Armine Adibekya
Armenophobia in Azerbaijan
18. Armenophobia in textbooks
A textbook is a book that systematically lays down fundamental knowledge in a specific domain at the current level of the scientific and cultural achievements and represents the main and leading type of academic literature.520
A school textbook plays an important role in securing the personal and intellectual development of students. The ultimate mission of a textbook is to aid the shaping of a personal attitude of the student to the course of study.521
The education underlies the raising of future generations and communication of accumulated ancestral knowledge. In the modern world, where the system of education is overall standardized and controlled by the state, its function consists not only in counteracting illiteracy, but also in instilling and indoctrinating the values and ideologies intrinsic to the society in question.
In this context, the study of didactic materials gives an insight into the ideological constituent of the society and a rough forecast of its future.
Following the attainment of independence, the Azerbaijani textbooks draw both domestic and international criticism. Most of the critical voices raised domestically refer to errors, typos, inaccurate translation, etc.
Yana Madatova, journalist: Not only parents do sound the alarm, but also specialists in linguistics, pedagogues and independent experts. Thus, Aydin Aslanov, an associate professor at the Chair of Social Disciplines of the Baku Institute for Advanced Training and Retraining for Teachers, stated that the history textbooks for secondary schools in the Azerbaijani and Russian languages teemed with semantic, scientific and technical errors. <…> I could understand if this was limited to textbooks in Russian as today, the language, as it were, is no longer native. But after all, the textbooks in the Azerbaijani also contain colossal blunders!522
Slava Sapunov, the editor-in-chief of the Boutique Travel magazine: Misprints, awkward bombast, clumsy style and sometimes unabashed misinformation.523
Milana Zhuchkova, journalist: There have been many reports about the poor work of proofreaders in compiling the national textbooks; sometimes it is about a huge number of grammar errors, sometimes it is about missing words and sometimes it is about impossibility of solving a math problem because figures are misprinted. There are many other examples of malpractice in the work of educational professionals. The reputation of the domestic products has long been marred, with children laughing at the errors of intelligent adults, and it is very sad when schoolchildren think they have the right to consider themselves smarter than the specialists who have compiled the textbook. As I recently ploughed the social networks, I stumbled across a very interesting photograph from a page of a literature textbook for the 7th grade indicating the lifespan of L. N. Tolstoy as 1928–1910. The photograph sported a commentary: “Only in our textbooks, the great Russian writer died before he was born.524
However, if blunders of grammar and style are acknowledged by the compilers (scholars, pedagogues, Ministry of Education) and can be corrected, the ideological constituent of the academic literature remains unchanged as testified by the authors themselves.
The author of the History textbook for the 10th grade, which portrays Armenians as “the eternal enemies” of the Azerbaijanis, the department head of the History of Slavic Countries of the Baku State University, Tofik Veliyev acknowledges that he used “negative language” but in his opinion “it was necessary to tell the truth”. “These phrases give an accurate picture of Armenians”, thinks Veliyev.525
It can be claimed that the educational process in Azerbaijan is made contingent on the ideology that cultivates armenophobia.
Arif Yunusov, conflictologist, in his publication entitled The myths and the images of the ‘enemy’ in historical science and in the history textbooks of the independent Azerbaijan notes that “amid the Karabakh conflict, the schoolbooks in Azerbaijan had the mission of “breeding patriots who know how to distinguish friend from foe and are prepared to take part in another conflict if need be”.526
Arif Yunusov: The image of the ‘enemy’ is formed starting from the textbook for the fifth grade, i.e. since the very first year of teaching the subject of history. It is true that it is still not a textbook on the history of Azerbaijan; it is called Fatherland (‘Ana yurdu’), but written in a very emotional way, especially pronounced in the description of Azerbaijan’s confrontation with “others”, much more so when dealing with the subject of its “historical” enemies.
