And the Fraud Had a Name, Azerbaijan: the Real, the Fake and the Absurd

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Armenian Historians

In 1924 Bartold delivered a series of lectures at a university in Baku. Once he was asked “aren’t the Aghvans and the Armenians the same people? It’s hard to imagine that a nation who had a writing system and a translation of the Bible suddenly lost their language and disappeared from the scene of history.”

While Bartold responded by citing examples of other ethnicities with a similar fate, nevertheless, this question itself confirms that the Armenians are the closest nation to the Aghvans culturally, historically, religiously, racially and geographically, and it is not surprising that the records of Armenian historians dealing with Aghvank throughout centuries are the most exhaustive of all.

Especially after Mesrop Mashtots’ invention of the Armenian alphabet at the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century AD, the Golden Age of the Armenian literature brought forth numerous authors who recorded the historic accounts of their time and translated those of their predecessors into Armenian. Among these are Movses Khorenatsi, Pavstos Buzand, Agathangelos, Sebeos and Ghazar Parpetsi, who have also chronicled the events pertaining to the Aghvans.

Keeping in mind the limitless rancor and hate propaganda against the Armenians that has intensified after their miserable defeat from the Armenians in their self-perpetrated war on Artsakh, the ugly manifestations of this hatred in the barbaric slaughter of Gurgen Markarian on February 19, 2004 by the “Azeri” monster Ramil Safarov, the savage destruction of the ancient Jugha cemetery in December 2005 in front of the eyes of an indifferent civilized world, the endless warmongering rhetoric from the highest “Azeri” authorities, to name but a few, it is certain that the mention of the word Armenian throws the “Azeris” into a hysterical frenzy rejecting everything coming from Armenian sources, ancient or modern. It is as if the fifth century Armenian historians who never saw a Turk in their lives had supernatural prophetic powers to foresee that Turks would ravage the civilizations west of the Caspian starting six hundred years after their time and a fake “Azerbaijan” would be counterfeited on the soil of their homeland fifteen centuries later. Whatever the Turks want to believe and make believe, at least one Armenian historian can in no way be neglected when talking about the Aghvans: Movses Kaghankatouatsi, a historian who is also abused by the “Azeris” who misquote him in their baloney history inventions and attribute him to themselves.

Movses Kaghankatouatsi

Without any doubt, the most complete historical record of Aghvank, History of Aghvank, comes from the seventh century Armenian historian, Movses Kaghankatouatsi, himself a citizen of Kaghankatooik (Kalankatu) a village in the Utik province near the River Tartar in the Aghvank of the day.

It should be noted that another Armenian historian with the same first name, Movses Daskhorantsi, added additional chapters to this work in the 10th century. This has confused some researchers who do not read Armenian and have had to consult second hand sources, to express fallacious ideas about Kaghankatouatsi’s era and have mistakenly put him in the 10th century.

Relating the accounts of war between Khossrow II Parviz (591-628 AD) and Heraclius I (610-641 AD), he writes: “In the winter, the Roman emperor captured 50,000 prisoners from Atrpatakan and moved to the lands north of the Arax, especially Aghvank that had warmer winters and after settling in Aghvank, wrote letters to the Kings of Aghvank, Iberia (Georgia H.), and Armenia to aid the Romans in the war against Iranians”.

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Turks according to Kaghankatouatsi

“In the 38th year of the rule of Khossrow (Khossrow Parviz, the Sassanid king of the time. H.) which was a year of tribulation and affliction …the [Turkish] Jebu (Jebqu/Jabghu) Khan arrived with his son. No one could count their army. When this horrific news came to Aghvank, Hyshak, the ruler of Aghvank who had been appointed to his post by Khossrow, decided to protect our land from the [Turkish] invaders and gather the people in the Partaw fortress... He thought he could resist with the aid of the notables. While he was worryingly anticipating the events, he heard news of the calamity visited upon the fortress of Chor (Darband/Derbend. H.) and its defenders...

Indeed, in the time of the universal misfortune which was in front of us all, first they slammed it against the waves of the immense sea and razed the fortress to the ground. Seeing the malevolent, imminent danger from the evil, monstrous ugly horde with brazen wide, eyelash-less countenances and long hair scattered over their faces like women, Hyshak, shook with fear especially when he saw the arrows that poured upon them like a violent hailstorm from the strung bows of their archers.

In the manner of bloodthirsty wolves and without a grain of shame and decency they attacked the people of the city and ruthlessly slaughtered them in the streets. There was no sign of any mercy in the eyes of these butchers regarding the beautiful, young women either. They massacred the boys and girls as well.

