 1930s

• In Event: Bordering Practices and Border Crossings in the Late Imperial and Early Soviet Caucasus

Abstract

The border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which was predominantly created in the 1920s, during the first years of Soviet rule, bore little correspondence to the ethnic distribution of the population in the affected areas. As a result, both the border itself and entire settlements along the borderline remained contested between Armenia and Azerbaijan, not only because of the assumed historical affiliation of certain places, but also because of strategically important heights, water reserves and economically relevant land-scapes. It was precisely these (border) areas that were historically imagined and portrayed as places where violence occurred particularly frequently and severely. Yet, the border-lands were not only places of ambivalent violence experiences. They were also places where new forms of interaction, religious and economic landscapes, and identities could emerge through cross-border exchanges.

In my presentation, I will examine the historical development of the border areas between Armenia and Azerbaijan from the end of the 19th century until the dissolution of the Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republic in the 1930s. The focus is on enclaves and other closed spaces along the border, which were not only subject to constant discourses, territorial claims and counterclaims, identity struggles and ethnic divisions, but also served as places of intercultural dialogue and cross-border exchange. By looking at borders and borderlands in the context of their spatial and temporal transformation, I ask how state administrative organizations on the one hand and cross-border socio-economic and cultural practices on the other have influenced the emergence, struggle and, in some cases, demise of “closed” spaces in the border regions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In what ways have the structures and institutions created by local actors, the connecting and also disconnecting infrastructure, and social and cultural practices influenced the process of border formation? In order to describe the development not only of border regions, but also of intercultural cross-border exchange, I draw on specific case studies such as the villages of Tigranashen (Kyarki), Aznaberd and Agulis in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic or Getabeg on the north-eastern border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Author

• Arpine Maniero, Collegium Carolinum (Germany)