FIRE AND SWORD IN THE CAUCASUS [ page 144 ] ARMENIANS, TARTARS,
AND THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT THE connection between Russia and the
Armenian people dates from the time of Peter the Great, although
even before his reign a certain number of Armenians had found
their way into Russia. Until that monarch's expedition to Baku
in 1722, practically the whole of the Armenian race were living
within the dominions of the Turkish Sultan or the Persian Shah.
Most of them dwelt on the border territory between Turkey and
Persia, which formed a battle-ground between those two Powers. “
Oriental frontiers,” writes “ Odysseus,” “ are generally vague,
unless they have been ‘rectified’ by European commissions, and
it is one of the maxims of Oriental statecraft that it is a good
thing to keep the border districts desolate and depopulated, in
order that when your enemies invade your territory they may not
find much in the way of supplies, and may have some difficulty
in advancing. The Armenians suffered severely from the
application