Incidentally, one of the central if not the principal points covered in the textbook refers to sacrificing oneself in the name and for the benefit of the motherland. Thus, in the section entitled “Those Who Live For The Motherland Elevate It”, only a small portion is dedicated to the figures of culture and art. The narrative mostly covers heroes (Babek, Kerogly and Shah Ismail) who dedicate their lives to the motherland fighting in the name of its independence.527
According to Yunusov, the patriotic education holds a significant place in the Azerbaijani textbooks and directly ensues from the doctrine of “fighting the enemies”, represented by the Armenians, as well as the willingness to sacrifice own lives for the motherland and in the “heroic struggle” against the enemies.
In subsequent sections of the textbook, its authors pay increasing attention to Armenians who begin to be perceived as “the main infidels clad in black”. Also, a variety of negative epithets (“bandits”, “aggressors”, “perfidious”, “hypocritical” etc.) are used in respect of the Armenians. It were the “perfidious” Armenians who helped Russia in conquering Azerbaijan, it was the result of the “insurrection of Armenian bandits” in Karabakh in 1920 that the main forces of the Azerbaijani army were pulled back from the northern borders, a chance that was exploited by the 11th Red Army which invaded Azerbaijan. Thus, the “black-clad infidels” once again committed their black deed”. In the final part of the textbook, its authors decisively shape the image of the enemy represented by Armenians who have waged for centuries a struggle against the Azerbaijani people and continue to do so in our days: “Armenians, the black-clad infidels and their patrons resort to every treacherous and base scheme to weaken and isolate our state”.528
In what follows, the Turkic origin of some persons is constantly underscored. The authors get so carried away with their love for Turkization that they contrive to make preposterous and absurd statements: In 337, the Albanian ruler Sanatruk (Sanaturk of Turkic origin, according to the version advanced by the authors of the textbook) led a campaign against Armenia and “protected the local Turkic population from the encroachments of the Christian preachers!” In the following year, the Armenian military leader, Vache Mamikonyan, launched a retaliation campaign against Albania and defeated Sanatruk’s army. However, the pupils who read about this event will find out that the Armenian military leader Mamikonyan was actually of… Turkic rather than Armenian origin. And, in general, Turkic people played a prominent role in spreading and strengthening Christianity in Armenia! This means we have an absurd picture: First, Turkic people spread Christianity in Armenia. In response to that, another Turk from the territory of Albania leads an incursion into Armenia in order to protect the local Turkic people from Christians. This is followed by a retaliation campaign by another Turk, but a Christian this time, who defeated the army of a non-Christian Turk!529
Aleko Partsvaniya, journalist, notes: “Peacefulness and tolerance are other characteristic features of Azerbaijanis. Here, people do not like aggression and resort to it in very rare cases. With one exception. The name of this exception is Armenia. Armenia is hated. They do so with all their heart and their entire state. I do not know all the details of the story with Karabakh and I do not think that most of the Azerbaijanis do, but Armenia is hated for Karabakh. They are taught to hate Armenia from the primary classes. I won’t be surprised if the situation is similar in Armenia, but here things can get ridiculous. In Baku it is even impossible to find the CDs of a Western group, if any of their performers is of Armenian origin”.530
In April 2012, at the session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly held in Baku, during the meeting of the Committee on Social Affairs, Education and Culture, the question of the Azerbaijani textbooks was brought up for discussion. The Armenian deputy, Aram Safaryan asked: “Is it true that your schools and textbooks contain propaganda of hostility and hatred to Armenians?” To that, the Minister of Education, Misir Mardanov531 replied: “There is a vast chasm between our societies. And today’s event is a step towards bridging this chasm. I don’t know what is written in your books, and you don’t know what is written in our books. Therefore, it is hardly possible to find an answer to this question in a single day or during a single event. Questions of this nature call for very serious studies by specialists”.532