They did not even pity the harmless beings and the disabled and elderly who were unable to fight. Neither they spared the children nor the young, nor would their hearts soften regarding suckling and babies. These innocent infants were lying on the torn apart cadavers of their mothers and were sucking blood from their teats instead of milk. The moment they entered a house, like fire in a haystack, they would burn every place to cinders and they would reduce everything to rubble. The moment they would leave a house they had broken into, they paved the way for the beasts of prey and scavengers from sky and the ground...”

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The ancestral tree of Aghvans according to Kaghankatouatsi

A most significant record in History of Aghvank is Movses Kaghankatouatsi’s presentation of the ancestral tree of the Aghvans. As it appears, at his time, the Aghvans were seen to be of the same origin as the Armenians, namely the descendants of Hyke, the forefather of the Armenians according to their mythology.

Hyke is no fantastic creature endowed with supernatural powers or unnatural anatomical growths but a mere mortal yet a skilled archer who liberates his people by defeating their tyrannical oppressor, Bel, who he kills, thus, avoiding unnecessary bloodshed on both sides, of fighting soldiers. This is also a reflection of the worldview of the Armenians who even in their mythology disdain senseless loss of human life, albeit in the context of war.

Whether Hyke existed or not is less relevant to our subject, rather the fact that the Aghvans and Armenians were thought to be from the same origin long before the Turks devastated the region, gains importance in the light of the shameless historical fabrications of the “Azeris” to somehow convince the world that they are not the leftovers of hordes of nomadic, Ural-Altaic, Mongolo-Tatar, Oghuz-Turkmen, cattle-herder, prowling invaders that only appeared this side of the Caspian from the 11th century onward, but they are descendants of settled, civilized, Christian Aghvans who had already disappeared from the scene of human history, mainly having assimilated with the Armenians. Besides, the Turks consider a gray wolf, which, according to their oral accounts copulated with a bleeding, mutilated youth, as the origin of the Turks.

Table 6

It’s obvious that Movses Kaghankatouatsi has used the fifth century Armenian historian, Movses Khorenatsi’s History of Armenia as his source for the ancestral tree of the Aghvans from Noah to Tigran Yervanduni. Again, whether some of these names belong to the realm of mythology or not is irrelevant, the tree reflects the fact that the Armenians and the Aghvans regarded each other descendants of the same ancestors none of which have anything to do with the Turks, stronger even, after the first couple of names, with any other nation!

It is worth mentioning that Movses Khorenatsi also cites the names of the ancestors of the Hebrews and the Chaldeans in two additional columns parallel to the Armenians.

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19th and 20th Century Historians

Ever since the fabrication of fake “Azerbaijan” in 1918 and the fertile Soviet ground for producing fiction for consumption as history, the long disappeared nation (in fact multitude of ethnicities) known as the Aghvans, Aluanians or Caucasus Albanians has become a controversial item despite or thanks to their status of being extinct. Any quote from Armenian or Iranian scholars is vehemently labeled by the “Azeris” as chauvinistic while the farcical distortions of history, a natural consequence of forcing a sham state to be regarded as an ancient civilization mainly through the efforts of the arch-falsifier Ziya Bunyatov (Buniyatov) and his followers, can simply not be taken seriously by anybody, not even by a rather pro-Turkish author.

As it is outside the scope of the present essay to mention or quote every scholar from whatever nationality who has written about Aghvank (Aran, Caucasus Albania) in modern times and keeping in mind the political climate of the period or the country where these were produced, a number of more or less impartial authors are presented below leaving the enthusiasts to do their own research into modern historians related to our subject.


Vasili Vladimirovich Bartold (1869-1930)

The renowned Russian academician Bartold has mainly researched and written about the Turks and the inhabitants of Central Asia. He has this to say about the origin of the name Azarbaijan: “Before Alexander’s incursion Iranian Azarbaijan (the real H.) was an inseparable part of Media and didn’t have an independent administration. In the battle of Gaugamela Atropat was the satrap of entire Media… After Alexander, a part of Media that was called the Lesser Media remained under Atropat’s rule. Later on Atropat’s name was added to the name of this land. The Greeks called it Atropatena and the Armenians called it Atrpatakan. This is where the name of Azarbaijan originated.” (Emphasis is mine H.)

Bartold describes “the Arax River which at present separates Iran and the Caucasus” as “a distinct ethnic and racial border between Iranian lands of the Medes and Albania (the usual but confusing term used in Soviet and most western sources for Aghvank H.) in ancient times where the ethnicities were of Japhethite origin according to N. Marr”.

