Armenia is once again in the midst of a historical and political
storm following remarks by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev:
“It is enough to look at early-20th-century maps published by
Tsarist Russia to see that the overwhelming majority of toponyms in
what is now Armenia are of Azerbaijani origin. There was no lake
Sevan on those maps. There is Lake Goycha on those maps, along with
all other Azerbaijani historical toponyms we use. We did not
compile those maps for anyone to say that we are committing
fraud”.
Following statements by the Armenian Parliament Speaker and
others, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also weighed in.
According to Pashinyan, “On the map being referenced, the area
labeled as Armenia is indeed called ‘Armenia,’ and Azerbaijan is
not mentioned at all. How should this be interpreted?” He dismissed
the debate as meaningless, arguing that if one relied on maps from
earlier eras, it could be concluded that neither Armenia nor
Azerbaijan existed. Pashinyan also stated: “Who said these are
Azerbaijani names? They are Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Mongolian,
Russian. But what difference does that make? None.”
It is a notable, and positive, step that Pashinyan has moved
away from arguments of the type: “These lands belonged to us during
the times of the Arsacids and Bagratids, so they must belong to us
today”. Yet historical falsifications continue to have
consequences, especially when one considers that erasing
Azerbaijani toponyms from maps was part of a broader, politically
charged campaign that began after Armenian resettlement in the
Caucasus – a topic often avoided in Armenia.
Maps are complicated. One can draw and label anything. Recently,
Armenian cartographers presented a “10th-century map” showing
Armenia, but not Azerbaijan, without noting that it also depicted
the Mingachevir Reservoir, which was built in 1953. German maps
from the 18th-19th centuries show Georgian kingdoms and Azerbaijani
khanates, including Georgia and Azerbaijan, but Armenia is absent.
Russian military maps drawn immediately after the Treaty of
Turkmenchay, covering lands of modern Armenia, contain no Armenian
toponyms – only Turkic ones.
Claiming that these names are Persian, Arabic, Mongolian, or
Russian rather than Azerbaijani is an old tactic of Armenian
polemicists in historical debates: to divert attention from the
core issue and get lost in details, for example, whether the “Blue
Mosque” in Yerevan is Persian, Azerbaijani, or “Turkmen”. How names
like Göycha, Sofulu, Istisu, or Garakilsya could be Mongolian or
Russian is likely only clear to Armenian geographers.
But the question is not trivial. First, it does not matter
whether these names are Arabic, Mongolian, or something else – they
are not Armenian. Second, why were these names erased from maps,
and not in ancient times, but in the 20th century, during Stalin’s
era?
The erasure did not stop at maps. Bulldozers soon followed ink
and pencil. In Armenia, historical urban architecture of Turkic and
Muslim origin was systematically destroyed. At the start of the
20th century, Russian scholars, concerned about the state of the
Yerevan Fortress, petitioned Tsar Nicholas II: “Russia appears
barbaric in the eyes of the East! Funds are urgently needed to
restore the fortress!” The Tsar supported the idea, but World War
I, the revolution, and the abdication prevented action.
By the mid-20th century, the fortress was demolished, along with
the Khan’s palace – one of the region’s most beautiful – and six of
seven mosques, plus residential buildings. The city was leveled and
rebuilt in Soviet-era styles, which were labeled “Armenian”. The
destruction continued into the 1960s and 1970s.
Armenia effectively became an open-air museum of vandalism. This
was not the end: by the mid-1980s, ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis
in Armenia began. Hundreds of thousands have been prevented from
returning to their homes to this day.
While the current Armenian authorities may not be held directly
responsible for the historical destruction of Armenian cities, this
does not justify attempts to propagate cartographic falsifications
that initially laid the groundwork for ethnic cleansing, first of
maps, then of architecture, and finally of people.
Fuad Akhundov
political analyst
