InternationalRouben Galichian chronicles the invention of Azerbaijan and its history
by Vincent Lima
Published: Wednesday June 03, 2009
Rouben Galichian in front of an artist's rendition of a historical map. . Vincent Lima / Armenian Reporter
Rouben Galichian pointing to illustrations in his book, The Invention of History: Azerbaijan, Armenia, and the Showcasing of Imagination. . Vincent Lima / Armenian Reporter
Yerevan - Rouben Galichian has written a new book, The Invention of History: Azerbaijan, Armenia, and the Showcasing of Imagination.
The title is reminiscent of the classic collection, The Invention of Tradition, edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger. So many national traditions – sources of national
pride or marks of national distinctiveness – seem to have long pedigrees. In The Invention of Tradition,
Mr. Galichian's new book focuses on the history of Azerbaijan. He argues that Azerbaijan as an entity north of the River Araks is an invention of 1918, and that the edifice of Azerbaijani national history is built with bricks that have their Armenian inscriptions hacked off of them.
The falsification of Azerbaijan's history, especially as it relates to Karabakh, concerns Mr. Galichian. But he is especially concerned by Azerbaijani efforts to propagate a novel history of Armenia, one that does not include Armenians until the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Historical maps have been a major focus of Mr. Galichian's
interest until now. He is the author of Historic Maps of Armenia: The Cartographic Heritage
Armenian Reporter editor Vincent Lima caught up with Rouben Galichian at Mr. Galichian's apartment in Yerevan on May 31 and asked him some questions.
Armenian Reporter: Mr. Galichian, thank you for taking the time to talk to me about your book, The Invention of History. This is your fourth book?
Rouben Galichian: Yes, it is.
AR: All of your books have been about historical geography. This time you have focused on questions about the history of Azerbaijan. The first point you make in the book is that the Republic of Azerbaijan is an invention of 1918.
RG: The reason I wrote this book is exactly that.
Borrowing a name
In 1918, when the countries south of the Caucasus Mountains became independent, the country that is now called the Republic of Azerbaijan was originally supposed to be called the Southeastern Transcaucasian Republic. But the Musavat nationalist party decided on the name Azerbaijan, purely for political reasons.
The political reason was that they were trying to establish an Islamic belt of countries that started from Turkey toward Central Asia. Azerbaijan was going to be one of them. Another reason was that they intended to take control of the Iranian province of Azerbaijan too.
The Iranian province of Azerbaijan, which Armenians call Atpatakan, is about 2,000 years old, and in the past has been part of Lesser Media. The name Atpatakan – or Atropatakan – comes from the name of the general Atropat, who protected the country and wouldn't let Alexander the Great conquer it. It had always been south of the River Araks, never to the north of it. Suddenly in 1918, north of the River Araks, a country appears, with the same name. It is analogous to today's Macedonia and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
But that was not enough.
Borrowing an identity
The newly established country wanted to show the world that it had all of the cultural and historical background [of a legitimate nation].
It was a mixture of various races: Persian, Turkic, Tatar, Mongol, local Albanians – who had evolved and converted to Islam and became Lezgins – and Shirvanis, and God knows how many peoples. According to the ancient historians there were 26 tribes living in Caucasian Albania in ancient times.
But there was a problem. There were some Islamic monuments there, which they could point to and say, "This is our heritage," but a majority of the monuments were Christian. There were churches, there were tombs, there were khachkars, and all sorts of things that could not be Islamic. Therefore the Azerbaijani authorities began a campaign saying, "We are actually the descendants of the Caucasian Albanians. They were our ancestors. They used to be Christian and they converted to Islam. And we are them."
At the same time, to be in Turkey's good books, they claimed that they are the descendants of the Oghuz Turks – the Kara Koyunlu, Ak Koyunlu, etc. – and the various tribes.
This is a contradiction. One is a central Caucasian tribe; the other is a Central Asian tribe. How could you have two ancestors so different from each other? You must be a mixture of races. Well, they said no, we are Albanian and the Turkish population has been in this part of the world for over 2,500 years.