Though there are several fallacies in the above quote, mainly in considering the north of Arax the beginning of the Caucasus whereas its southernmost part is the River Kur, we must be reminded of the political situation of the time where the whole of fake “Azerbaijan” was being treated as the exact geographic situation of Aghvank (Aran, Caucasus Albania). Yet we know that the northeastern part of this fabricated state was once part of Sarmatia the ancestors of today’s Ossets or Alans, also the land of Massagets, Artsakh has sometimes been considered an administrative region of Aghvank under the Sassanids.

Bartold has noted further that the River Kur had become the southern border of Aghvank in the time of the Caliph Marwan. Bartold goes on: “in the historic periods a strong racial and ethnic border has always divided the Iranian Medes from the peoples living in [Caucasus] Albania …the ethnic and racial differences between Azarbaijan (the real H.) and Albania (Aghvank H.) did not disappear even in the Islamic era. The language of the people of Azarbaijan (the real H.) differed from that of the people of Albania (Aghvank H.)”.

Explaining the reason why the name “Azerbaijan” was plagiarized by the Tatars for their fabricated state Bartold opines: “The name Azerbaijan was chosen because it was believed that by creating the Republic of “Azerbaijan” it would eventually be one with the Azarbaijan of Iran. If a proper name could be applied to the present day Republic of “Azerbaijan”, the name Aran would be the correct choice”. ●

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Vladimir Minorsky (1877-1966)
Works: Studies in Caucasian History, Articles about p an-Turkism, Atropatena, etc.

Concerning Turkish history fabrication methods Minorsky remarks: “where there’s an unsolved question regarding ancient civilizations of the near east, Turks will immediately put their hands on it”.

Minorsky’s works also deal with the peoples of the region. He notes the strategic importance of Aghvank for the Sassanids and mentions the Iranian element present which accounts for the Iranian place names in the region such as Lizan (from Lahijan in northern Iran), Shirvan, etc. The Lahij were an Iranian ethnicity who immigrated to Shirvan from Gilan. Today the Lahij are known as Tats who live mainly south of Dagestan and around the Caspian in fake “Azerbaijan”.

From his history of Aran and Shirvan it’s interesting to point out that the region’s fall into the hands of Seljuk bandit king Alp Arslan’s general Savotekin was the result of it’s ruler, Fazl ibn Shavoor’s rebel son Fazloon’s deduction that he couldn’t beat the Seljuks and ceded it without fighting to the Turkish invaders, thus bringing about the end of the Shaddadian dynasty… This clearly shows that Aghvan’s usurpation from another usurper was a mere piece of cake for the ancestors of the Tatars of the Caucasus who chose the name “Azerbaijani” (later “Azeri”) for their artificially concocted “nation” at the end of 1930s. ●


Joseph Markwart (Marquart)
Works: Die Chronologie der alttürkischen Inschriften, Leipzig, 1898
Eranshahr nach der Geographie des ps. Moses Xorenatsi, Berlin, 1901

Marquart who is famous for his study of Iranian history believes: “The language of Atropatena (Atrpatakan) is the real Pahlavi language… The written Pahlavi is the same as that of Atropatena and is derived from Parthian (Ashkani) Pahlavi”.

Concerning the northern limit of Azarbaijan (the real) in times of the Sassanids when the Zintha fortress had been decided upon as the border between Atropatenean Media (Atrpatakan, real Azarbaijan) and Armenia in 298 AD, Markwart affirms that “as of 363 AD this border had remained unchanged. It was later in the Sassanid era when Atropatena (Atrpatakan, real Azarbaijan) expanded southeastward until the shores of Lake Urmia. Later still its borders widened and incorporated 12 regions of Pytakaran (Beylakan)”. As confirmed by Markwart, these regions were originally part of Armenia, thus, even what is known as Azarbaijan (the real) includes parts of historic Armenian territory.

