xpost: Azerbaijani Quest for Identity
xpost from kevork:
The Armenian president, of course, is not a historian or a scholar, that has deeply examined the roots of nationalism and particularly Azerbaijani nation-building, but one can imagine he has a number of advisers as every other president does, who may help him with information and analysis, plus, what he says, is a commonly known rule and description of what and how the national identity of Azerbaijanis is/built. Here is a quote from his recent speech, that neatly illustrates the paradoxes of the Azerbaijani quest for an identity of their own, built with the use of everything and anything that might refer to the region the Republic has been created in: Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrians, Iranian, Albanian or Turkic roots etc. In an attempt to picture the nation as such, the theories, often contradicting each other, may maximum lead to a kind of "Azerbaijani version of the melting pot", but the pot in this case is more like a "mincing pot", that is "stuffing" Armenian, Iranian, Talysh, Dagestani and many other "legacies" into a new dish, called "the titular nation of the Azerbaijani Republic":
Sick fantasies resulted in claiming that Christian churches of Artsakh* - Amaras, Gandzasar, are Azerbaijani. Furthermore, they were the first in the world to adopt Christianity. To Turkey they present their new slogan “One nation, two states”, i.e. the Turks and the Azeris are the same people living in two states. Five minutes later, Azeris claim that they are not Turks, or rather were not Turks: used to be Aghvans*, used to write books which didn’t reach present days because all those manuscripts were burned by the Armenians; they were Aghvans and built masterpieces of Christian architecture that were expropriated by the Armenians, and finally they changed their language and became Turks. Later, world’s first Christian-Aghvan-Azeris changed their faith and became the most faithful Muslims of the world. Simultaneously, they are promoting the idea that they are direct descendants of the Mar* people, who spoke Persian, and are lawful owners of Iran’s Atrpatakan* region.
Switch of languages, nationalities and beliefs is their own business; but manifestations of anti-Armenian fascism are our business.
src: http://president.am/events/news/eng/?id=1252
- Artsakh - Nagorno-Karabakh
- Mar people - the Medians
- Aghvans - the Caucasian Albanians
- Atrpatakan - Atropatene in ancient Greek sources, Atrpatakan in Armenian sources, Azarbaijan in Iranian and Arabic sources, the Iranian province of Azerbaijan (nowadays Azarbaijan-e Sharqi, Azarbaijan-e Gharbi and Ardabil provinces of the Islamic Republic of Iran).
btw, the whole speach is worthwhile reading!
The Armenian president, of course, is not a historian or a scholar, that has deeply examined the roots of nationalism and particularly Azerbaijani nation-building, but one can imagine he has a number of advisers as every other president does, who may help him with information and analysis, plus, what he says, is a commonly known rule and description of what and how the national identity of Azerbaijanis is/built. Here is a quote from his recent speech, that neatly illustrates the paradoxes of the Azerbaijani quest for an identity of their own, built with the use of everything and anything that might refer to the region the Republic has been created in: Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrians, Iranian, Albanian or Turkic roots etc. In an attempt to picture the nation as such, the theories, often contradicting each other, may maximum lead to a kind of "Azerbaijani version of the melting pot", but the pot in this case is more like a "mincing pot", that is "stuffing" Armenian, Iranian, Talysh, Dagestani and many other "legacies" into a new dish, called "the titular nation of the Azerbaijani Republic":
Sick fantasies resulted in claiming that Christian churches of Artsakh* - Amaras, Gandzasar, are Azerbaijani. Furthermore, they were the first in the world to adopt Christianity. To Turkey they present their new slogan “One nation, two states”, i.e. the Turks and the Azeris are the same people living in two states. Five minutes later, Azeris claim that they are not Turks, or rather were not Turks: used to be Aghvans*, used to write books which didn’t reach present days because all those manuscripts were burned by the Armenians; they were Aghvans and built masterpieces of Christian architecture that were expropriated by the Armenians, and finally they changed their language and became Turks. Later, world’s first Christian-Aghvan-Azeris changed their faith and became the most faithful Muslims of the world. Simultaneously, they are promoting the idea that they are direct descendants of the Mar* people, who spoke Persian, and are lawful owners of Iran’s Atrpatakan* region.
Switch of languages, nationalities and beliefs is their own business; but manifestations of anti-Armenian fascism are our business.
src: http://president.am/events/news/eng/?id=1252
- Artsakh - Nagorno-Karabakh
- Mar people - the Medians
- Aghvans - the Caucasian Albanians
- Atrpatakan - Atropatene in ancient Greek sources, Atrpatakan in Armenian sources, Azarbaijan in Iranian and Arabic sources, the Iranian province of Azerbaijan (nowadays Azarbaijan-e Sharqi, Azarbaijan-e Gharbi and Ardabil provinces of the Islamic Republic of Iran).
btw, the whole speach is worthwhile reading!