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Re: Armenia and the information war
In Azerbaijan, the cause of Dr. Goebbels is everlasting
Apparently, not only the media but also the political promoters of Azerbaijan headed personally by President Ilham Aliyev, the overking of that country, made up their minds to follow both the fascist ideology of national hatred and the Nazi methods of propaganda founded by the notorious minister of Third Reich. One of the favorite sayings of Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister was the following: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
One of the absurd theories more and more actively boosted in the Azerbaijani society is the assertion that the ancient city of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, founded in 782 BC has been an Azerbaijani town!!! It looks like the supreme ruler of Azerbaijan decided to expand the boundaries of this lie beyond his country’s borders. According to the Azerbaijani media, when delivering a lecture at Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 7th he, having no scruples about lying, illuminated, or rather, took the gracious Estonians aback by saying that “Armenians have already created their state on Azerbaijani lands. No other Armenian state can be founded on our lands”. Further on, he talked as big as he started: “Armenians have already self-determined. They have their Armenian state, although it had been created on historical Azerbaijani lands. Everyone knows it. The next day after Azerbaijan declared its independence in 1918, Azerbaijani Democratic Republic made a decision to transfer the city of Irevan to Armenia as their capital. Irevan was a city of Irevani Khanate populated by Azerbaijani people. As to history, that’s how it used to be”. "As to history, that’s how it used to be..."
One can scarcely understand what is dominating in this statement – demagogy or ignorance. I believe neither the former nor the latter - it is just on-target propaganda of lies aimed at fraudulent misrepresentation of history plus self-delusion. The fact, however, is that this exact misinformation is becoming more and more frequent and sophisticated. Indeed, harping on the same falsification will hopefully lead people to believe it. There is no information about the Estonian Ministry’s staff’s reaction to their high-rank guest’s insinuations. We can only hope they know the truth and will not take that speech for granted.
So, what is the truth? I am not going to deliver another lecture about the four-thousand year history of Armenians on their aboriginal lands but several interesting and important facts are worth to be mentioned to evidence the autochthony of Armenians on the huge geographic area officially called Armenian Plateau, or Armenian Highland, in the world. Here’s Proof Number One. Unfortunately for the Azerbaijani promoters, at least part of their country is situated on that territory that carries this internationally adopted place name. The core of that plateau is Armenia itself famous for another internationally adopted scientific term – armeniaca, or just apricot, and here’s Proof Number Two. No doubt that these names have been given as a tribute to the contribution of one of the most ancient nations to the world scholarship and culture. One can imagine the nervous irritation that seizes Aliyev and other Azeri agitators every time they at least think about this.
Back to history, there is no doubt that such an administrative unit as Yerevan Khanate was founded and that it was populated by Azerbaijani Turkomen. By the way, no one would use the term Azerbaijani – those people were just Turks. The truth is, though, that the Khanate was established by the Persian Shah Abbas the First after his invasion into the Armenian lands in 1604. Consequently, at the very outset of his rule tens of thousands native Armenians, including Yerevanites, were deported to Persia; this resulted in the majority of the Muslim population of then Yerevan. Even under these conditions, the Shah did not dare change the name of the city that sounded and sounds now, too, as the regular Armenian word yerevan that means an open, visible, ‘seen’ place, which, by the way is in keeping with the Urartian name of my native city Erebuni, and that is very easy to see, pronounce, and hear even for a non-linguist. Here is Proof Number Three of Armenians’ autochthony on the Armenian Plateau.
Regarding the proper name Azerbaijan / Azerbaijani, I would recommend that Mr. Aliyev and all those interested take a look at the maps of ancient or medieval times – the ones published long ago, not the ones posted on Internet because they may be easily faked by anybody. One of my university colleagues collects such maps. I did not spare my time and studied them thoroughly. So did I with the collection of ancient maps at our university. All of them present the geographic region of the Armenian Plateau as ARMENIA, sometimes syllabalizing this word so that it could cover as much space as possible. No mention of the root Azerbaijan / Azerbaijani at all! Here is Proof Number Four of the authenticity of the lands on which the current state of Armenia with its capital Yerevan were founded. If Mr. Aliyev talks about facts everyone is aware of, he must know that his nation’s official name had been Caucasian Tartars over the course of the world history before 1918. No one has ever heard of Azerbaijanis inhabiting the area to the East of Armenia, nor have they heard of the country named “Azerbaijan” there.
The list of evidences in favor of Armenian lands’ authenticity can be endless. It is advisable to confront the Goebbelslike propaganda by the presentation of undeniable truth and facts that refute the falsifications of history since the followers of the Reich Minister are prone to “tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it”. On the off-chance, “people will eventually come to believe it”. This is becoming the top principle of the Azerbaijani agitprop.