It is important to note that unlike the pan-Turkist “Azeris” who stole the name of real Azarbaijan for a later annexation of the same to their fabricated state, an aim that to this day is apparent in all their falsified publications dealing with history, taught at their schools and “academic” establishments, no Armenian claims a square meter of present day Iranian territory. The points stated above are meant to show not only fake “Azerbaijan” that has usurped Armenian land to contrive their extension of Turkey has no legitimate right of demanding land from Armenia, its appetite for the real Azarbaijan is equally absurd in the light of these facts. ●


Kamilla Vasilyevna Trever (1892-1974)
Works: Ocherki po istorii i kulture Kavkazkoi Albanii,… Moscow – Leningrad 1959

Reported by Josephus Flavius and other historians, the Alan invasion of the Caucasus and Iran in 72 AD and the massacres, destruction and plunder they inflicted, especially hit Armenia and Atrpatakan. According to Trever, the Caucasus Albanians (Aghvans) remained neutral, opened the way and allowed the Alans to pass through Aghvank. This is really bad for the “Azeris” who claim they are descendents of the Aghvans and that Aghvank and Atrpatakan were one and the same country, the homeland since the conception of the universe of the “Azeri” Turks, a “nation” that had to wait more than a thousand years before they aped the Alans and about two millennia before they were artificially created.

Trever asserts that the annexation of Pytakaran to Aghvank occurred after the peace treaty of Sassanid Persia and Rome in 387 when the two empires divided Armenia between them. Pavstos Buzand has also reported that after this division the Sassanids separated provinces from the already chopped up Armenia to weaken it further. It is doubtless that this treaty was the heaviest blow to Armenia after which she has not been able to recover to this day.

Explaining the disappearance of the Aghvans Trever writes: “as a result of the dispute between the Monophysite Armenian Church and Diophysite Chalcedonian Georgian Church in the seventh century, the Aghvans who followed the former started to use the Armenian alphabet and the followers of the latter employed the Georgian writing”, to the detriment and certain abandon of the Aghvan alphabet which was only created in the fifth century by the inventor of all of the three, Mesrop Mashtots.

That it was not because of cultural backwardness that the Aghvans failed to go on is confirmed by Trever who claims that the Iberians (Georgians) were not culturally superior to the Aghvans; on the contrary, they were probably behind them in certain branches. ●

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Igor Mikhailovich Diakonov (1914-1999)
Works: Istoriia Midii…, Moscow – Leningrad 1956

Diakonov defines the borders of Media limited to the Arax River and the Alborz mountain range in the north, the Kavir Desert (middle part of Iran) in the east and in the west and the south to the Zagross mountain range. Media consisted of two parts according to Diakonov: the Atropatenean Media from the Arax to Mount Alvand and the Greater Media between the two mentioned mountain ranges. Elsewhere it has been mentioned that Diakonov states that parts of Lesser Media known in the ancient times as Sangibutu used to be in Armenian kingdom of Van territory.

Diakonov confirms that after Cyrus conquered Media he did not abolish the Median kingdom, rather called himself the king of Media. He considers the Persian Achaemenid Empire the result of the mixing of Median and Persian tribes contrary to the absurd accusations of the Turks that the Persians invaded “Turkic” Media and massacred and subjugated them. He also demolishes the baseless claims of the Turks to the language of the Medes by declaring that the northwestern Median-Parthian and southwestern Old Persian shared the same root and were of Iranian origin.

Pulverizing yet another fictitious “Azeri” claim, the most preposterous of all, in appropriating the Iranian prophet Zoroaster, Diakonov excludes the possibility of Aghvank as the birthplace of Avesta because the languages of the region were not of Iranian origin. This leads us to another fundamental difference between the peoples of Atrpatakan and Aghvank, namely that of religion. Diakonov argues that Avesta could not have been written in any language other than of Iranian origin, because the names, expressions and philosophical concepts of Zoroastrianism were well known among Iranian ethnicities such as the Saka, Kharazmis, Sogdians, Bactrians and Persians whereas they were foreign to Elamite, Hurrians and Caucasian peoples.

He also believes that the Turanians were Aryan, they spoke languages belonging to the Iranian family, they were the same as the Saka (Scythians) and their land was Eastern Iran, that is, Central Asia.

As far as the desperate “Azeri” “academic” hallucinations to somehow find a Turkic origin in everything they want to lay their hands on Diakonov asserts: “We cannot assume that because certain words resemble others in different languages therefore they should also have the same meaning. This idea does not merit any credit”. ●


Nina Viktorovna Pigulevskaia (Pigulevskaya)
Works: Siriiskie istochniki VI v. o narodakh Kavkaza, V.D.I. N° 1, 1939
Siriiskie istochnik po istorii SSSR, Moscow – Leningrad 1941
Goroda Irana v rannem srednevekovie, Moscow – Leningrad 1956

The Soviet scholar Nina Pigulevskaia has researched the Assyrian sources for information concerning Aghvank. The sixth century AD author Zacharias Rhetor (Pseudo-Zacharius) mentions Armenia, Gurzan (Georgia) and Arran (Aghvank) and their peoples among the Christian countries of the Caucasus in his Ecclesiastic History - with translation of passages from Ptolemy.

