BAKUR KARAPETIAN ADVISES TURKISH AND AZERBAIJANI HISTORIANS NOT TO DISTORT HISTORIES OF THEIR OWN PEOPLES

Noyan Tapan
Oct 19, 2009

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN. There have been a lot of discussions
in Azerbaijan recently regarding problems of the ethnic origin of
Turks and Azerbaijanis, their national identity and ideology, Head of
the Shushi Foundation Bakur Karapetian said at the October 19 press
conference. In his words, their claims about their ethnic origin lack
scientific validity and are unfounded. "These debates reveal that
their claims with respect to Karabakh and its historical territories,
as well as their demands for territorial integrity are groundless," he
said. B. Karapetian is going to draw the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’
attention to the issue that the Azerbaijanis intend to populate the
liberated territories of Artsakh by refugees who are preparing for
military operations.

B. Karapetian expressed an opinion that the Turkish and Azerbaijani
historians are constantly deceiving their people and distorting their
history. He announced that he had sent an open letter to the prime
minister of Turkey and the president of Azerbaijan, advising them
not to distort the histories of their own peoples.

According to B. Karapetian, the people who have not yet discovered
their ethnic origin and have been deluded call themselves "Muslims"
to refer to their nationality. "The nomadic tribes which came to the
Kura-Arax valley from different places, particularly from Central Asia
and Crimea, in various historical periods have forced the indigenous
Armenians out from their native cradle and settled in their place. The
Turks have committed a total of 50 genocides in their territory, the
Armenian Genocide possibly being the last of them," B. Karapetian said,
adding that Mountainous Altay was the original homeland of Turks.