ARMENIAN SCIENCE AT A CROSSROADS

It seems that Armenia and all Armenians are very concerned that the false ideological matrix of ancient Armenian history has seriously cracked under pressure from numerous facts, archival materials and ancient sources that say something completely different about the origin, history, homeland and resettlement of the Armenians.

The fidgeting and restlessness of the Armenian side began after Azerbaijan presented the first volume of the book "Fraud Busters" written by the head of a department at the Presidential Administration and political analyst, Fuad Axundov. The thing is that the book is a collection of studies and remarks by about 150 foreign scientists that debunk the basic tenets of false Armenian historiography. The book contains articles and research materials by over 20 Armenian scholars who prove that the Armenians are incomers in the South Caucasus, Karabakh and other Azerbaijani territories. That is to say the book "Fraud Busters" refuted all the false tenets of the Armenian ideological machine from the lips of Armenian scholars themselves. Of course, such a publication could not but cause a flurry of furious attacks from the Armenian media and historians, who were quick to declare as "enemies of the Armenian people" all Western, Russian, and their own Armenian scientists who debunked lies about ancient and indigenous Armenians in the South Caucasus.

But the first attacks began when Axundov presented serious evidence and facts about the deliberate destruction by the Armenian authorities of the medieval historical centre of Yerevan - the Iravan fortress which was a gem of Azerbaijani architecture.

The words of the Azerbaijani side were also confirmed in a series of articles by the Russian architect and professor of the Moscow International Academy of Architecture, Andrey Ivanov, who had repeatedly complained in his reports about the destruction of old, Muslim, Turkic Yerevan. However, after the Azerbaijani side quoted his words, Ivanov suddenly - apparently under pressure from the Armenian side - began to renounce some of his words and make accusations against Fuad Axundov. In particular, in the article "On the so-called white spots of old Yerevan", Ivanov openly calls on Armenians to respond seriously and at all levels to the facts presented by Axundov: "Given the high propaganda activity of this person (F. Axundov - R+) (here are only some of the titles of his recent publications: 'Our goal is to show the world that the Armenians in the Caucasus are alien people', 'A country that did not exist ... Armenia in the Caucasus?..', 'Armenia - an open-air museum of the genocide of the Azerbaijani civilization'), I would like to see alternative actions by Armenian scientists and politicians. It is clear that the evidence of the seemingly obvious refutation of elementary falsifications may seem a waste of time. But do our Armenian colleagues not underestimate the power of the propaganda machine of the neighbouring state? There are not too many people in the world who know the intricacies of the history of Armenia and the South Caucasus - this is what Axundov counts on. And regardless of the historical truth, this debate will be won by those who cry more often and louder?" That is to say Ivanov in fact calls on the Armenian side to unite and put up massive resistance to the arguments and facts given by the Azerbaijani side and mostly, by Axundov.

This was followed by a variety of materials by Armenians with attacks and criticism of Fuad Axundov, the main purpose of which was to "save" the "ancient Armenian" Yerevan, which does not exist. In the heat of fraud, for example, the Armenian architect Marietta Gasparyan (Doctor of Architecture - a person of seemingly serious occupation) decided to oppose Fuad Axundov and the erevangala500.com project in the article "An old Armenian city in the ancient Armenian capital". However, she did it at a childish-primitive level. And what could be expected from an architect who is trying to pose as a historian? Is her statement that quotes Armenian "luminaries of historical science" as saying that Armenians lived in what is now Armenia 14,000 years ago worth anything?! As they say, things are getting worse and worse, and we clearly see how fast Armenian fraud is becoming ancient, violating the basic concept of history well known to any student.

Then the president of the Association of Political Sciences of Armenia and doctor of political sciences, a certain Hayk Kotanjyan, issued a protest against Fuad Axundov and the Azerbaijani side which reasonably proves that Armenia was established on the Azerbaijani lands of the Iravan khanate. Unable to counter numerous historical facts, foreign archive and manuscript materials given by the Azerbaijani side, Kotanjyan decided simply to accuse Axundov and Azerbaijan of "provocations" against Armenia. That is to say in Kotanjyan's opinion, catching a liar and falsifier red-handed is called a "provocation".

In the end, there was a whole cascade of materials in the Armenian and Russian media, where the authors, who mostly have nothing to do with history, and specialists in other fields passionately tried to prove "the ancient Armenian origin" of Yerevan and that medieval Muslim Iravan is related to the Persians, Turks and Kurds - anyone, but not to the Azerbaijanis who once built it. As a result, apparently, seeing the weakness and antiscientific nature of their arguments, the "luminaries" of official Armenian science came to the conclusion that it is time to reform the Armenian propaganda conveyor.