A slightly different theory regarding the origin of the name of Atrpatakan is presented by Pigulevskaia which interestingly enough implies that the “pat” in Atrpatakan originally meant wall. This has been treated in the sections relevant to the origin and meaning of the term Azarbaijan. In the Assyrian chronicles of Karka Beit Sluk (Karkha Beit Slukh), present day Kirkuk, she finds information about Atrpatakan. The chronicles of the Median king Arbaces record that in the fifteenth year of the reign of [the Assyrian king] Sardon, the rebellion of Arbaces reached Hegmataneh. Arbaces built a huge wall (fortress) called Adurbad in Media. According to Pigulevskaia the name Adurbadegan/Adurbayegan (Atrpatakan) originated from Adurbad which was the title of Arbaces after who the region was named.

This does not change anything as far as the Iranian root of the meaning of the term, still, it enforces the theory that Atrpat/Atropat originally meant surrounded/protected by fire rather that protector of fire. The only divergence here is in the concept of the time of naming the region which according to Pigulevskaia goes back three or four centuries from the time of Alexander to the time of Sardon – Asarhaddon, according to Mösinger – in the seventh century BC.

According to Pigulevskaia the Median tribes who lived all over the Iranian plateau since ancient times were of Iranian origin and their language was a branch of Indo-European. After the advent of Alexander and the spreading of Hellenism, Pigulevskaia agrees that the Greek language did have some influence in the Parthian (Arsacid/ Ashkani) era but numerous manuscripts have survived in Pahlavi and Aramaic, among which the Avroman documents. She recognizes that by the time of the Sassanids, the Greek element had gradually disappeared.
Pigulevskaia confirms that the Sassanid king Shapur I did not annex the subject countries to Iran and called them Aniran. This is interesting in that the deep feelings of regret among Iranians for the “loss” of the so-called South Caucasus region to the Russians according to Golestan/Turkmenchai treaties is baseless, even more so when these countries are no more under Russian rule. ●

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Bakikhanov, Abbasghuli Agha (1794-1847)
Work: Golestan e Eram

A native of the Caucasus, Bakikhanov has done extensive research on the history of Aghvank (Aran and Shirvan) and has presented the results under the title Golestan e Eram in Persian. He delineates the borders of Shirvan and confirms the River Kur as the southwestern limits of that region that separates it from Armenia and the Mughan plain (region to the southwest of the Caspian, south of Pytakaran). Bakikhanov admits that the right bank of the River Kur until the point it unites with the Arax River is part of Armenia. ●


Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi (? - 1853)
Work: Tarikh-e Qarabagh (History of Karabakh)

Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi’s work recording the events between 1747 and 1806 is written in the later years of his life starting in 1847, in Persian. He attests to a majority Armenian presence in Artsakh and reaffirms that in the quest for pasture for their cattle the Turkic nomadic tribes gradually appeared in Armenian populated Artsakh from the 17th century onward. He relates the murderer and rapist Panah’s escape (from Persian law) to Artsakh, his abusing of the chaotic circumstances after Nader Shah’s assassination and his appointing of himself as a khan in mid 18th century and he adds that Panah ruled over Artsakh except the five Armenian Melikdoms (Moluk Khamsa).

He considers Partaw, the once glorious capital of Aghvank part of the khanate of Karabakh, “and the foremost city in the province of Karabakh is the city and fortress of Bardha (Partaw H.) situated near the source of the Tartar River three farsakhs (6.24 km H.) away from the River Kur. And in the past, the inhabitants of that city were Armenians and other non-Muslims.”

Mirza Jamal Javanshir mentions the Moluk Khamsa of Artsakh: “before establishing the khanate of Karabakh, in the time of the Safavids the districts of Dizak, Varanda and Khachen and [the rest of] the five Armenian districts were under the Safavid king’s appointed governor… Each district was ruled by a melik.” ●


Igrar Aliev (Aliyev)
Works: Voprosi istorii Kavkazkoi Albanii, Baku, 1962,
Ocherk istorii Atropateni, Baku, 1989

Far from being pro-Armenian or anti-“Azeri”, this contemporary scholar from “Azerbaijan” is nevertheless a rare phenomenon. Naturally, all of his works haven’t been to the taste of “Azeri” fascists and incidents of burning of his books have occurred in fake “Azerbaijan”.