Fatherland, textbook for the 5th grade: … It was 1945. In January, fierce fighting raged on the Baltic shore near the city of Mitawa. As before, the brigade of the General H. Aslanov was in the vanguard. The victory over the enemy was drawing near with every new day, and it seemed that the tankmen of the courageous general will be the first to enter Berlin – the den of fascism. This was the situation on January 24, 1945 as the heroic son of our people who had gone through the horrors of Stalingrad, through the hell of the Battle of Kursk, General Hazi Aslanov died under obscure circumstances. Who knows, maybe in revealing the circumstances of this death, another case of base Armenian perfidy and treachery will be unearthed?533
The website Musаvаt.соm conducted a survey among scholars, pedagogues, psychologists and deputies on the subject of “whether the Azerbaijani textbooks contain propaganda of hatred against Armenians”. Venerable respondents did not refute the presence of armenophobia and set about expatiating upon the question why armenophobia became reflected in the academic literature”.534
Tahir Ibragimov, a teacher of history with a service record of 25 years, considers that textbooks reflect the truth about Armenians. In his opinion, with a war going on between the two peoples, it is impossible to create a positive image of the enemy. “Children must have real information about their history. Facts about Armenians may not be distorted. Besides, by the age the children are given these classes, they already possess information about the real deeds of Armenians. In our textbooks, we cannot write the opposite”.535
T. Ibragimov also believes that textbooks do not contain any denigration of Armenians, but report true facts: “If these facts make Armenians uneasy, let them change their nature. We may not raise our children in lies just to please them. Presently, there are thousands of pupils whose parents are refuges from Karabakh. They know what Armenians did long before their history classes. Why should we deceive them?”
The dualist approach taken by the psychologist Elmira Qasimzadeh is worthy of a note. On the one hand, she believes that “a textbook should not be turned into an instrument of vengeance” and “instead, attention must be paid to forming historical thinking in pupils. The textbooks must contain essential points enabling to assess one’s country and motherland correctly. I wouldn’t like our patriotism to be measured in the extent of our hatred”. On the other hand, she says the following: “In our textbooks, I never saw any appeals to kill Armenians or the ideas that Armenians are our enemies. My own child goes to school. Indeed, children are well-informed of the wrongdoings perpetrated by Armenians from television and books. How can we conceal from children the tragedies of January 20, Khojaly and the occupation of our lands?536 Or, children must learn the whole truth about the history through a factual language: you can’t teach children a false history”.537
A pupil of the 11th grade, Hasan Nagizadeh, expressed his full agreement with both the author of the textbook and its content.
The author is Azerbaijani. Of course, he intends to arouse enmity. This is how it should be”, said he. “They definitely don’t want to prepare us for peace. We don’t need peace. Armenians have committed a multitude of bloody crimes against us. The peace would mean disrespect to those who fell in this war.538
With reference to the above, we offer the reader a few extracts from the Teacher’s guide on patriotic education of preschool and schoolchildren and Teacher’s guide for the patriotic education of children.539
Developed by: Scientific and Methodological Department of the Republican Children’s Library after F. Kocharli and the Methodological Department of the Central Library after S. Vurgun.
Approved by: The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan Baku 2009 Explanatory note: The guides suggest specific scenarios and recommended words and phrases to be pronounced by the facilitators; besides, the Methodological Guide recommends this training for children starting from the age of 3.
The first facilitator: Our lands must not remain shahids540! Our grandfathers protected this land from the enemies not to be now sacrificed to the calamity of the century, the Armeniandom! The tombstones of the Turkic sons in the Shahids’ Lane are not lined up so that some Russian soldier could say: “Don’t be so anguished, your leaders have sold Karabakh long ago”.
The second facilitator: If the motherland becomes shahid (see above), what can we reply to the infant held in his mother’s embrace on the square and crying “better death than retreat”?
No, the son of Turk, no! You won’t let your land become shahid! Let us swear an oath, all those who have Turkic blood running through their veins, let us swear an oath that even if this world turns upside down, the enemy hands will be cut off from our land! Let us swear an oath that we will avenge every single drop of blood spilled by our shahids and turned into the tears of the earth. Let us swear that our oath will not be like our other vows. Let us swear this oath!