In particular, the degree of the concern of Armenian science about this issue was shown by the international conference "Cultural Heritage of the Armenian Plateau", organized in Armenia and occupied Nagornyy Karabakh on 28-29 June by the Institute of History, the Institute of Archaeology and the Arts Institute of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, Yerevan State University and the so-called "State University" of the unrecognized separatist "NKR".

Our attention was drawn not only by the name of the conference, but also by the topics of discussion, as well as the lengthy final document adopted by the Armenian "luminaries" of science and politics.

Speaking at this conference, which was first held in Yerevan and then in occupied Xankandi, the chairman of the "NKR" National Assembly, Ashot Gulyan, expressed interesting arguments that allow us to say that the extent and volume of Armenian falsifications will take on an unprecedented scale in the next few years.

According to Ashot Gulyan: "Artsakh (Nagornyy Karabakh) is certainly an integral part of the Armenian Plateau from a historical-geographical and historical-legal point of view, and all its wealth - land, nature, mineral resources, historical and cultural values - unequivocally belong to the Armenian people." That is to say based on the status of this conference of Armenian falsifiers, its work began with banal lies and deceit voiced by Ashot Gulyan. After all, every student knows that the Armenian Plateau located in Asia Minor cannot has no "historical-geographical" relation to Karabakh, which is located in the south-eastern part of the mountain chain of the Lesser Caucasus. If Gulyan and his team of falsifiers do not recognize even the physical map of the region, it is time to be terrified of the pirouettes these new Mkhitarists will be up to in historical science in the future!

Mkhitarists are representatives of the Armenian clergy congregation founded in 1701 by monk Mkhitar Sebastatsi who settled near Venice on the island of San Lazzaro (St. Lazarus) under the protection of the Catholic Church. Later, part of the organization settled in Vienna, where it continues to exist to this day. The main purpose of the Mkhitarists was to rewrite ancient books, create Armenian history, engage in numerous compilations and forgery, and use quotations from the works of ancient authors without naming the source, so they look like ancient Armenian works. The activity of the Mkhitarists mainly served to strengthen the influence of the Vatican in the Middle East.

Then the "new Mkhitarist" Ashot Ghulyan found an interesting explanation for the new era of Armenian falsifications, saying: "Given the information war that was waged and continues to be waged by some of our neighbours in the historical and cultural sphere against the Armenian people, the process of knowing our past, or rather  self-knowledge is becoming increasingly important." It appears that it is the "bad neighbours" of Armenians (Azerbaijanis, Georgians and Turks) that are to blame as they force the long-suffering Armenian scientists to falsify and lie to the whole world!

The president of the National Academy of Sciences, Radik Martirosyan, who took part in the conference, shared equally striking pearls about this "new Mkhitarist" conference. In an interview to the Armenian media on the results of the conference, he said that its purpose was "to develop a major programme in Armenian studies dictated by the challenges of the time". That is to say the main Armenian scholar openly admits that the facade of the old Armenian historical and ideological machine is bursting at the seams and needs to be updated based on the "challenges of the 21st century". Speaking more clearly, now it is not the time when the Armenian tales could convince the world of the existence of "ancient Armenian" culture in the Caucasus and Asia Minor, because now any person can find on the Internet a lot of sources and works that easily refute the Armenian historical fables.

According to R. Martirosyan, the fact that the conference was held is "very important against the background of the latest intensified efforts of our neighbours and the pseudo-scientists they have hired to distort and falsify the history of Artsakh and Naxcivan, Javakhk and Western Armenia". Here we go! The main Armenian scholar openly tells the whole world about the ambitious Armenian expansionist plans against Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The world community must definitely conclude from this that Armenia and the Armenians of the world are again plotting to annex the territories of neighbouring nations. And what should Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey do in this situation? Of course, they need to unite in the scientific and historical area and crush these aggressive proclivities of the Armenian "new Mkhitarists" on the basis of facts and sources.

At the conference, Armenian scientists complained that "Turkey and Azerbaijan, like some other political forces, are conducting deliberate policies, including in the field of research, which aim to falsify the history of the Armenian people and its cultural achievements". Western scholars also got it in the neck from the Armenian "new Mkhitarists". It was said of them: "Western European and American research centres engaged in anti-Armenian activities are frankly carrying out political orders. There are attempts to ascribe the cultural achievements of the Armenians to other peoples."

