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AZERBAIJANI HISTORICAL FALSIFICATIONS
By MassisPost
Updated: March 12, 2014
A presentation of the Russian edition of Ruben Galchian's book entitled
"Azerbaijani historical and geographical falsifications" was held on
March 4 at the Armenian Embassy in Moscow, Russia.
In the book the author details the main historic stages of the states
south of the Caucasus with maps of different epochs and references
to historical sources. Research includes historical and ethnographic
materials, it also presents an analysis of 45 important Christian,
Islamic, Greek and Roman maps, which are of great historical
significance.
During the presentation of the book Galchian referred to the ongoing
policy of Azerbaijan to distort history, its origins and methodology
used. He noted that the book is the result of long and hard work,
and is an attempt to objectively represent real history thru
internationally accepted sources.
By Rouben Galichian
In May 1918 in the region south of the Caucasus three new states
were formed, two of which - Armenia and Georgia had a rich history
and tradition of the statehood. At the same time, north of the
Arax River and on the east coast of the Caspian Sea another state -
Azerbaijan was formed, whose name was an anomaly for this region. The
newly established country gave itself the name of one of the ancient
north-eastern provinces of Persia, Azerbaijan, which the Armenian
call with its historical name - Atrpatakan.
At the time, many Persian scholars protested against the use of the
name of their province for the naming of the newly established state.
However, at the time the Great Powers were engaged in the division of
Middle East oil wells amongst themselves and they did not have time
to deal with other seemingly unimportant issues. When the Communist
order was established in Azerbaijan, the new government decided to
keep the old name with the intention of using it in the future to
their political advantage.
In 1925 the Russian orientalist Vassily Vladimirovich Bartold in
his speech in Baku University announced that the name Azerbaijan was
given to the new country only for political purposes, a prediction,
which was later confirmed. This was first manifested when in 1947 in
Tabriz the Democratic Party announced its desire to join the Soviet
Azerbaijan and yet again in 1992, when the President of independent
Azerbaijan, Mr. Elchibey announced that he intends to reunite their
brothers and sisters living across the border in Iran.
In time Stalin ordered that each republic of the Soviet Union should
have its unique and particular history and culture. But how could
this be made true by a newly created state without past and unified
history and culture? The solution was found - the history and culture
of the peoples living in this territory of ancient peoples could be
declared as their own. To this end Azerbaijani authorities planned and
implemented special programs which were intensified during the 1960s.
They reached their apex after independence, with the encouragement
and guidance of President Ilham Aliyev.
Since the dominant culture in the region was Armenian, the Azerbaijani
historians had to take the following steps:
a) to eliminate the names of all Armenians from the region claiming
them to be newcomers in the region of the South Caucasus, who arrived
there during the early 19th century.
b) to declare that the Albanian Christians or Caucasian Albanians
who embraced Islam after the tenth century, were their forefathers.
c) when the opportunity arose to announce that they belong to the
"great" Turkic nation.
The above actions would give them the possibility of appropriating
all the local history and culture and make them an "ancient" and
"great" country.
While implementing these programs Azerbaijani authorities encountered
many problems which they conveniently ignored in order to achieve
their end. The main problems were:
1. Despite the fact that the name of the country was changed to
Azerbaijan, until the adoption of the Stalinist constitution in 1936,
the locals called themselves "Turks".
2. The vast majority of Christian monuments of Azerbaijan and Artsakh
were built during the 10th to 18th centuries, when the local Albanians
had already been Islamized. The question arises- how could Islamized
Albanians build and renovate Christian churches, monasteries,
cross-stones, or were they perhaps done by local Armenian builders?
3. From the 12th century the region was visited by European, Arab and
Persian travellers who meticulously described the life and culture of
the Armenians living in the South Caucasus. The Persian Shah Abbas, who
the Azerbaijanis claim to be their own, in 1604-5 forcibly displaced
about half a million Armenians to Persia from Nakhichevan, Armenia and
Artsakh. If one is to believe what the Azerbaijani historians claim,
there would be no Armenians living there, therefore, where did Shah
Abbas brought this great mass of people from and why did he give
them special permission to name their new settlement New "Julfa",
which was one of the names of their previous hometowns?
