HULIQ.com, SC
April 11 2010

In Azerbaijan, the cause of Dr. Goebbels is everlasting

Apparently, not only the media but also the political promoters of
Azerbaijan headed personally by President Ilham Aliyev, the overking
of that country, made up their minds to follow both the fascist
ideology of national hatred and the Nazi methods of propaganda founded
by the notorious minister of Third Reich. One of the favorite sayings
of Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister was the following: `If you tell
a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to
believe it.

The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield
the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences
of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all
of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of
the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the
State.’

One of the absurd theories more and more actively boosted in the
Azerbaijani society is the assertion that the ancient city of Yerevan,
the capital of Armenia, founded in 782 BC has been an Azerbaijani
town!!! It looks like the supreme ruler of Azerbaijan decided to
expand the boundaries of this lie beyond his country’s borders.
According to the Azerbaijani media, when delivering a lecture at
Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 7th he, having no
scruples about lying, illuminated, or rather, took the gracious
Estonians aback by saying that `Armenians have already created their
state on Azerbaijani lands. No other Armenian state can be founded on
our lands’. Further on, he talked as big as he started: `Armenians
have already self-determined. They have their Armenian state, although
it had been created on historical Azerbaijani lands. Everyone knows
it. The next day after Azerbaijan declared its independence in 1918,
Azerbaijani Democratic Republic made a decision to transfer the city
of Irevan to Armenia as their capital. Irevan was a city of Irevani
Khanate populated by Azerbaijani people. As to history, that’s how it
used to be’. "As to history, that’s how it used to be…"

One can scarcely understand what is dominating in this statement `
demagogy or ignorance. I believe neither the former nor the latter –
it is just on-target propaganda of lies aimed at fraudulent
misrepresentation of history plus self-delusion. The fact, however, is
that this exact misinformation is becoming more and more frequent and
sophisticated. Indeed, harping on the same falsification will
hopefully lead people to believe it. There is no information about the
Estonian Ministry’s staff’s reaction to their high-rank guest’s
insinuations. We can only hope they know the truth and will not take
that speech for granted.

So, what is the truth? I am not going to deliver another lecture about
the four-thousand year history of Armenians on their aboriginal lands
but several interesting and important facts are worth to be mentioned
to evidence the autochthony of Armenians on the huge geographic area
officially called Armenian Plateau, or Armenian Highland, in the
world. Here’s Proof Number One. Unfortunately for the Azerbaijani
promoters, at least part of their country is situated on that
territory that carries this internationally adopted place name. The
core of that plateau is Armenia itself famous for another
internationally adopted scientific term ` armeniaca, or just apricot,
and here’s Proof Number Two. No doubt that these names have been given
as a tribute to the contribution of one of the most ancient nations to
the world scholarship and culture. One can imagine the nervous
irritation that seizes Aliyev and other Azeri agitators every time
they at least think about this.

Back to history, there is no doubt that such an administrative unit as
Yerevan Khanate was founded and that it was populated by Azerbaijani
Turkomen. By the way, no one would use the term Azerbaijani ` those
people were just Turks. The truth is, though, that the Khanate was
established by the Persian Shah Abbas the First after his invasion
into the Armenian lands in 1604. Consequently, at the very outset of
his rule tens of thousands native Armenians, including Yerevanites,
were deported to Persia; this resulted in the majority of the Muslim
population of then Yerevan. Even under these conditions, the Shah did
not dare change the name of the city that sounded and sounds now, too,
as the regular Armenian word yerevan that means an open, visible,
`seen’ place, which, by the way is in keeping with the Urartian name
of my native city Erebuni, and that is very easy to see, pronounce,
and hear even for a non-linguist. Here is Proof Number Three of
Armenians’ autochthony on the Armenian Plateau.

Regarding the proper name Azerbaijan / Azerbaijani, I would recommend
that Mr. Aliyev and all those interested take a look at the maps of
ancient or medieval times ` the ones published long ago, not the ones
posted on Internet because they may be easily faked by anybody. One of
my university colleagues collects such maps. I did not spare my time
and studied them thoroughly. So did I with the collection of ancient
maps at our university. All of them present the geographic region of
the Armenian Plateau as ARMENIA, sometimes syllabalizing this word so
that it could cover as much space as possible. No mention of the root
Azerbaijan / Azerbaijani at all! Here is Proof Number Four of the
authenticity of the lands on which the current state of Armenia with
its capital Yerevan were founded. If Mr. Aliyev talks about facts
everyone is aware of, he must know that his nation’s official name had
been Caucasian Tartars over the course of the world history before
1918. No one has ever heard of Azerbaijanis inhabiting the area to the
East of Armenia, nor have they heard of the country named `Azerbaijan’
there.

The list of evidences in favor of Armenian lands’ authenticity can be
endless. It is advisable to confront the Goebbelslike propaganda by
the presentation of undeniable truth and facts that refute the
falsifications of history since the followers of the Reich Minister
are prone to `tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it’. On the
off-chance, `people will eventually come to believe it’. This is
becoming the top principle of the Azerbaijani agitprop.

Written by Ashot Vardanyan
Mr. Vardanyan is a fellow at the University of Iowa

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