Igrar Aliev has done extensive research regarding the language and origins of Atrpatakan and considers the language of the people of Azarbaijan (Atrpatakan) Iranian without a shadow of a doubt.

He rejects the “Azeri” falsifiers who try very hard to attribute a Turkish origin to the name Azerbaijan (Atrpatakan, Aturpatekan, Aturpayegan, Atropatena) and mockingly compares their work to “coffee reading” (a type of fortune telling by describing the coffee patterns created by turning the cup of Turkish coffee upside down after drinking its content H.). He severely criticizes the Turkish “historians” who without any regard to linguistics, attribute Turkish origin to every word that remotely sounds like a word in Turkish. He expresses his anxiety that this sort of “reasoning” has found its way in “scientific” works in “Azerbaijan”.

While for every Armenian the suffix akan’s function is as clear as daylight and it’s used on daily basis to signify the attribution of something to something else: parskakan = Persian (Attributed to Persia), fransakan = French, angliakan = English, hndkakan = Indian, islamakan = Islamic, etc., etc., etc., after comparing Atrpatakan to the Parthian term Friapatikan from Friapatia and the Armenian term Anahitakan from Anahit, Aliev comes to the conclusion that Atrpatakan means attributed, named after Atropat, a fact that’s known to us for twenty three centuries as of now (2007).

Igrar Aliev rejects any Turkish origin for the name Azerbaijan: “The name Aturpatekan is a purely Iranian term”, Ocherk istorii Atropateni, p. 34. He also agrees with Dorn’s delineation of Albania’s (Aghvank) borders: Sarmatia to the northeast, Georgia and Alazan River (Olazanes) to the northwest, Armenia and the joining point of Kur and Arax to the southwest, south and southeast and the Caspian to the east.

Concerning the people of Atrpatakan, Igrar Aliev also calls them the Atropateni, i.e. the Atropateneans and not “Azeris”. ●

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Why Did the Aghvans Disappear?

Strabo has reported the existence of 26 ethnicities with their own kingdoms and languages in Aghvank. The Islamic historians have also mentioned the diversity of the languages of the region. It seems that the Aghvans were the largest group of them all. Examining all the races and tribes who ever lived in Aghvank in detail is not the goal of the present subject, save it is noteworthy that scholars have counted Mukhoi (Mughan according to some), Casps, Gels (Gils), Leks, Gargars, Udins (Utis), Silvis, Lupins, Chilbs, Shichbs, Gardman, Olond, Lahij, Egersuans, Balasich, Khechmataks, Tavaspars, Poskhs, Tats, Talishes, Gluars, Gats, Budugs, Khinalugs, Khibivans, Khrsans, Kriz, Pukuans, among others as ethnicities who live or once lived in the region loosely referred to as Aghvank or Caucasus Albania. Interestingly not a single one of these has ever been linked in any way to Turks while a number of them such as Talishes, Tats and Lahijis are certainly of Iranian origin.

This enormous diversity is the main reason given for the extinction of the Aghvans. There was never a strong cultural, linguistic or religious link to bind all these ethnicities together as an accomplished nation-state. This also explains why even in the presence of an alphabet, conceived by the Armenian inventor of Armenian and Georgian alphabets, Mesrop Mashtots, the Aghvans were unable to withstand the calamities visited upon them in the shape of invasions of nomadic tribes starting with the Arabs and going on with the centuries long Turkic incursions. It is believed that parts of these were forced into Islam at the time of the Arabs and the rest assimilated with the Armenians.

When he was asked how the Aghvans who had a writing system did not survive, Bartold cited Kharazmis as another nation with written culture who also disappeared from the scene of history. Trever believes that the dispute between the followers of Armenian and Georgian Church in Aghvank in the seventh century drove the Aghvan alphabet, which was only created a couple of centuries before, into a corner. Each sect chose to use the writing system of the respective church instead of the Aghvan alphabet. The Arab invasion that followed shortly lessened the chances of the survival of the written Aghvan culture.

The relatively stable short periods of the Aranshahs had also to deal with the disputes between the kingdoms which led to the final dissolution of Aghvank as a nation and a state. Foreign occupiers constantly usurped the rule of the region. The Arab Mazidi dynasty who later called themselves Shirvanshahs, ruled over the northeastern part of Aghvank, which became known as Shirvan, from the latter 9th to the early 11th century. They were able to extend their rule over Shamakhi, Sheki and Qabalah. The Salarian rulers of Gilan took over Shirvan and Darband (Derbend) then came the Khazars and the Shaddadians. Later came the Turks and despite desperate attempts to muster up as much help as they could, the resistance of these local rulers could not hold back the Turkish hordes which finally imposed the Oghuz domination in the region that had already stopped being what was known as the Aghvanits Ashkhar, the land of the Aluanians. The Mongol invasions of later centuries (1220s AD) into the region followed by numerous other gangs of Turco-Tatar plunderers warped the ethnic picture of Aghvank to a higher degree, divided the region into khanates (little kingdoms ruled by a khan) and slowly but surely this ancient country ceased to exist.

