Alik Bakhshi
Azerbaijan
and Armenia
The enmity between Armenia and Azerbaijan arose after
Russia's invasion of the South Caucasus and subsequent colonization.
Historically, there are no known instances of bloody clashes between Armenians
and Azerbaijanis prior to the arrival of Russian conquerors in these regions. In Islamic countries, Armenians,
like Greeks, Christian Arabs, and others, have never been persecuted for their
religion. Armenians have lived and continue to live unoppressed in Turkey,
Lebanon, and Iran since the time of the Caliphate, and later in the Ottoman and
Persian Turkic empires. The fact that there are currently virtually no
Armenians in Azerbaijan and no Azerbaijanis in Armenia is a consequence of the
Karabakh conflict, which was initiated by Armenians who expelled Azerbaijanis
from Armenia and then from the conquered territory of Azerbaijan. Naturally,
after the expulsion of the Azerbaijanis, Armenians were forced to leave
Azerbaijan. A notable fact is that the entire exiled Azerbaijani population
fled to Azerbaijan, while Armenian refugees ended up anywhere but Armenia,
further emphasizing that Armenia is an artificially created state, as before
the appearance of the Russian army in the Caucasus, there was no Armenia, much
less a state named Armenia. By the way, today there are about 1 million
Armenians in California alone, that is, a third of the population of Armenia.
This reality is explained by the mentality of
the Armenian people. Armenians, like the Roma, have lived in many countries
among other peoples for ages. For the Roma, this is a vital necessity; they
wouldn't steal each other's horses. Interestingly, while traveling in Romania,
I saw a village with completely uninhabited houses. It turns out the government
decided to allocate space for the Roma and built houses in the hopes that they
would stop wandering, but the Roma weren't satisfied with the service provided.
Armenians typically engage in crafts and trade; in Baku, for example, all the
shoemakers were Armenian. Traditional service work requires a different social
environment; they wouldn't make their own shoes. The phrase "the shoemaker
has no shoes" involuntarily comes to mind. This is the quintessence of the
fact that Armenians are leaving the country they were given in droves. Perhaps
this explains why the Armenians never had a country.
First of all, to understand the immediate source of the
confrontation that led to tragic consequences for two peoples who had been
peaceful neighbors for centuries, it is necessary to reconstruct the chain of
historical events that took place in the Russian Empire.
The first, and most crucial, action taken by Russia after
the conquest of the Azerbaijani khanates was the deportation of the Caucasian
Tatars from the Yerevan and Karabakh khanates—as the Russians called the local
population because of their Turkic language, similar to that of the Crimean and
Volga Tatars—followed by the resettlement of Armenians. The tsarist authorities
believed that the presence of a Christian people on the border with Turkic
countries such as Turkey and Persia would ensure the security of the captured
territories in the South Caucasus. To this end, they encouraged the
resettlement of Armenians from throughout the Middle East, granting them land
and homes of forcibly displaced Azerbaijanis.
It should be noted that the land expropriation and
deportation of Azerbaijanis continued under Soviet rule. For example, in 1920,
Moscow transferred Zangezur to Armenia, having first deported the local
Azerbaijani population. While 5% of Yerevan's population was Armenian at the
time of Russia's conquest of the Yerevan Khanate, during the Soviet era,
Yerevan, like the rest of Armenia, became completely mono-ethnic. The Armenians
not only expelled the indigenous Azerbaijani population but also destroyed all
traces of their centuries-long presence. The Shah's Palace complex, located in
the center of Yerevan and a fine example of oriental architecture, was
completely razed to the ground. An old photograph attests to the palace's
splendor:
Along with the palace, the Armenians barbarously destroyed
the entire historic center of Yerevan, with its minarets and fortress wall.
To somehow legally formalize the Armenian presence in the
South Caucasus, the Soviet government granted the former territory of the
Yerevan Khanate, where Armenians now constituted the majority of the
population, the status of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia. Moscow did
the same with the Russian-occupied part of Persia, or more precisely, the
northern part of its territory, geographically known as Azerbaijan, where the
Turkic population lived—which the Russians, as I have already mentioned, called
Caucasian Tatars—and designated it the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan.
