BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 18
By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:
The Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) is working to change, nationalize and establish the correct spelling of the names of about 400 toponyms, Head of the toponymy sector of the Institute of Linguistics of the ANAS, Professor Gara Mashadiyev told Trend.
According to him, most of these place names are in the territories liberated from the occupation.
“Armenians changed 90 percent of the place names in these territories. And those who couldn’t change, translated from the Azerbaijani language into Armenian, claiming that the Azerbaijanis allegedly adopted these place names from the Armenians. Now we’re changing their names, returning their historical names, and some are given new names,” the scientist said.
Mashadiyev added that the restoration of names is carried out on the basis of historical sources, where the place names of the ancient maps of Azerbaijan are taken into account.
He stressed that all these changes are made after joint discussion with historians, economists and other scientists.
After the discussion of new toponyms in the ANAS, the list will be sent to the Commission on Toponymy of the Azerbaijani Parliament, and then, after the discussions, it will be presented to the plenary session of the parliament.