Falsification of history in Azerbaijan

The medieval Armenian monastery of Gandzasar in the historically Armenian-populated[1] Nagorno-Karabakh. The monastery was built by Hasan-Jalal and until the 19th century. was the center of the Aghvan (Caucasian Albanian) Catholicosate of the Armenian Apostolic Church.[2] According to Azerbaijani scientists, this means the Caucasian Albanian ethnicity of its builders.[3][Comm 1]

Falsification of history in Azerbaijan is an evaluative definition, which, according to a number of authors, should characterize the historical research carried out in Azerbaijan with state support. The purpose of these studies, according to critics, is to exalt the Caucasian Albanians as the alleged ancestors of Azerbaijanis and to provide a historical basis for territorial disputes with Armenia. At the same time, the task is, firstly, to root Azerbaijanis in the territory of Azerbaijan, and secondly, to cleanse the latter of the Armenian heritage.[4][5] In the sharpest and most detailed form, these accusations are presented by specialists from Armenia, but the same is said, for example, by Russian historians Victor Schnirelmann,[6] Anatoly Yakobson,[7] Vladimir Zakharov,[8] Mikhail Meltyukhov and others, Iranian historian Hasan Javadi,[9] American historians Philip L. Kohl[10] and George Bournoutian.[11]

According to the researcher Shireen Hunter, the distorted understanding by many Azerbaijanis of the true nature of cultural, ethnic and historical ties between Iran and Azerbaijan is associated with the legacy inherited by the modern Azerbaijan Republic from "the long Soviet practice of historic falsification" – to such historical myths she refers, in particular, the idea of the existence in ancient times of a unified Azerbaijani state, which included most of the territory of present-day northern Iran, which was divided into two parts as a result of the Russian-Iranian conspiracy.[12]

  1. ^ Ilya Pavlovich Petrushevsky (1949). Очерки по истории феодальных отношений в Азербайджане и Армении в XVI – начале XIX вв. Л. p. 28.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link):

    Хасан-Джалалян происходил из знатной армянской фамилии наследственных меликов округа Хачен в нагорной части Карабага, населённой армянами; предок этой фамилии Хасан-Джалал был князем хачена в период монгольского завоевания, в XIII в. При кызылбашском владычестве Хасан-Джалаляны сохранили своё положение меликов хаченских...
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Удины was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference caucasianhistory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Bournoutian, George A. (2009). A Brief History of the Aghuank Region. Armenian Studies Series #15. Mazda Publishers. pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-1-56859-171-1.

    In 1988, following the demands of the Karabagh Armenians to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia, a number of Azeri academics, led by Zia Bunyatov, to justify their government's claims regarding the Armenian populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh, rushed to prove that the Armenian population of Karabagh had only arrived there after 1828 and thus had no historical claims to the region. Lacking any sources written in Azeri-since the Azeri alphabet was created in the twentieth century, and refusing, for obvious reasons, to cite Armenian sources, they had to rely on sources written in Persian, Arabic, and Russian, among others. Therefore, to substantiate their political claims, Bunyatov and his fellow academics chose to set aside all scholarly integrity and print large numbers of re-edited versions of these not easily accessible primary sources on Karabagh, while deleting or altering references to the Armenians.
  5. ^ Victor Schnirelmann (2003). Войны памяти: мифы, идентичность и политика в Закавказье (in Russian). Moscow: Academbook. p. 210. ISBN 5-94628-118-6.

    Другим способом преуменьшить присутствие армян в древнем и средневековом Закавказье и умалить их роль является переиздание античных и средневековых источников с купюрами, с заменой термина «Армянское государство» на «Албанское государство» или с иными искажениями оригинальных текстов. В 1960—1990–х годах в Баку вышло немало таких переизданий первоисточников, чем активно занимался академик 3. М. Буниятов. В самые последние годы, описывая этнические процессы и их роль в истории Азербайджана, азербайджанские авторы порой вообще избегают обсуждать вопрос о появлении там азербайджанского языка и азербайджанцев, тем самым давая читателю понять, что они существовали там испокон веков.

    Вряд ли азербайджанские историки делали все это исключительно по своей воле; над ними довлел заказ партийно-правительственных структур Азербайджана.

    [...]

    Здесь-то на помощь политикам и приходят историки, археологи, этнографы и лингвисты, которые всеми силами стремятся, во-первых, укоренить азербайджанцев на территории Азербайджана, а во-вторых, очистить последнюю от армянского наследия. Эта деятельность не просто встречает благожелательный приём у местных властей, но, как мы видели, санкционируется президентом республики.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Шнирельман-13 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Якобсон was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference regnum-08-01-2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Floor was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kohl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Бурнутян was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Shireen Hunter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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