The southern part of Azerbaijan, where the Turkic population numbered 30-40
million, remained under Persian control, and the Turks there became known as
Azeri, meaning Turks living in Azerbaijan. Historians believe that the
etymology of the name Azerbaijan is derived from Atropatena, the ancient name
of the state and region. It's important to note that, following the defeat of
the Russian Empire in World War I and its dissolution in May 1918, the
independent state of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) emerged, and its
citizens officially became known as Azerbaijanis, not Turks or Caucasian
Tatars. Although the ADR lasted only two years as a result of Soviet Russia's
military aggression in 1920, the country was founded by Azerbaijani Turks and
is not an artificial state created by Moscow, as claimed by pseudo-Armenian
historians. A clarification regarding the official language of Azerbaijan:
while the language of the Azerbaijani population was previously called Turkic,
during the Soviet era, Azerbaijani was considered the official language.
Certainly, for cultural and political reasons, it would have been better to
retain the previous definition of the language as Turkic, since Turkic and its
dialects are spoken in all Turkic-speaking countries. During the long years of
Turkic peoples' presence in the Russian Empire, Moscow pursued the goal of
introducing as much distinction as possible by replacing the Arabic alphabet
with the Cyrillic alphabet. Today, the headquarters of the Organization of
Turkic States (OTG) is working on a unified Latin-based alphabet for all its
members. A single language with a single alphabet will cement and strengthen
the OTS (1)
The ongoing
consolidation of Turkic countries is perceived by Armenia and Russia as a
threat to their security. Indeed, for Armenia, which, despite its defeat in the
Karabakh War, has not abandoned its territorial claims against Azerbaijan, the
unification of Turkic countries poses a threat. While Russia, which literally
created a state for Armenians on the lands of Azerbaijan and provided military
support during the Karabakh conflict and the seizure of 20% of Azerbaijani
territory, previously played the role of a reliable and strong patron, since
Pashinyan's rise to power, tensions have flared between Moscow and Yerevan.
Whether Putin sensed Pashinyan's unreliability, perceiving him as a traitor
drawn to pro-Western democratic values, or whether, against the backdrop of the
war in Ukraine, economic ties with Baku seemed preferable to Putin, or whether
it was due to President Aliyev's skillful policies, or perhaps a combination of
all of the above, the fact remains that Russia did not come to Armenia's aid
during the Second Karabakh War. In reality, Russia, while abiding by the CSTO
treaty, could have become involved in military action on Armenia's side only if
Azerbaijan had launched attacks on Armenia itself, which did not happen during
the war.
Today, Pashinyan is like Buridan's ass. The West has no time
for Armenia, and bowing to Putin after he demonstratively embraced European
leaders is disrespectful. (2,3) Moreover, in front of his own people, who are
sickened by Dashnak ideology and believe in the possibility of creating a
chimerical Greater Armenia, Pashinyan looks like a traitor by agreeing to sign
a peace treaty with Baku. Needless to say, Pashinyan, who danced in Shusha
during celebrations commemorating the victory over Azerbaijan, will find it
difficult to remove the clause regarding Karabakh's belonging to Armenia from
the Armenian constitution, as Aliyev demands.
It is difficult for the Armenian people to abandon the myth
of a Greater Armenia imposed by the Nazi Dashnaktsutyun party, the map of which
is presented by Armenian historians. (4)
A natural question inevitably arises: in what historical
period did it exist? Judging by the map, Armenia was indeed great. Its shores
were washed by five seas – the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Mediterranean,
the Red Sea, and the waters of the Persian Gulf. However, history knows of
Phoenician, Greek, Khazar, Arab, Persian, and Turkish sailors, but, strangely
enough, there's not a word about Armenian sailors. Moreover, again, judging by
the map, Armenia was indeed great, and certainly in the capacity of an empire.
Consequently, vast territories with the peoples inhabiting them were conquered
by the Armenians, and conquered before the Roman-Persian Wars began. If so,
then Rome and Persia would have had to wage war with Greater Armenia before
clashing with each other. And a rather serious war, given the vast territory
Armenia controlled. However, history remains silent about Armenia's victories
over Phoenicia, the Median Kingdom, the Kingdom of Pontus, and Persia. Without
victorious wars, an empire cannot exist; history knows of no such examples.
Alexander the Great also never had the opportunity to fight Greater Armenia.
Which of the known empires did Greater Armenia fight, as befits any empire, and
most importantly, when? Incidentally, conquering all the empires known to
history would have taken years. Kings, emperors, and shahs had no idea they
were subjects of Greater Armenia. Armenian historians clearly have many
historical discoveries to make, filling the significant chronological gap in
the history of Greater Armenia and its vast conquests. I believe Armenians are
a unique and talented people, and Armenian historians who have discovered
Greater Armenia will soon find historical evidence to support their discovery.