Written by Ashot Vardanyan
Mr. Vardanyan is a fellow at the University of Iowa
Submitted by Armen Hareyan on Sun, 2010-04-11 02:07
In Azerbaijan, the cause of Dr. Goebbels is everlasting
Apparently, not only the media but also the political promoters of Azerbaijan headed personally by President Ilham Aliyev, the overking of that country, made up their minds to follow both the fascist ideology of national hatred and the Nazi methods of propaganda founded by the notorious minister of Third Reich. One of the favorite sayings of Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister was the following: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
One of the absurd theories more and more actively boosted in the Azerbaijani society is the assertion that the ancient city of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, founded in 782 BC has been an Azerbaijani town!!! It looks like the supreme ruler of Azerbaijan decided to expand the boundaries of this lie beyond his country’s borders. According to the Azerbaijani media, when delivering a lecture at Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 7th he, having no scruples about lying, illuminated, or rather, took the gracious Estonians aback by saying that “Armenians have already created their state on Azerbaijani lands. No other Armenian state can be founded on our lands”. Further on, he talked as big as he started: “Armenians have already self-determined. They have their Armenian state, although it had been created on historical Azerbaijani lands. Everyone knows it. The next day after Azerbaijan declared its independence in 1918, Azerbaijani Democratic Republic made a decision to transfer the city of Irevan to Armenia as their capital. Irevan was a city of Irevani Khanate populated by Azerbaijani people. As to history, that’s how it used to be”. "As to history, that’s how it used to be..."
One can scarcely understand what is dominating in this statement – demagogy or ignorance. I believe neither the former nor the latter - it is just on-target propaganda of lies aimed at fraudulent misrepresentation of history plus self-delusion. The fact, however, is that this exact misinformation is becoming more and more frequent and sophisticated. Indeed, harping on the same falsification will hopefully lead people to believe it. There is no information about the Estonian Ministry’s staff’s reaction to their high-rank guest’s insinuations. We can only hope they know the truth and will not take that speech for granted.
So, what is the truth? I am not going to deliver another lecture about the four-thousand year history of Armenians on their aboriginal lands but several interesting and important facts are worth to be mentioned to evidence the autochthony of Armenians on the huge geographic area officially called Armenian Plateau, or Armenian Highland, in the world. Here’s Proof Number One. Unfortunately for the Azerbaijani promoters, at least part of their country is situated on that territory that carries this internationally adopted place name. The core of that plateau is Armenia itself famous for another internationally adopted scientific term – armeniaca, or just apricot, and here’s Proof Number Two. No doubt that these names have been given as a tribute to the contribution of one of the most ancient nations to the world scholarship and culture. One can imagine the nervous irritation that seizes Aliyev and other Azeri agitators every time they at least think about this.
Back to history, there is no doubt that such an administrative unit as Yerevan Khanate was founded and that it was populated by Azerbaijani Turkomen. By the way, no one would use the term Azerbaijani – those people were just Turks. The truth is, though, that the Khanate was established by the Persian Shah Abbas the First after his invasion into the Armenian lands in 1604. Consequently, at the very outset of his rule tens of thousands native Armenians, including Yerevanites, were deported to Persia; this resulted in the majority of the Muslim population of then Yerevan. Even under these conditions, the Shah did not dare change the name of the city that sounded and sounds now, too, as the regular Armenian word yerevan that means an open, visible, ‘seen’ place, which, by the way is in keeping with the Urartian name of my native city Erebuni, and that is very easy to see, pronounce, and hear even for a non-linguist. Here is Proof Number Three of Armenians’ autochthony on the Armenian Plateau.
Regarding the proper name Azerbaijan / Azerbaijani, I would recommend that Mr. Aliyev and all those interested take a look at the maps of ancient or medieval times – the ones published long ago, not the ones posted on Internet because they may be easily faked by anybody. One of my university colleagues collects such maps. I did not spare my time and studied them thoroughly. So did I with the collection of ancient maps at our university. All of them present the geographic region of the Armenian Plateau as ARMENIA, sometimes syllabalizing this word so that it could cover as much space as possible. No mention of the root Azerbaijan / Azerbaijani at all! Here is Proof Number Four of the authenticity of the lands on which the current state of Armenia with its capital Yerevan were founded. If Mr. Aliyev talks about facts everyone is aware of, he must know that his nation’s official name had been Caucasian Tartars over the course of the world history before 1918. No one has ever heard of Azerbaijanis inhabiting the area to the East of Armenia, nor have they heard of the country named “Azerbaijan” there.
The list of evidences in favor of Armenian lands’ authenticity can be endless. It is advisable to confront the Goebbelslike propaganda by the presentation of undeniable truth and facts that refute the falsifications of history since the followers of the Reich Minister are prone to “tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it”. On the off-chance, “people will eventually come to believe it”. This is becoming the top principle of the Azerbaijani agitprop.
Written by Ashot Vardanyan
Mr. Vardanyan is a fellow at the University of Iowa
Submitted by Armen Hareyan on Sun, 2010-04-11 02:07
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