User:HistoryofIran/Falsification of history in Azerbaijan

Falsification of history in Azerbaijan

In relation to Armenia

In a book published in 2007 by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan and endorsed by the Academy, the country of Armenia is presented as "Western Azerbaijan." It depicts all monuments in Armenia as "Turkic", "Turkish" or "Armenian-Turkish", such as the Roman Temple of Garni being connected to the "ancient Gargar Turks", and the Etchmiadzin Cathedral as a "7th-century Armenian-Turkish Christian temple". According to the scholar and sociologist Hratch Tchilingirian, "this kind of re-writing of "history" is based solely on sources produced by Azerbaijani authors, notably prominent academician and national figure Ziya Buniyatov, whom President Heydar Aliyev described as "the constructor of our identity and self-consciousness". This constructed narrative is echoed in the political discourse of President Aliyev and is woven into state policies, diplomacy, public relations, identity construction and, critically, in the construction of extreme anti-Armenianism in Azerbaijan."

The belief that Azerbaijanis have been and continue to be victims of Iranians and Armenians is planted in children through state-sponsored propaganda and brainwashing in schools. Thus, to create a sense of national identity, particularly among the younger generations, Azerbaijani nationalism mixes their story of victimization with a depiction of the Armenian opponent. This is especially clear in the school textbooks that also assign deportations, killings, and "genocides" to the Armenians.

In 1991, Arif Mansurov, a member of the USSR Union of Journalists, published a book. It claimed that "the only people who have successfully assimilated Gypsies are the Armenians, who are of Semitic descent" and that "the greedy and terrified Armenians also have certain traits in common with Jews because of their Semitic features." Several historians from Azerbaijan also participate in spreading of this negative image of Armenians. Baxtiyar Nacafov summarized some of the main points of his book in an interview with the newspaper Millät on the day of the publication of his book titled "The Face of the Enemy: the History of Armenian Nationalism in Transcaucasia at the End of the 19th and the Beginning of the 20th Century": "Armenians are the enemies of humanity and akin to parasites"; "Armenian nationalism is worse than Nazism"; "the Armenian Genocide is a fiction"; "actually, Armenians committed genocide against the Azerbaijanis."

This portrayal of Armenians has become a norm in Azerbaijani history textbooks. In less than 400 pages, the history textbook for fifth graders refers to Armenians as the "enemy" 187 times. They are described as "bandits," "cunning," "treacherous," or "bloody." They are also described as "infidels in black robes", thus stereotyping them in a religious way as well. Nine chapters in history textbooks for grades ten and eleven discuss Armenians. Words like "terrorist," "fascist," "bandit," "separatist," "barbarism," or "nasty" are associated with them.

Azerbaijan's anti-Armenian sentiment sparked a process that mimicked what Armenia went through. Thus, on March 26, 1998, Heydar Aliyev, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, issued a law designating March 31 as the "Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis" each year. The date alludes to the civil war known as March Days, which broke out in Baku at the end of March 1918 between the Musavat Party and the Caucasian Native Cavalry Division and the Bolsheviks and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Throughout this struggle, thousands of Tatars lost their lives. Azerbaijan has also accused Armenia of genocide for death of several hundred Azerbaijanis in the town of Khojaly at the end of February 1992.

Furthermore, the websites of the "Administrative Department of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan" claim that 150,000 Azerbaijanis who were living in Soviet Armenia were forcibly relocated to Soviet Azerbaijan by the Armenians between 1948–1953. However, in reality the reason for this relocation was due to a joint request made to Joseph Stalin on 3 December 1947 by Mir Jafar Baghirov and Grigory Arutinov, the leaders of the Communist parties in Azerbaijan and Armenia, respectively. This resettlement was intended to provide land in Armenia for thousands of diasporan returning employees while simultaneously advancing cotton production in the Mingachevir area of Azerbaijan, where there was a lack of workers.

This official victimhood story is coupled with a commemorating culture. Azerbaiijan has been pushing for the world to remember what it considers to be genocide since 1998. In order to draw attention to the hardship of Azerbaijanis, numerous websites have also been created.

In relation to Iran

Under the Aliyevs, Azerbaijan is making large-scale attempts to eradicate any traces of Persian cultural influence. This includes removing Persian-written tiles from the Nizami Mausoleum, prohibiting the publication of Azerbaijani poets' works in their original Persian, and removing additional Persian inscriptions from historic structures. According to Mamedov; "Ironically, in creating a history and culture for Azerbaijan, its leaders have appropriated Iran’s historical and cultural heritage, while claiming for them a Turkic character."

The Iranian rebel Babak Khorramdin, who founded his own cult and fought the Arabs, has been claimed to have been a "Turk" by Azerbaijan. Zoroaster, the Iranian prophet, is also claimed to have been a "Turk". They also claim that the Iranian New Year, Nowruz, has Turkic roots. Additional instances of Iran's history being appropriated are the assertions that the game of polo and the the tar string instrument were solely invented by Azerbaijan.

Sources

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