* * *
“To raise the children in a patriotic spirit and to form their civic stand, it is recommended to hold disputes.
The questions of the dispute must be as follows:
– Who are Armenians, and what is our civic duty?”
Foreword to the storybook Hale for high school students:
My young friend!
Hey, the Azerbaijani offspring of an ancient and powerful Turkic nation! A piece of your treasure named Azerbaijan, starting from the mahal of Aghbaba to the region of Aghdam moans under the heel of a nation that has declared you an eternal historical enemy, a nation that has no future, whose morality is dead, who has all kinds of mixed waste running through its veins, a spiteful and scorned nation. You have confronted face to face such a loathsome foe who shuns no savagery, baseness, abomination, barbarity, hypocrisy, slander and evil, who lives and nurtures hopes of creating on a territory where he doesn’t have a single inch of historical lands a state named Great Armenia extending from the Black to the Caspian Sea.
On his way, the foe spilled the Turkic blood, but was never sated. At times, he feigned friendship and gaining our trust revealed his relentless enmity. Laughing us in the face, he prepared a pitfall for us by choosing the way of treachery and treason. Always abusing our kind-heartedness, friendship, fidelity to neighbors and generosity, in a word, our love of fellow men, the enemy turned it into a weapon against us, repaid good with evil by laying bare his treacherous nature. At the earliest opportunity they drew their daggers to stab in the back those who had given them refuge, food, drink, protection extending them a helping hand. Armenians turned us into innocent victims of the policy of ethnic cleansings. We fell victims to genocide.
This restless nation with the satanic blood running through their veins has committed against us countless acts of terror.
They wagged their tails before the Russian Empire which had always kept us under occupation, and they relied on its power and protection. As a rule, they would succeed in isolating and excluding us. For 200 years, the Russian Empire kept our hands tied and urged the Armenians to strike at us.
Armenians took full advantage of this and turned the treachery into a national trait by overstepping the boundaries of unbridled insolence.
At every step, they showed aggression against us and seized parts of our sacred land. And they chose the city of Irevan as their capital which was previously our motherland.541
Arif Yunusov, the Azerbaijani political analyst and journalist, wrote that the war in Karabakh called for the role models of independence fighters and national heroes. This resulted in a great number of publications dedicated to the champions of the motherland rather than figures of culture. Incidentally, almost all of them proved to fight primarily against Armenians, as well as against Russia and Iran. It is Armenia (and Armenians) joined by Russia and Iran that are portrayed at an ever increasing rate as the “enemies” of Azerbaijan and its independence. Even when publications did not concern Karabakh, but referred to the reprisals in the Soviet Union in the time of Stalin, in that case too, the Armenian origin of investigators was heavily emphasized.542
In the paragraph entitled Kitabi Dede Korkut: the Historical Chronicle of Our Fatherland, the authors again couldn’t refrain from armenophobic accent in their loose interpretation of the original text of the epic common for all Turkic people, albeit azerbaijanized.543
In the context of indoctrinating armenophobia, some researchers point out to the warping of historical facts to accommodate the needs of the moment:
a) exacerbate the negative image of Armenians (as well as Russians and Iranians);
b) furnish proof of the “indigenous character of the Turks in Caucasus” and the “ecdemic character of Armenians”;
c) attempt abdicating responsibility for the bloodshed in the late 20th century by putting the blame on Armenians.
Some extracts from Azerbaijani textbooks:544
Ancient history 6th grade Section II Ancient world Chapter II Ancient East § Ancient Sumerians Part 1
Question № 4: When and wherefrom did the Turkic speaking people Sumerians arrive in Mesopotamia?
Correct answer: In 7th-6th millennium B.C. from Central Asia and Altai foothills.545
Question № 12: Who and when invented the cuneiform writing system?
Correct answer: Turkic-speaking546 Sumerians in Western Asia in the 3rd millennium B.C.