A direct metamorphosis of all the Aghvan ethnicities into Turks is out of the question, thus, the claim that the Aghvans were the ancestors of the “Azeris” is nonsense. Turks should be asked how on earth all the Christian Aghvans suddenly became Turks while their church was closely related to that of the Armenians which even appointed the Catholicos of the Aghvans. It has already been noted that the application of the blanket fake term “Azeri” to all the inhabitants of fake “Azerbaijan”, not unlike the Kemalist genocidal law of calling all the inhabitants of Turkey Turks, was contrived to erase the identities of the ethnicities still living in the region. In both cases, the Turkic element was a minority but in this cunning manner and the discriminatory measures employed against these non-Turkic peoples - by clever abuse of the fertile poisonous Bolshevik ground in the “Azeri” case - such as depriving them of the study of their languages, the practice of their religions, destruction of their cultural heritage, has weakened them to the benefit of the Turks.

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Conclusion

“Armenia is a fictitious state created on Azerbaijani land ...”

…said the defunct Communist party leader and Politburo member turned pan-Turkist, self-imposed President of the Republic of fake “Azerbaijan”, Heydar Aliev on 26 March 1998, as part of his “Decree of the President of “Azerbaijan” on the “Genocide!!!” of the “Azeris””. Needless to say he did not feel the need to produce a single proof for these fecal ejaculations. There’s just almost nothing wrong with this statement. In fact it would be perfectly correct if it started with “Azerbaijan” and ended with “Armenian land”. Turkish accounts of history are always 180 degrees opposite to the truth.

Throughout this exposé it has been clearly shown that the belligerent, deceitfully counterfeited pan-Turkist pseudo state of fake “Azerbaijan” has engaged in a fanatical, all encompassing history falsification and fairytale fabrication to justify its illegal presence and genocidal existence on behalf of the indigenous people of the southeastern flank of the Armenian Highland, wrongly renamed into “Southern Caucasus” by the Turkophile West or “Transcaucasus” by the not seldom double dealing Russians, just as in the case of bogus “Azerbaijan’s” progenitor where the western parts of Armenian Highland have been desecrated into “Eastern Anatolia”.

According to these murderous hordes turned “modern”, “democratic”, “secular” and “European”, an Armenia did not exist anywhere in Armenian Highland, because in the opposite case, their miserable existence and the disappearance of the indigenous people who lived there from the beginning of human history until the 20th century would raise questions. What else remains to be said of the eastern extension of Turkey whose name is fake, whose history is fake, whose geography is fake, whose nationality is fake, whose culture is fake, whose heritage is fake, whose genocide is fake, whose monuments are fake, whose ancestors are fake, whose royal dynasties are fake, whose heroes are fake, whose poets are fake, whose philosophers, etc., are fake?

For a sham like fake “Azerbaijan”, it is an extraordinary feat that this robber of other peoples’ name, history, geography, nationality, culture, heritage, genocide, monuments, ancestors, royal dynasties, heroes, poets, philosophers, etc., they have fooled the “civilized” world into accepting them as part of the UN, the Council of Europe and soon NATO, despite its bloody and expansionist, less than 90 years history (as of April 2008). This is an accomplishment never heard of in human history, exactly like a nation called “Azeri”.

Delving into treasures left for us and those to come, from the dawn of recorded history, by historians of any corner of the world who have written about the region one cannot conclude but:

• I. Never and in no historical period since the continents have accepted the present form and human societies have developed on this planet, has there ever existed a country called “Azerbaijan” north of the Arax River.
  
  
• II. Azarbaijan (Atrpatakan) has always been to the south of the Arax River, even in those periods when the borders of Aghvank (Aran/Aluania), following the whims of the rulers of the region, sometimes reached the Arax. Generally the River Kur has been cited as the southern and western border of Aghvank with Armenia.
  
  
• III. Regardless of the borders of Aghvank (Aran/Aluania), it’s interesting that, like the ancient Greek and Roman authors, almost all Islamic historians and geographers have unequivocally considered Aghvank part of Armenia. This is proof that long before Turkic invasions, the Aghvans (people of Aran) had already assimilated or in the process of assimilation with the Armenians who they were historically related to.
  
