Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Since ancient times, the Caucasus was home to many ethnicities. Hundreds of myths and legends have made this mountain region of Eurasia well-known and famous to the world.

Given its difficult geopolitical, geo-strategic and geo-economic characteristics the Caucasus region was always in focus of interest of many powers. With the relocation of Armenians to this territory, it became the object of endless and baseless territorial claims. Complicated approaches to the problem and clash of interests, unfortunately, turned the region into a war-torn area, with many bloody conflicts awaiting for their resolution.

Despite many historians and sources prove that Armenians are not the native people of Asian continent, Armenians try to falsify the history and historical facts to present themselves as the native population of South Caucasus.

Yagub Mahmudov, Director of the History Institute of ANAS said that Armenians are not indigenous population of Caucasus, but they migrated to Asian continent from the Balkans.

"According to father of history Herodotus, the territory where Armenians live in mass was the Balkans. They are related to the Phrygia ethnos and their language was also very close to them. That's why they are not the native population of Asian continent, and even are not the population of Asia Minor," he said in an interview with Azernews.

Even, "Armenians" is a wrong definition for this people, according to the historian, as when they migrated from the Balkans they were called Phrygia. Then, they migrated to eastern Anatoly to the province called "Armina" and adopted the name of this territory, however, they have nothing common with this name.

Mahmudov emphasized that there is evenno grounds for their desire to appropriate Turks lands. "They were displaced in the Caucasus region and this was connected with the policy of Peter the Great. The throne wanted to establish a foothold for its further occupation policy. The goal was to resettle Armenians in the Caucasus on the Azerbaijani lands to use them against Qajar dynasty in Iran and the Ottoman Empire," the historian explained.

The first "Armenian province" in the Caucasus, and Azerbaijani lands was established in 1828 by the order of Russian Emperor Nikolai, according to Mahmudov, adding that following this the mass resettlement of Armenians in the South Caucasus and Azerbaijan started.

Until 1918, there was neither Armenia, nor a state called Armenia, in the South Caucasus. But the demographic situation was forcibly changed to the benefit of Armenians in the Irevan khanate of Azerbaijan, where the current Armenia is situated, as result of occupation of the khanate by Russia.

By the conquest of Irevan khanate by tsarist Russia and signing of the Turkmenchay (1828), and Adrianople (1829) treaties, the policy of mass resettlement of Armenians from Iran and Turkey on the territory of modern Armenia was carried out.

The director of the Institute said that until May 29, 1918 no Armenian state existed in this territory. “Armenians created their state in our land, in the territory of Irevan khanate,” said the historian.

The year of 1918 is the year of establishment of the first Armenian state in the South Caucasus, he said, noting that until this date, there was no Armenian state in this territory.

"Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, under pressure from the great powers ceded ancient Azerbaijani city of Irevan with adjacent approximately 9,500 square meters km area to Armenians on May 29, 1918." he said.

Modern Yerevan has no Armenians inherent historical and cultural monument aged over 200 years. It’s because Armenians were resettled there from Iran and Turkey in the beginning of the 19th century after the occupation of Irevan khanate by Russia.

Famous Russian scientist Nikolay Shavrov, who studied the process of resettlement of Armenians to the South Caucasus, and determined the number of Armenians placed in these lands wrote in 1911: “From 1.3 million Armenians living in the South Caucasus more than one million is not an indigenous population of this territory and were relocated by us.”

Thus, the research of many scientists and researchers argue that the modern Armenia and its capital Yerevan (Irevan) are not native Armenian territory, but since ancient times belongs to the Oguz Turks.

With the arrival of Armenians to this territory, they cannot get along with their neighbors.

With respect to conflict of Armenians with their neighbors based on territorial claims Mahmudov said that Armenian historians propagate fiction history. "That's why they will never be able to live in harmony with its neighbors," Mahmudov noted.

"To live in harmony they need to abide friendly policy, to accept other peoples and not to claim for others land not having own," he said.

Mahmudov said that Armenians claim that, allegedly, they are the most ancient settlers of Anatoly. "They also claim for Azerbaijani and Georgian lands. As they have not their own lands, Armenians they are not satisfied with the areas they are settled and try to occupy more territories by relying on powerful countries," he said.

To achieve their aims their historians came up with "Great Armenia" fiction. This, in turn, always put Armenian ethnos face to face with disasters.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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