Azerbaijanis in Armenia () numbered 29 people according to the 2001 census of Armenia. Although they have previously been the biggest minority in the country according to 1831–1989 censuses, they are virtually non-existent since 1988–1991 when most fled or were forced out of the country as a result of the tensions of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War to neighboring Azerbaijan. The UNHCR estimates that the current population of Azerbaijanis in Armenia to be somewhere between 30 and a few hundred people, with most of them living in rural areas as members of mixed couples (mostly mixed marriages), as well as elderly or sick. Most of them are reported to have changed their names to maintain a low profile to avoid discrimination. Historical statistics Tatars (later known as Azerbaijanis) constituted the largest minority in Armenia since 1831 at least, the year of the first available census in the territory of Armenia (shortly after Russia's annexation by virtue of the Treaty of Turkmenchay. In 1831, Muslims were 50,274 or 31.1%; in 1873, Tatars were 132,125 or 26.7%; in 1886, Tatars were 160,963 or 25.3%; in 1897, Muslims were 240,323 or 30.1%; in 1922, Turkish-Tatars were 77,767 or 9.9%; in 1926, Turks were 77,655 or 8.8%; in 1931, Turks were 105,838 or 10.1%; in 1939, Azerbaijanis were 130,896 or 10.2%; in 1959, Azerbaijanis were 107,748 or 6.1%; in 1970, Azerbaijanis were 148,189 or 5.9%; in 1979, Azerbaijanis were 160,841 or 5.3%; in 1989, Azerbaijanis were 84,860 or 2.6%; in 2001, Azerbaijanis were 29 or 0.001% of the population on the territory of modern-day Armenia. Journalist Thomas de Waal estimates that there were approximately 200,000 Azerbaijanis in Armenia in the mid-1980s. History Pre-Russian rule Upon Seljuk conquests in the eleventh century, the mass of the Oghuz Turkic tribes crossed the Amu Darya towards the west left the Iranian plateau, which remained Persian, and established themselves further west, in Armenia, the Caucasus, and Anatolia. Here they divided into the Ottomans, who were Sunni and created settlements, and the Turcomans, who were nomads and in part Shiite (or, rather, Alevi), gradually becoming sedentary and assimilating with the local population. Until the mid-fourteenth century, Armenians had constituted a majority in Eastern Armenia. At the close of the fourteenth century, after Timur's campaigns of the extermination of the local population, Islam had become the dominant faith, and Armenians became a minority in Eastern Armenia. After centuries of constant warfare