Armenophobia in Azerbaijan

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“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?