Armenians, who came from Thrace, initially settled in
Urartu, and after Urartu's fall to Assyria, they spread throughout the Middle
East, with the greatest concentration in its very center, which during the
Roman Empire was called the Armenian Highland. This site of military conflict
between the Romans and the Persians changed hands repeatedly, with the
Armenians living there supporting either side depending on the situation. To
prevent constant betrayal, the Romans resettled the Armenians from the frontline
territory deep into the empire, in Cilicia. Today, Armenians consider Cilicia
to be an integral part of Greater Armenia.
The Nazi ideology of the Dashnaktsutyun brought disasters to
the Armenian people comparable to the fate of the German people, who fell
victim to fascist ideology. In Turkey during World War I, the Dashnaks,
launching an armed rebellion against the unarmed Turkic population in the rear
in anticipation of the advancing Russian army, demonstrated incredible cruelty
in order to carry out ethnic cleansing for the territory of the future Greater
Armenia. It even went so far as to throw corpses into wells in villages to
permanently discourage the population from returning. Hundreds of thousands of
Turks fled their towns and villages in an attempt to save themselves. After the
rebellion was suppressed, the Turkish government, in order to secure its rear,
was forced to deport the Armenian population. Hundreds of thousands of
Armenians now found themselves among the Turkic population, who had previously
fled extermination at the hands of the Armenians, leading to the tragedy that
Armenians call the 1915 genocide. However, calling this a genocide deliberately
orchestrated by the government is a mistake, as not a single order, decree, or
directive has been found to accuse Turkey of genocide. It was the refugees'
revenge for the massacre of the Turkic population perpetrated by the Dashnaks.
The trial held in Malta (1919-1921) of over 100 government officials accused of
genocide resulted in the release of all due to lack of evidence. For example,
at the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi criminals, their guilt was established and sentenced.
It is important to note that Armenians do not appeal to the International Court
in The Hague, although they have the right to a retrial for genocide. This is
because, in this case, there is no guarantee that the accusers would not accuse
them.
The Dashnaks also launched a similar armed rebellion against
the Turkic (Azerbaijanis are also Turks) population in Azerbaijan in 1918. If
not for assistance from Turkey, the whole thing could have ended in great
tragedy for Azerbaijan. (5,6,7) The plan to create a Greater Armenia was
undertaken during the years of perestroika, when, taking advantage of Moscow's
weakened central authority, the Armenians seized 20% of Azerbaijan's territory,
expelling the Azerbaijanis under threat of death, both from the conquered
territory and from Armenia itself. However, this adventure also ended in
shameful defeat for them.
However, it seems the Nazi ideology of the Dashnaktsutyun
party still firmly ingrained a significant portion of the Armenian population,
who justify their territorial claims by claiming that the Turks are an alien
people, forgetting that the Armenians themselves once came to the Middle East.
But there is a significant difference between these two peoples. The essence is
that the Armenians, like the Kurds, were unable to establish their own state.
Interestingly, both lay claim to the same territory. Let me remind you that the
Armenia we know today was created by the Russians on the lands of Azerbaijan.
Unlike the Armenians, the Turks, having arrived in the region, defeated the
Arab Caliphate, the most powerful empire of the time, and created two empires:
the Ottoman Empire and the Ileghunid Empire, which were then successively
replaced by the Timurid Empire, the Safavid Empire, the Aq Qoyunlu Empire, and
the last, under Turkic rule, the Qajar Empire. In total, from 1055 to 1925,
following the defeat of the Baghdad Caliphate, the Turks ruled Persia
uninterruptedly.
Considering reliable historical facts, the Armenian claims
appear baseless and childish.
1. One language, one homeland.
https://alikbahshi.blogspot.com/2017/01/blog-post_97.html
2. Armenia as Buridan's Ass.
https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/58251.html
3. Armenia Again in Search of Patrons.
https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/92137.html
4. Was There a Greater Armenia?
https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/71952.html
5. Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan.
https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/15354.html
6. A Hole in the Portrait, or From the Great Lie to
"Greater Armenia". https://alikbahshi.livejournal.com/14877.html
7. Aylisli's Rotten Nuts.
https://alikbahshi.blogspot.com/2016/12/blog-post_3.html
April 7, 2026.
