Interview with Azerbaijani historian Bahtiyar Tuncay.
Q: Armenians are trying their best to misappropriate monuments of Azerbaijani culture and history in an attempt to gloss over their recent migration to the Caucasus. Is there sufficient proof that monuments which the Armenians insist are theirs, were in fact were created by the architects of ancient Caucasian Albania?
A: For many years Armenian historians have been trying to "Armenianize" the history, culture, architectural monuments and language of Caucasian Albania. Armenians have managed to misappropriate Albanian churches and stones engraved with crosses. Albanians are ethnic Turks, since they belong to the nomadic tribes of Kipchaks. For example, in the famous Kyrgyz epos Manas, the father of the main hero is Gargar, a representative of an ethnicity that lived in the territory of Caucasian Albania.
Armenians admit that the language of Albanian historians does not resemble either ancient or modern Armenian.
The main factor in the assimilation of Albanians and Armenians, which was recorded many times in Albanian history books, was their common religion - Christianity.
Q: Would you outline your research on this topic which has recently been published as a book?
A: There are manuscripts in Turkish that belong to Albanians in many European libraries and foundations. Among such countries are France, Holland, Italy, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and Austria. Albanians have been presented as Armenians in international history studies for some time, since they had a similar alphabet, but spoke the language of Kipchak Turks. While studying this issue, I came to understand that Albanians spoke the language of the Kipchaks. All historical material shows that when Mesrop Mashtots began drawing up an alphabet for Albanian, he did it on the basis of the Gargar language.
An Azerbaijani historian, referring to researchers such as Bartold and others, points out that Gargars were Kipchaks and spoke Turkish. This fact has been reflected in my book; I haven't discovered America here, just openly cited historical sources.
So it has become clear that the Albanian language was nothing but Kipchak. I carried out a thorough study of the work by Mesrop Mahstots on the Albanian and Armenian languages and came to the conclusion that he created two alphabets with the same letters. In other words, it was one alphabet for two different languages.
Therefore, manuscripts in European archives, presented as Armenian sources, in fact, belong to Albanians. I began studying this issue and learned that the manuscripts include documents that belonged to the outstanding figures of Caucasian Albania, including philosophers, Christian theologians and so on. Azerbaijani historians Farida Mammadova and Ziya Bunyadov wrote well about these people. I pulled together all this material in one book. I also wrote briefly about Albanian grammar and included a dictionary of about 1,700 words.
Q: What should be done to stymie Armenian disinformation? Can works such as yours be effective tools in this ideological fight?
A: Armenians present all Albanian authors as Armenian. In addition, it is notable that all churches in the territory of modern Armenia, as well as stone monuments that they call "khachkars", are in reality Albanian monuments, which is proven by the inscriptions on them. For example, it is written on one of the churches there that it was built by an Albanian khan, while the grave of the Albanian Catholicos can be found and is clearly identified. One of the cross stones bears a sign that Albanian Duke Kirikor erected the monument so that everyone who passed could pray there. However, the Armenians published a book and even posted it on the Internet, where they try to refute this fact.
In my book I have cited facts that prove that churches and cross stones in not only modern Azerbaijan but also western Azerbaijan, i.e. modern Armenia, are Albanian. I hope this book will strike a major blow to Armenian provocateurs in the great ideological warfare that Armenians have launched against us.
Leyla Tagiyeva
News.Az
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