Question № 13: What peoples borrowed the cuneiform writing system?
Correct answer: Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians
History of Azerbaijan 6th grade Section II First tribal unions and states on the territory of Azerbaijan § 13 Iskits (Scythian) Culture Part 2
Question № 9: What is the origin of Iskits, Cimmerians and Sakaes?
Correct answer: Turkic
History of Azerbaijan 6th grade Section I. Primitive communal system in Azerbaijan. § 1. The first human dwellings on the territory of Azerbaijan.
Question: When did the first human bands appear in Azerbaijan?
Correct answer: 1.5 million years ago.
Question: What sources make the first mention of the ancient Azerbaijani tribes?
Correct answer: Sumerian legends and cuneiform inscriptions.
History of Azerbaijan 6th grade Section IV Ancient Azerbaijani states Albania
Question: When was the independent Albanian state established?
Correct answer: Late 4th century – early 3rd century B.C.
Question: How far did the borders of Albania extend?
Correct answer: Albania bordered on the Caucasus Mountains in the north, Atropatene in the south, Iberia in the northwest and Western Asia in the southwest (!).
History of Middle Ages 7th grade Section I. Countries of the world in the early Мiddle Аge (emergence of feudal relationships) Chapter 1. Peoples of China, Iran and Caucasus § 3. Peoples of the Caucasus Part 1
Question № 5: What states existed in the South Caucasus in the early Мiddle Age?
Correct answer: Albania, Lazica and Karli547
Question № 9: After what developments did Albania win back its historical lands?
Correct answer: Devastation of the Armenian kingdom548
Question № 15: Who was Sanaturk549 and what did he struggle for?
Correct answer: Sanaturk was the ruler of Paytakaran province who combated the spread of Christianity in favor of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Albania.
History of Azerbaijan 7th grade Section III Fall of Arab Caliphate and revival of Azerbaijani statehood Chapter III Azerbaijani Culture § 31 Our people’s struggle against “Gyavurs clad in black” as portrayed in the epic (Dede Korkut) Part 1
Question № 1: What events does the epos illustrate most vividly?
Correct answer: The struggle of the Oghuz brave men against Armenian and Georgian invaders and their guiding hand, the Byzantine Empire.
Section 1. States of the world in the 11th-15th centuries. Chapter IV Caucasus and peoples of Western Europe § 9 Caucasian peoples Part 4
Question № 16: What Azerbaijani cities did the Georgian King George III invade in 1173 and 1203?
Correct answer: Ani and Debil (Dvin)550
The Azerbaijani History textbook for 7th grade swarms with allegations that the ancient Albania (purportedly ancient Azerbaijan) also suffered aggression from Armenians, although “the people and rulers of Albania stretched a helping hand to them in hard times”. Meanwhile, Armenians spread Christianity in Albania that “was not rooted there” and in the guise of the religion allegedly seized the “Azerbaijani lands” under the wing of the Byzantine Empire.551 “However, Albania did not become a Christian country”, but rather adopted Islam in the 7th century; it is precisely the Turkic people that wages a war against Armenians and their Christian patrons.
Training manual for 9th grade students Biology: Human Biology: Laboratory Work552
Approved at the session (March 27, 2003) of Biology Panel of the Scientific and Methodical Commission, Ministry of Education of the Azerbaijani Republic. The authors intended “…to impart theoretical knowledge and nurture patriotic individuals through practical activities (laboratory works, tests, math problems, crossword puzzles)”.
Section Characteristics of Locomotor System, exercise: “Who can say the approximate number of the disabled people who lost their limbs in the Karabakh war?”
Exercise: Find out the reason! In times of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, several young people aged 20 or 21 threw themselves from a high cliff in an attempt to divert the enemy’s attention. Despite of the treatment, they are disabled now. Many of them cannot move their lower limbs, and some suffer enuresis. Explain the reason!”
