"THE PLEBS LAP IT UP ALL THE SAME", OR THE TECHNOLOGY OF FAKES

The three whales serving as pillars of international crime are drug-dealing, human trafficking and smuggling of gold and archeological antiquities… The fight against them is extremely difficult and unattractive. In any of the three cases we come across well an organized and thought-through business where there is no rooms for laymen," this phrase from an interview of a senior Interpol officer with Life magazine was uttered several decades ago. Since then, once popular Life ceased to exist, the work methods of Interpol have undergone change, border and customs checkpoints have become different, but the tension over the "antiquity fever" has hardly subsided. As a matter of fact, antiquity has been appreciated at all times: in ancient Greece the Crete ware was valued more highly than gold, not to mention the modern world, the consumer society. The "antiquity fever" seems to have paralyzed the whole world.

Some see the sources of it in uncontrollable standardization, when almost the entire world, from the equator to the poles, wears jeans, eats hamburgers, drinks coca-cola and watches Hollywood blockbusters. Others live in the subconscious fear of the hectic pace of life. Still others simply want to show off and buy something they cannot make themselves with the money. And although there exists a distinction between "archaeology" and, say, the "history of middle ages", it is obvious that a millionaire's wish to put up real Monet or Rembrandt in his parlor and his wife's desire to wear a necklace once worn by an Aztec queen have the same roots and have nothing in common with the wish to have a "retro style" summer house in the country. And, of course, the current "antiquity fever" could not but lead to the appearance of a monstrous number of fakes and forgeries in the world. In Turkish Antalia you are likely to be offered a shell-covered Greek amphora. It may well be genuine, but quite often resourceful merchants take the new amphora to the sea-bed and when the earthen body is besieged by sea-bed shells, the buyer will no longer doubt the "authenticity" of the object. 

 Nepal tourists can buy "ancient writings" on rice paper. Every bit of it is portrayed as something ancient and valuable. Of course, the tourist paying a tidy sum for it is highly unlikely to stop by a shop next door where the same paper is used to wrap meat and cheese…

Once newspapers published a absolutely amazing story. A gang of fraudsters in Italy seemed to have found the "golden vein". Homemade "archaeological antiquities" were buried with full imitation of the "ancient Necropolis", and then an oligarch was offered to attend the excavation for a sizable fee and take away whatever is found. Everything went well until competition shoved a Napoleon bust into the "ancient burial"… This story was extensively discussed in the papers but no-one asked the simple question: don't such "methods" eventually move from criminal archaeology to scientific one, especially when this archaeology is intended to "serve" political interests, most notably territorial claims to neighboring states? The question is quite appropriate for the South Caucasus where Armenian "historians", using archaeological falsifications, can prove absolutely anything. 

Archaeological experts are sure that it is almost impossible to impress the academic community with fakes. Moreover, it would be a major understatement to say that the research of Armenian archaeologists is raising serious doubts in the academic circles of the world. And it doesn't really matter what Natalya Ovsepyan told Novoye Vremya [New Times] magazine: "There is not s single person in the Echmiadzin regional museum. No visitors, no employees. But there is crockery aged from the 4th millennium B.C. to the 19th century A.D. By the way, I could never find out why the pre-historic jugs looked a lot newer than their fellow objects only 200 years old." A letter by the director of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Mr. Piotrovskiy, is much more serious. He is deeply outraged by Armenian "specialist" Suren Ayvazyan's attempts to portray as "ancient Armenian coins of the 2nd millennium B.C." the coins of the medieval Azerbaijani dynasty of Atabays with instructions made with a rat-file. Academician Piotrovskiy has openly described the role of the rat-file in Armenian archaeology and even succeeded in having his letter published in the magazine of the Academy of Science of the Armenian SSR in Russian, so that there are no accidental translation "errors". 

In modern times "fakes" are meant for the public at large, in which archaeologists capable of distinguishing between the original and a fake, "ancient Armenian coins" and rat-file elaborated Azerbaijani ones, and "ancient Armenian petroglyph" and the Azerbaijani gravestones constitute less than one per cent. And even the few archaeologists at least have to hold the "sensational find" in their hands to make their judgment. As far as laymen are concerned, authors of the fake count on the immortal "the plebs lap it up all the same" motto and the Goebbels principle that "Lies must be so huge that no-one could suspect that it is possible to lie like that."

Anyhow, Armenia seems to have launched another attempt to falsify history. Azg newspaper suggests that on the initiative and with sponsorship of the Yerkir Union of public organizations on repatriation and development, the archaeological expedition of the Institute of archaeology and ethnography of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences has resumed excavations of the newly-discovered "Artsakh Tigranakert" allegedly founded in the 1st century B.C. by Armenian Czar Tigran the Great. It says that in the early stages of excavations remains of a fort were found on the left bank of the Khachinchay River, quickly renamed into Khachenaget, on a hill near the village of Nor Maraga. Preliminary excavation unearthed a part of the fort wall 3.5 meters wide, as well as the entryway and remnants of a watchtower located between the entry and the rock. The unearthed wall is 20 meters long. Armenian archaeologists immediately issued a conclusion: the discovered archaeological material shows that the fort was built before the city of Tigran the Great - during the state of Urartu or the Armenian kingdom of Yervandids. The newspaper mentions that the excavations of the mythical Tigranakert would continue until mid-August and adds patronizingly that the program of the Yerkir Union to study the historical and archaeological heritage of Artsakh Tigranakert had commenced in 2005. The first year of work helped establish the exact whereabouts of the city, while in 2006 the digging in different parts of the city and its surroundings revealed a part of the citadel, a support wall of a terrace in the fortified part of the city, an early Christian basilica in central quarters.

