In 1827, Russia began in earnest her conquest of the great Muslim Empires—The Ottoman Empire and Iran. In two short wars, Russia defeated first the Persians, then the Ottomans. Russia’s prize was the lands of the Southern Caucasus. Russia’s task was to ensure the tranquility of her new possessions by shaping their populations. In the Tsar’s conquests to the north, Russians and other Slavs had been moved into the new territories, often displacing Turkish-speaking inhabitants. Because of the distance from ethnic Russian lands and, perhaps, a lack of Slavs who could or would move to the Southern Caucasus, the Russians encouraged local Christians, the Armenians, to come into the new Russian territories.

Following an order by Count Paskevisch –Erivanskiy, in the beginning of 1829, a college assessor I.Shopen conducted census of the population in the Armenian Province.

At different times, controversial to one another opinions about Armenians’ ethnogenesis, national identity, linguistic features, history, etc have been put forward.

The Armenian Church moved to Echmiadzin from Cilicia in XV century. The tsarist Russia wanted to create an enclave of the Christian states in the Caucasus in the nineteenth century. At that time the Georgian kingdom still existed.