Section Brief Information on Blood and Hematopoietic System, problem: “During the Nagorno-Karabakh events of 1992, a group of people (children, teenagers, pregnant women and elderly people), fled from the enemy as fast as their legs could carry them into the forests, mountains and valleys. Indicate approximately the heart rate of those people and explain the underlying cause”.
Section Brief Information on Respiratory System, problem: “When Azerbaijanis were banished from Zangezur, every second of them suffered health deterioration and needed artificial ventilation. Some of them perished, and some survived. Explain the reason underlying the state of those people”.
A textbook for the 9th grade notes that in order to foil the expansionist plans of the Russian tsar Peter the Great (Peter I), the Azerbaijanis (Shia and Sunni) supposedly turned to Ottoman Turks553 for help in an attempt to unite themselves with their brothers in religion and language. Again, Armenians allegedly prevented this from happening: “Armenians, as the henchmen of the tsarism, maintained direct contacts with Russia and pledged their help in conquering the Southern Caucasus, including other regions of Azerbaijan”.554
A textbook for the 10th grade expatiates upon the issue of the Armenian repatriation in the 19th century: “The creation of the Armenian state under the Russian patronage as well as the resettlement of Armenians from Iran and Turkey on the lands invaded by Russia was no coincidence, but a logical outcome of the relationships between Armenians and Russians”.555
The blame for the conflict between Armenians and Tatars of 1905–1906 is placed on the “Dashnaktsutyun party and the Armenian bands”. Led by Dashnaks, Armenians “purportedly cherished vain dreams of creating the Great Armenia”. Although, despite the fact that “the Azerbaijanis were very humane and trusting, they could, nevertheless, inflict on Armenians heavy losses”.
The Armenian pogroms of March 1918 in Baku are covered in a textbook on the history of Azerbaijan for the 11th grade in a chapter entitled The Azerbaijani genocide. Here, the “naive and humane Azerbaijanis” oppose Armenians allied with the soviet (earlier: tsarist) troops. If in the soviet period this event was portrayed as a symbol of the joint struggle of workers of all nationalities against the reactionary Azerbaijani nationalists, now these events are depicted otherwise: as the Azerbaijani genocide. The underpinnings of this change can be traced back to the presidential decree by Heydar Aliyev dated March 26, 1998 declaring March 31 as the Azerbaijani “genocide memorial day”.556
To make things look even more convincing, the authors of the textbook quote at the end of the chapter the words of Mammad Amin Rasulzadeh, one of the leaders of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic, with reference to these events by adding a note of their own: “M. A. Rasulzadeh characterized the genocide of 1918 as a national and political factor”. However, prior to the official decree by Heydar Aliyev, nobody referred to these events as genocide. Also, this term does not appear in Rasulzadeh’s original quote about these bloody events.557
In 2011, the Department of Strategic Analysis, Planning and Human Resources Management of the Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Education held an examination for applicants who sought to fill 223 job openings for the positions of history teachers in the schools of the country. 761 persons took part in the examination. The applicants could obtain a score ranging from 4–5 to 16–17 points (!) with a minimum passing score of 35. In explaining their failure, the participants made reference to the “complexity” of the questions. The examinees had to answer 35 questions within 1 hour of the exam that started at 9 a.m.558
Against this background, the picture described in an article by Turan information agency seems to be a common occurrence: “A lecturer at one of the Azerbaijan’s universities relished in a rapturous and vivid account of how he would strangle barehanded even a little Armenian child without the slightest remorse”.559 The lecturer in question taught the theory of radio journalism and simultaneously worked on AZTV radio station.
“With this lecturer, all criticism was met with a single airtight argument: “How can you criticize our president when we face such a problem for the entire country: Armenians? We must focus on that”, says the article.
