Oil fields existed in Baku from 17th century?

PanARMENIAN.Net - There is nothing extraordinary in this information, except for a small detail. The report’s author writes: “Celebi was in Azerbaijan during his trip to Caucasus in the 17th century. In his book about Baku’s oil he wrote: “Wells are protected by soldiers throughout the day and night. Oil, “under the God’s decree,” outcrops and remains on water surface. It is collected from these small ponds into special goatskins.” Let the style of information provision be on heads of editors. It has been numerously stated that in the 17th century there was no and could not be Azerbaijan, as a state formation. And there is no way that respectful and famous historian and traveler Celebi could write such an evident lie. Baku is well aware of the fact that Armenian industrialists – Mantashev and Tairov – have launched the commercial development of wells.

The fact that there was oil on Persia’s territory, where Celebi traveled, has been known since earliest times. Besides, it is known that the Sassanid Empire, the composition of which included also the territory of current Azerbaijan and Eastern Armenia, flourished also due to oil, which at that time served as a weapon for seizure of fortresses rather than fuel. However, all these “trifles” hardly can say anything to Baku’s agitprop, which, it seems, could label even the U.S. as an “original Azerbaijani land.” Unfortunately, oceans hamper it from doing so. Nevertheless, Celebi wrote also about Armenians residing on different sides of Ararat. Following Baku’s logics, Armenians need to label all peoples residing on the Armenian Plateau as Armenians…

By the way, it is noteworthy that Celebi wrote about Osmans and peoples close to them - Gagauzes, the Laz, Daghestanis and Kurds - but never about Azerbaijanis. He was a serious historian and never mistaken the wish for the reality. As a national of Turkey, he considered all the aforementioned peoples to be Osmans, what is not far from truth. But it remains a puzzle why Azerbaijanis continuously want to join them.