Baku was not an Azerbaijani city even at the end of the 19th century, Armenian expert on Iran Vardan Voskanyan claims.

"Despite the fact that, unlike the dictator of Baku, who declares day in, day out that Yerevan is an "Azerbaijani city", none of the Armenian leaders has ever claimed that Baku is an Armenian city, but the fact is that it was not at least an Azerbaijani city even in the late 19th century,” he wrote on Facebook late on Tuesday, referring to an 1891 book.

“At the time, there were more Persian-speaking and Armenian populations in this city of Caucasian Persians (Tats) than Turkic-speaking ancestors of the present-day ethnic Azerbaijanis in the settlement.

“Out of around 100,000 inhabitants of Baku, only some 40,000 were Shia Muslims, the majority of whom were Caucasian Persians or Tats, while Armenians numbered almost 26,000,” Voskanyan said.