November 10, 2014 - 17:39 AMT
OPINION
Azerbaijan starts stealing Turkey’s history

Azerbaijan is infamous for appropriating the other countries’ history and cultural heritage and the neighboring states, specifically Armenia and Iran, became the first ‘victims’ of this policy.

Thus, Persian poet Nizami is represented as Azerbaijani, just like Iranian and Armenian music, national cuisine and traditions.

One of the extracts from an Azeri textbook telling that America “was discovered thanks to achievements of the Azerbaijani science” has already became a laughing stock.

Yet, restlessly, Azerbaijan is moving forward to ‘privatize’ the history of Turkey, representing the Turkish heroes and its own. According to Modern.az, expert at Military Journalists NGO Uzeir Jafarov has already warned against such a policy, saying that it could cause Ankara’s discontent.

“It turns out that the millions allocated for the patriotic upbringing don’t serve the purpose, as the textbooks should represent the true history of Azerbaijan,” he says, according to Panorama.am.

There are still some adequate people in Azerbaijan, who understand that distorting history is not the right thing to do. MP Fazil Mustafayev confessed, for example’ that Azerbaijan can’t boast a rich military history, which started in 1918 only. “The textbooks should tell the truth. Appropriation of others’ history can one day come to light and bring shame on us,” he said.

However, it would be naïve to believe that Azerbaijan will listen to reason and the historians will stop filling the vacuum of invented ‘ancient Azerbaijan’ with the cultural heritage of other nations.

Marina Ananikyan / PanARMENIAN.Net, Photo: Radioazadlyg