  
• IV. Nowhere and in no historical document is there a word about a nation called “Azeri”. While the Persian dialect of the people of the real Azarbaijan (Atrpatakan) has been called Pahlavi Azari or Irani Azari by some Islamic historians, never has the term ever been applied to a nation before the end of the 1930s, about two decades after the counterfeiting of fake “Azerbaijan”.
  
  
• V. A language derived from Turkish called “Azeri” does not exist. Turks of the Caucasus speak a dialect of Turkish.
  
  
• VI. As a result of Turkic domination in the region, the people of the real Azarbaijan (Atrpatakan) south of the Arax River have gradually lost their native Pahlavi language, however, they are Turkish speaking Iranians and cannot be considered Turks. The obvious reason that backs this claim is that their affinity is to Iran and not to pan-Turkism.
  
  
• VII. The people of Aghvank (Aran/Aluania) living to the north and the people of Azarbaijan (Atrpatakan) living to the south of the Arax River have always been two separate, unrelated entities throughout history in racial, linguistic, religious, cultural and national terms.
  
  
• VIII. Fact III above alone pulverizes Heydar Aliev’s delirium, in case one would be so uninformed to believe the “Azeris” were the descendants of what they fallaciously and maliciously call “Albanians” (Aghvans), which is of course total baloney. Not only have they no idea of the language, customs, religion, history and culture of the people of Aghvank, they do not show an iota of affinity with this long extinct Christian nation and would exterminate them with sadistic pleasure had they survived until the twentieth century.
  
  
• IX. Their claim to be of so-called “Albanian” (Aghvan) descent faded totally when instead of keeping the name of the nation they pretend to be their origins, these leftovers of Oghuz invaders that lived under a tribal clan system up to and well after the counterfeiting of their fabricated “nation” called themselves “Azeri”, nonexistent in human history.

Probably no one says it more appropriately than the great 20th century Azarbaijani Iranian historian, Ahmad Kassravi Tabrizi (Kasravi), not without a dose of humor: “It’s astonishing that they have given the name Azerbaijan to what used to be Aran… Not that this would be to the detriment of Azarbayegan (the real Azarbaijan H.) but because our Arani brothers have totally turned their backs on their history and heritage at the dawn of their free and independent life. Such a stupefying phenomenon has no precedence in history.” (Ahmad Kassravi, The Unknown Kings, page 265.)

© 2007-2008, Hellektor

*****

[imported_Hellektor]

Selected References and Bibliography

Sources and links for further research

From the Internet:

Artsakh, Legal Aspects (pdf)
Barbaric destruction of Jugha cemetery (video)
Destruction of Armenian Khachkars in Old Jugha (Nakhijevan)
Jugha cemetery brochure (pdf)
Artsakh conflict
“Azeri” thugs disembowel pregnant Armenian women in Sumgait
Incomplete list of innocent victims of Sumgait
“Azeri” pogroms against Armenians
Maragha genocidal act
Maragha genocidal act 2
Gandzak (Kirovabad) - 1988: Facts and Events
The Slaughter of Gurgen Markarian
Khojaly hoax exposed
Khojaly hoax exposed 2
Khojaly hoax fact sheet (pdf)
Artsakh conflict Chronology of events and facts since 1988 (pdf)
The 20% “occupied “Azeri” territory”; myth and one million refugees lie exposed (pdf)
A-52-85 Letter from Permanent Mission of Armenia on Human Rights
From Nonsense to Nationhood: a Dangerous Trajectory of “Azerbaijani” Nationalism
Rewriting History: Recent Azeri Alterations of Primary Sources Dealing with Karabakh by George A. Bournoutian
Petition from the Armenians of Mountainous Karabakh to Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev
Wilson for Armenia, info concerning the Wilsonian Armenia
Azeri TV broadcasts full interview with Chechen commander
Azerbaijani Links to Osama Bin Laden
Global Market Brief: The Geopolitics of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
Iran Chamber Society, mainly the History section
Alik Armenian Daily, Tehran
Peter Dale Scott, Al Qaeda, US Oil Companies, and Central Asia (pdf)
Translation of Avesta and Zoroastrian texts including the Kartir inscription
The Dejan Lučić; website
International Crisis Group members
Emma Bonino’s Turchia page
Zbigniew Brzezinski and U.S. - Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce, 1212 Potomac Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20007
Hijri and Gregorian dates converter