Now we see! So East and West, North and South are to blame before the Armenian people and the Armenian science crooks who shamelessly rigged and attributed foreign history and culture to Armenians for many years? If Armenian scholars say that the whole world is guilty before them, you can safely diagnose Armenian science as having a severe mental disorder accompanied by manic depression triggered by the collapse of false Armenian historiography. Armenian scientists are furious that their historical lies are powerless before the results obtained by Western anthropologists, archaeologists and geneticists who say in one voice that the Turks are the oldest inhabitants of Asia Minor and the Caucasus, i.e. indigenous peoples of the region, in contrast to the Armenians who settled here in different periods.

After all, the false hypothesis that the Turks migrated to the Caucasus and Asia Minor "later than all" is the cornerstone of Armenian historical and ideological pseudo-science that made it possible to substantiate Armenian claims to the lands of neighbouring peoples and countries. Now that this cornerstone is taken away by European science - the same science that proposed this very false concept of "Turks - nomads from the Altai" two centuries earlier, Armenians are compelled to make up new stories to save their false historical and ideological concept about "the great civilizing role of the Armenians in history and culture".

In the light of these new studies by European science, the false hypothesis about "Turkic incomers" collapsed (we do not deny the great migrations on the continent, resulting in Turkic and other peoples, including Armenians, migrating to the Caucasus and Asia Minor at various times). That is to say Turks have been living in the region since ancient times and Turkic peoples moved here from the east and north of the Asian continent in different periods.

But the most curious thing in the final resolution adopted at the end of the conference of the "new Mkhitarists" was the postulate that "the confirmation of the civilizing role of the Armenians needs no falsification". Aha! So until now the Armenian media, scientists and various politicians have been falsifying and lying in their attempts to prove the "ancient Armenian origin" of all that exists and existed in the Caucasus and Asia Minor? This phenomenal and frank confession by the Armenian "new Mkhitarists" can only be welcomed.

And now a few words about such a hasty admission by the Armenian luminaries of historical pseudo-science. There is no doubt that an important reason for this is the deliberate policy of Azerbaijan to expose Armenian historical lies through the publication of quotations from medieval manuscripts, archival materials and ancient sources that contradict the postulates of "ancient Armenian" lies. We have some reason to believe that it is the activity of the Azerbaijani media and political figures that is the main cause of the current mobilization of the Armenian new Mkhitarists. In particular, as we noted above, they were especially hurt by the recent presentation in Azerbaijan of the first volume of the book "Fraud Busters" written by the head of a department at the Presidential Administration and political analyst, Fuad Axundov. That is why the article in Golos Armenii about the Armenian conference in Yerevan and Xankandi is headlined "Falsifiers will be answered". This is a kind of "Armenian" answer to foreign scholars listed in the book "Fraud Busters" published in Azerbaijan.

Another thorn for the Armenian falsifiers are projects of the Centre for the History of the Caucasus at the Institute for Public Policy Research Azer-Globe, in particular the creation of the website erevangala500.com, which clearly proved that the Armenians are incomers in Azerbaijan's Iravan khanate and the Armenian authorities deliberately destroyed the ancient Azerbaijani city of Iravan in place of which the remade city of Yerevan now stands. The Armenian side is particularly irritated and concerned about the fact that the Centre for the History of the Caucasus at the Institute for Public Policy Research Azer-Globe found the work of the historian of Armenian origin I. A. Orbeli "Inscriptions of Gandzasar and Avaptuk", which was considered defunct and was published in St. Petersburg in 1919. This work contains valuable inscriptions from the Gandzasar monastery complex in Nagornyy Karabakh and the surrounding area, which indicate that these sites are part of Albanian architectural-historical heritage and the Autocephalous Church of Albania, and thus do not belong to the Armenians.

It is not in vain that participants in the Armenian conference on 29 June visited the Gandzasar monastery, because now they will have a lot of work to do to save their lies about its belonging to Armenian heritage. In this light, it is no exaggeration to say that the current inscriptions of the Albanian Gandzasar complex are threatened with destruction and falsification because Armenian liars will stop at nothing to misappropriate the cultural and historical heritage of other nations.

To sum up, it should be noted that Azerbaijani science and media, which have found the weak points of the false Armenian historical-ideological concept, should extend the front of research, especially archival sources and manuscripts that clearly refute Armenian falsifications. However, this research should involve foreign scientists and attract the attention of foreign media and the scientific community, which will help to deliver the truth about the history of our region and Armenian falsifications to different parts of the world.

Golos Armenii:

"No scientific conferences have been held on the subject before. There was a need for scientists - representatives of different areas of Armenian studies both from Armenia and other countries - to come together and discuss issues related to the cultural heritage of the Armenian people and identify the main trends of its spiritual and material culture."