4. The common language spoken in Azerbaijan and Iranian provinces of
Azerbaijan is erroneously called "Azeri", while it actually is a form
of "Turkish". According to Iranian and Iranian Azerbaijani scientists,
until the 15th to 16th centuries the spoken language of the Iranian
Azerbaijani people was not Turkish, but a dialect of middle Persian,
which was the real Azeri language. Since the rule of the Seljuks
the local language was gradually replaced by the language of the
new masters - the Turks. It should be noted that in the Azerbaijani
provinces of Iran there still are some settlements, whose inhabitants
speak with their ancient Iranian dialects.
Azerbaijanis have an excellent weapon for amending, modifying and
censoring the ancient history. A country that insists having five
thousand years of statehood, has no written culture language until
the second half of the 19th century, and even then uses the Persian as
their written language. Thus, they began writing any official document
and books in Persian and when the language was changed to Turkish, they
first used the Persian alphabet. First they used the Persian-Arabic
script, later, in 1929 they changed it to the Latin alphabet, and
in 1939 this was changed to the Cyrillic alphabet, and once again,
after independence they returned to a modified Latin alphabet.
All these transliterations allow the Azerbaijani authorities and
historians to change, transform and falsify their own history to
serve their political goals, which manifest itself in all literature.
Azerbaijanis insist that: Azerbaijani statehood has five thousand
years of history.
1. Azerbaijan as an independent country has existed more than 2,000
years.
2. Empires, including the Arab Caliphate, Iran and Russia colonized
Azerbaijan, emasculating its Turkish culture.
3. In 1813 and 1828 a joint Russian-Iranian conspiracy divided
Azerbaijan into two parts and brought the Armenians to the Caucasus.
4. Founded in 1918, the Republic of Azerbaijan testified to the
revival of historical Azerbaijan, the first democracy in the East.
The present book carefully studies the works of European, Arab,
Persian, and other historians born in the territory of modern
Azerbaijan concluding that the country called "Azerbaijan" located
north of the Arax River, was founded in 1918 and its population being
a mixture of various nationalities and cultures, cannot be claimed
to have one unique and individual culture and history. The book also
reveals the reasons and purpose of historical falsification of the
Azerbaijan Republic.
Like the United States of America, Azerbaijan should also have
the courage to admit that its population is a mixture of different
cultures and histories that cannot be uniform and be called uniquely
Azerbaijani.
After this introduction and for further clarification, some twenty
ancient and medieval map images were presented and analysed.
http://massispost.com/2014/03/azerbaijani-historical-falsifications/
By MassisPost
Updated: March 12, 2014
A presentation of the Russian edition of Ruben Galchian's book entitled
"Azerbaijani historical and geographical falsifications" was held on
March 4 at the Armenian Embassy in Moscow, Russia.
In the book the author details the main historic stages of the states
south of the Caucasus with maps of different epochs and references
to historical sources. Research includes historical and ethnographic
materials, it also presents an analysis of 45 important Christian,
Islamic, Greek and Roman maps, which are of great historical
significance.
During the presentation of the book Galchian referred to the ongoing
policy of Azerbaijan to distort history, its origins and methodology
used. He noted that the book is the result of long and hard work,
and is an attempt to objectively represent real history thru
internationally accepted sources.
By Rouben Galichian
In May 1918 in the region south of the Caucasus three new states
were formed, two of which - Armenia and Georgia had a rich history
and tradition of the statehood. At the same time, north of the
Arax River and on the east coast of the Caspian Sea another state -
Azerbaijan was formed, whose name was an anomaly for this region. The
newly established country gave itself the name of one of the ancient
north-eastern provinces of Persia, Azerbaijan, which the Armenian
call with its historical name - Atrpatakan.
At the time, many Persian scholars protested against the use of the
name of their province for the naming of the newly established state.
However, at the time the Great Powers were engaged in the division of
Middle East oil wells amongst themselves and they did not have time
to deal with other seemingly unimportant issues. When the Communist
order was established in Azerbaijan, the new government decided to
keep the old name with the intention of using it in the future to
their political advantage.
In 1925 the Russian orientalist Vassily Vladimirovich Bartold in
his speech in Baku University announced that the name Azerbaijan was
given to the new country only for political purposes, a prediction,
which was later confirmed. This was first manifested when in 1947 in
Tabriz the Democratic Party announced its desire to join the Soviet
Azerbaijan and yet again in 1992, when the President of independent
Azerbaijan, Mr. Elchibey announced that he intends to reunite their
brothers and sisters living across the border in Iran.
In time Stalin ordered that each republic of the Soviet Union should
have its unique and particular history and culture. But how could
this be made true by a newly created state without past and unified
history and culture? The solution was found - the history and culture
of the peoples living in this territory of ancient peoples could be
declared as their own. To this end Azerbaijani authorities planned and
implemented special programs which were intensified during the 1960s.
