Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.13
By Ilhama Isabalayeva – Trend:
Studies conducted by the Institute of History of Azerbaijan's National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) proved that until 1918 there never was an Armenian state in the South Caucasus, the institute's director Yagub Mahmudov told Trend.
Mahmudov said that the fundamental research -"The Iravan Khanate: the Russian occupation and the relocation of Armenians to the lands of North Azerbaijan", which is a collaborative work of historians, has been translated into Russian, English, Romanian, Italian, Spanish and Arabic languages. Also, soon the "Iravan Khanate" book will be published in Turkish and German languages.
Mahmudov stressed that the speech by President Ilham Aliyev at the 6th Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) relied on historical facts, historical reality.
"Irevan is our historical land, and we, Azerbaijanis must return to these historic lands," President Ilham Aliyev said in his speech.
Meanwhile, Yagub Mahmudov said that Armenians around the world conduct propaganda, claiming that they are the most ancient people of this region, while the Azerbaijanis were resettled here.
"I state once again - Armenians were resettled, as say the sources and the "father of history", Herodotus. He says the Armenians are descendants of the Phrygians, who migrated to the Van lake from the Balkan Peninsula," said Mahmudov.
He went on to add that Armenians are not aborigines of the South Caucasus, they were moved to these lands by tsarist Russia from the Ottoman Empire and Iran.
"We have thousands of archival documents on the resettlement of Armenians. Adopted on May 29, 1918 under international pressure, the decision of the National Council of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic (ADR) to transfer Irevan to Armenians was a mistake. For the adoption of this decision, 16 of 28 National Council members voted. On June 1, the deputies from Irevan Mirhidayat Seyidov, Bagir Rzayev, Narimanbek Narimanbekov expressed their protest, saying that it was an unlawful decision,"Mahmudov said.
According to him, the documents prove that, according to the Batumi talks and treaties (May 11 - June 4, 1918), the Armenians undertook a number of commitments, after being given Irevan and nearby Azerbaijani lands.
"The government of the Republic of Armenia has pledged to involve all military forces for withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from Baku as soon as possible. The Armenian side committed to stop the massacre committed by Armenian armed groups in Azerbaijani counties against Muslims. The Armenian government also committed to ensuring the rights of Muslims to free religion, to receive education in their native tongue in Irevan and other territories of the newly created Armenian state. Batumi talks reached an agreement that the Armenians should give up their territorial claims against Azerbaijan, "Mahmudov said.
However, when the Armenians achieved their goals, they unilaterally violated all their obligations, continued their aggressive policy, the scientist added.
"Thus, the relevant paragraphs of the Batumi Treaty and the decision of the National Council of the ADR of May 29, 1918, have lost their legal force. Therefore, the decision of the National Council of ADR should be reviewed and the historical right of the Azerbaijani people to Irevan and surrounding lands should be restored, "said Mahmudov.
Mahmudov noted that the Armenian state, created on May 29, 1918 on the Azerbaijani land with an area of 9,000 square kilometers, with the direct help of Moscow, brought the area of its territory to 29,743 square kilometers.
The director of the institute stressed that the territory of modern Armenia is the land of the Irevan Khanate, which was an Azerbaijani state.
"In 2016-2017 the Institute of History published numerous works on the history of the Irevan khanate, which describes the Irevan city was destroyed, the ancient cultural center of Azerbaijan. At the beginning of the 20th century there were 310 mosques in the territory of the Irevan province, today only one mosque in the territory of Armenia remains - the Blue Mosque," Mahmudov said.
"The Azerbaijani soldier should know that the land under the feet of provocative Armenians is Azerbaijani land. The enemy can never defeat Azerbaijanis on Azerbaijani soil. Those who rule the Armenian state today must fundamentally change their political course. The Armenians cannot defeat us by sitting in our historic city of Irevan," Mahmudov said.