To understand that this is just another fake, in fact an overt and primitive one, one doesn't have to be a skilled specialist in the history of the Caucasus. Everyone familiar with history, not the Armenian interpretation of it, would know that there has never been a Tigranakert in Karabakh, though Armenian "archaeologists" are trying to present the numerous Albanian and other monuments of Karabakh as being "ancient Armenian". However, this is not enough to cool the ardor of Armenian "archaeologists" because Armenia's archaeological science has for decades been brought to the level of Orwell's "Ministry of Truth", i.e. the factory of fakes to substantiate territorial claims to neighboring countries. First, historical "research" or, to be more exact, falsification, the lands of the Erivan khanate on which Armenia was built were declared "indigenous Armenian". Armenian monuments were looked for on the entire territory of Turkey, Georgian churches in Javakhetia were declared "Armenian monuments".  

In fact, attempts to present the Azerbaijani and Albanian monuments of Karabakh as Armenian were made in the past as well. However, they had never gone as far as linking Karabakh with the name of Tigran the Great. All this resembles a well-known children's movie about a king who, after putting on a magic cap and becoming invisible, go to the city and puts royal stamps on everything he likes. Then his warders appear and declare: we will return to the treasury whatever legitimately belongs to the king and has his stamp on it. However, life is not always like a fairy tale and the reference to Tigran the Great is unlikely to impress the world community so much that it would have to forget the principle of territorial integrity and present occupied Azerbaijani lands to Armenia. Nevertheless, it is not ruled out that the "archaeological findings" are meant for the Armenian audience because the number of those starting to ask questions what war with Azerbaijan has given Armenia and wouldn't it be better to find a compromise with the neighbors is on the increase. It would be enough to remember a well-known Armenian dissident and rights champion, Vardan Arutyunyan, who spent eight years in prison in the Urals and near Magadan for anti-Soviet propaganda, in February this year gave a ruthlessly open assessment of his countrymen's mentality on the web site "South Caucasus integration - alternative start". "We are a people stuck in the past. We are still in the past, couldn't master the values of the 20th century and move on to the 21st. At best, we are in the 19th century. We are still solving the problems of the past, are still fighting with Sultan Hamid, singing the songs composed in those days and repeating the same ideas. Patriotism for us still means Chaush, Dro, Andranik, Sose and Serob. Our patriotism consists of the natural predatory-socialist-terrorist-nationalist mixture," he said. "From those days, we have brought to the 21st century our hatred and claims to neighbors. Our patriotism, our anti-Turkism are directly-proportional to each other. While displaying patriotism, we proudly put out educational maps of the raids by Tigran the Great and, according to the same map, announce our borders stretching from sea to sea. We ourselves believe in what we have made up and create an illusion of the possible return," he went on to say. "After losing war, we begin glorifying our small and temporary victories on the battlefield. We do not make a distinction between wars and battles, and in memory of these battles, erect monuments and mausoleums appurtenant for final and complete victories. We pompously celebrate in the presence of those who have actually won and tasted the sweetness of victory. We fail to understand that we look funny in their eyes. We celebrate the 2000th anniversary of our theater only because 2000 years ago one Armenian Czar composed theatrical plays and no-one else did that for 2000 years thereafter. However, we compare the "2000 years ago" to "the 2000th anniversary" and, contrary to all logic, declare the 2000th anniversary of a theater, write books and articles because we need to. We are proud of our centuries-long history, but could not preserve and may have actually failed to create anything but churches. Our most ancient city is not even 200 years old. When we had a state, our Czars disrespected it so much that moved the capital from one place to another on a whim or for self-affirmation purposes. As a result, we do not have a decent capital city for such an ancient people," Arutyunyan says. In conclusion, he adds: "We explain all our failures by the presence of bad neighbors, as if we are an exception and all the other peoples have better neighbors and have never lived under someone else's command. Our present repeats the past. The neighbors are again declared enemies, we have again become someone else's outpost and are looking for salvation abroad. We still do not have any respect for our state and are tolerant to someone who does not deserve it and run the country."

"There is another defeat in store for us," Vardan Arutyunyan cautions. Today, against the backdrop of the growing influence of Azerbaijan in the world, the GUAM summit, agreements on the Qabala radar station, etc., the number of "those in doubt" in Armenia has clearly increased. Now, as Armenian "political technologists" believe, the talk of "Artsakh Tigrankert" is intended to convince Armenia's own citizens to "fight to the end". But if such technologies are resorted to, this is already a "distress signal".