Aydin Aslanov, a candidate of Historical Sciences, associate professor at the Chair of Social Disciplines of the Baku Institute for Advanced Training and Retraining for Teachers, in his turn, laments that the history textbook in its account of the “Azerbaijani genocide of 1918 in Baku” says that the Armenians walked over the corpses (of the Azerbaijanis). The Russian translation says: “They walked over pipes”560. “You can’t do that”, complains Aslanov.
It was the same Aslanov who stated with reference to the errors and blunders in the Azerbaijani textbooks: “We should always indicate in our textbooks that we are an ancient indigenous people of Caucasus which later changed our language into Turkic and became Muslims renouncing our fire worship. We are local and not ecdemic. We must take pride in the fact that our ancestor Moisey Kalankatuyski built the first Christian church in the Orient, in the village of Kish of Sheki region.561 Somehow, we avoid speaking about our church dating back to the 1st century B.C.562
The new tendencies of the historical science of Azerbaijan have also drawn the attention of Russian authors. An article entitled Unearthing the Truth, or Who and Why Overwrites the History563 published on the Voice of Russia website pays a special attention to the absurdities appearing in Azerbaijani textbooks. The article notes that the analysis of 187 CIS-published textbooks conducted by a group of Russian historians has revealed that except for Belarus and Armenia, schools teach a nationalist version of history based on myths of indigeneity, the ancestral land, the linguistic succession, glorious forefathers, ethnic homogeneity and the arch enemy.
The authors of the report Coverage of general history of Russia and post-soviet nations in the school History textbooks of newly independent states, A. A. Danilov and A. V. Filippov write the following:564
“The reasoning behind the antiquity of the national history can reach ridiculous proportions. <…> The ancestors of Azerbaijanis are made out to be the contemporaries of Sumerians: “The first written accounts of the tribes of the ancient Azerbaijan are given in Sumerian epics and cuneiform writings”. Heralding the ancient Azerbaijanis as Sumerian contemporaries seeks to shore the allegations that the modern Armenia came into being on the territory of the ancient Western Azerbaijan.
…
The exemption from the scientific rigor opened ample opportunities for blending entirely diverging concepts. A part of the soviet historians claimed that the ethnogenesis of the Azerbaijanis originally occurred on the Turkic basis with contributions from Persian-speaking and Caucasian tribes; later, the ethnic composition progressively became homogeneous and entirely Turkic. Another group of scholars claimed that the ancestors of the Azerbaijanis might speak varying languages in different periods of time, yet undergoing no ethnic changes. The Turkic language rooted itself in as late as the X–XI centuries, but the Turkic people themselves were assimilated by the local population. Both concepts were united in their alignment to the theory of indigenous origin, but were divided in their treatment of the language as the basis of a unified culture.
In this sense, the authors of the modern Azerbaijani textbooks saw no problems whatsoever: “The formation of the Turkic people of Azerbaijan resulted from the amalgamation of Turkic ethnic groups known under different names, such as Azeri, Gargars, Albans, Huns, Khazars, Sabirs, Oghuz and others, which populated this vast territory from the antiquity and migrated there on regular basis”. However, it is known for sure that the most ancient of the listed tribes – Azeris and Albans – have nothing to do with the Turkic people. To this, the authors produce the following answer. “According to historical legend, approximately in the 2nd century B.C. Albania was ruled by Aran… Because of the ruler’s mild character, he was given a nickname Agu (good, kind), and the country came to be known as Aguan (Albania). It is clear that both the name and nickname of Albania’s first ruler are of ancient Turkic origin”. Thus, both concepts of the Azerbaijani ethnogenesis have been mechanically fused together which allowed addressing the antiquity problem, the linguistic unity problem as well as the problem of uninterrupted ethnogenesis and culture. The only drawback of this truly brilliant scheme is that it is anti-scientific through and through. But on the other hand, it allows substantiating a point of paramount importance: “The modern Armenia came into being on the territory of the ancient Western Azerbaijan”.
In this context, threats of obliterating Armenia and Armenians as well as the claims to the Western Azerbaijan which are voiced in various venues invoking the common Islamic factor come across as quite natural.