They reached their apex after independence, with the encouragement
and guidance of President Ilham Aliyev.
Since the dominant culture in the region was Armenian, the Azerbaijani
historians had to take the following steps:
a) to eliminate the names of all Armenians from the region claiming
them to be newcomers in the region of the South Caucasus, who arrived
there during the early 19th century.
b) to declare that the Albanian Christians or Caucasian Albanians
who embraced Islam after the tenth century, were their forefathers.
c) when the opportunity arose to announce that they belong to the
"great" Turkic nation.
The above actions would give them the possibility of appropriating
all the local history and culture and make them an "ancient" and
"great" country.
While implementing these programs Azerbaijani authorities encountered
many problems which they conveniently ignored in order to achieve
their end. The main problems were:
1. Despite the fact that the name of the country was changed to
Azerbaijan, until the adoption of the Stalinist constitution in 1936,
the locals called themselves "Turks".
2. The vast majority of Christian monuments of Azerbaijan and Artsakh
were built during the 10th to 18th centuries, when the local Albanians
had already been Islamized. The question arises- how could Islamized
Albanians build and renovate Christian churches, monasteries,
cross-stones, or were they perhaps done by local Armenian builders?
3. From the 12th century the region was visited by European, Arab and
Persian travellers who meticulously described the life and culture of
the Armenians living in the South Caucasus. The Persian Shah Abbas, who
the Azerbaijanis claim to be their own, in 1604-5 forcibly displaced
about half a million Armenians to Persia from Nakhichevan, Armenia and
Artsakh. If one is to believe what the Azerbaijani historians claim,
there would be no Armenians living there, therefore, where did Shah
Abbas brought this great mass of people from and why did he give
them special permission to name their new settlement New "Julfa",
which was one of the names of their previous hometowns?
4. The common language spoken in Azerbaijan and Iranian provinces of
Azerbaijan is erroneously called "Azeri", while it actually is a form
of "Turkish". According to Iranian and Iranian Azerbaijani scientists,
until the 15th to 16th centuries the spoken language of the Iranian
Azerbaijani people was not Turkish, but a dialect of middle Persian,
which was the real Azeri language. Since the rule of the Seljuks
the local language was gradually replaced by the language of the
new masters - the Turks. It should be noted that in the Azerbaijani
provinces of Iran there still are some settlements, whose inhabitants
speak with their ancient Iranian dialects.
Azerbaijanis have an excellent weapon for amending, modifying and
censoring the ancient history. A country that insists having five
thousand years of statehood, has no written culture language until
the second half of the 19th century, and even then uses the Persian as
their written language. Thus, they began writing any official document
and books in Persian and when the language was changed to Turkish, they
first used the Persian alphabet. First they used the Persian-Arabic
script, later, in 1929 they changed it to the Latin alphabet, and
in 1939 this was changed to the Cyrillic alphabet, and once again,
after independence they returned to a modified Latin alphabet.
All these transliterations allow the Azerbaijani authorities and
historians to change, transform and falsify their own history to
serve their political goals, which manifest itself in all literature.
Azerbaijanis insist that: Azerbaijani statehood has five thousand
years of history.
1. Azerbaijan as an independent country has existed more than 2,000
years.
2. Empires, including the Arab Caliphate, Iran and Russia colonized
Azerbaijan, emasculating its Turkish culture.
3. In 1813 and 1828 a joint Russian-Iranian conspiracy divided
Azerbaijan into two parts and brought the Armenians to the Caucasus.
4. Founded in 1918, the Republic of Azerbaijan testified to the
revival of historical Azerbaijan, the first democracy in the East.
The present book carefully studies the works of European, Arab,
Persian, and other historians born in the territory of modern
Azerbaijan concluding that the country called "Azerbaijan" located
north of the Arax River, was founded in 1918 and its population being
a mixture of various nationalities and cultures, cannot be claimed
to have one unique and individual culture and history. The book also
reveals the reasons and purpose of historical falsification of the
Azerbaijan Republic.
Like the United States of America, Azerbaijan should also have
the courage to admit that its population is a mixture of different
cultures and histories that cannot be uniform and be called uniquely
Azerbaijani.
After this introduction and for further clarification, some twenty
ancient and medieval map images were presented and analysed.
http://massispost.com/2014/03/azerbaijani-historical-falsifications/