Azerbaijani President’s “wise” response to letter from girl in Artsakh
Recently a student from Stepanakert by the name of Adelina Avagimyan wrote a letter to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev asking him why he was threatening the people of Artsakh with a war. Instead of answering this very simple question, head of the department of Aliyev’s administration Elnur Aslanov wrote another “agit-memorandum” mentioning “the formation of the state created by the Azerbaijani back then” and that the “leaders of that state founded Khankend in the late 18th century”.
As they say, there can be no good without evil. The “thoughts” expressed in these couple of lines strip the entire essence of Azerbaijan’s “elite”. There is not even any knowledge of general history, particularly the history of Karabakh. You have to be a perfect professor in order to write that “the first castles were built on the slopes of mountains located a couple of kilometers away from Shushi, that only the khan’s family lived here from time to time and that the village was named “Khankend”. Had Elnur Aslanov even taken a look at the map of Nagorno-Karabakh before writing those thoughts down?
Yes, Stepanakert is located a couple of kilometers away from Shushi, but it is in a comparably lower area where there are no slopes. So, the territory couldn’t have been a resort for the “khans” of Shushi since Shushi was a resort itself. Even if the “khans” felt hot in Shushi, they had to have selected a place for a villa in the Kirs mountains, but Azerbaijanis’ history doesn’t mention anything about that.
What is the sense of that unintelligent observation? Is it to “prove” that “the khans of Karabakh not only established Shushi, but Khankend as well?” Mirza Adigyozal-bek, who is considered an Azerbaijani and has been Ibrahim “khan’s servant” and wrote the history of his lord and his family, has left a special testimony of the “world building” acts perpetrated by Panah and his son, Ibrahim. The author, who has witnessed the events and has served as a “servant” for Ibrahim doesn’t even know about the “castles and other edifices built in Khankend”. If there were such things, he would definitely have recalled them since he hasn’t spared efforts to even consider the “walls of the garden” “worthy of recalling”. The only thing that can be considered a “memory of the khan” in Stepanakert is the name “Khanbagh”, but even if most desired, it is difficult to consider one “building” “summer villas”, much less a “settlement” or “village”.
In his “memorandum”, Elnur Aslanov once again speculates the topic of “Karabakhi Armenians being comers”. Of course, he “graciously” doesn’t deny that “Armenians also lived in Karabakh, but they made up a very small minority of the overall population.”
Now, let’s seek help from the Azerbaijani and try to find out who found themselves in Karabakh, when and how. In regard to Panah, he writes that “Panah’s family, relatives and elders gathered at Bayat fortress. The people living nearby, even craftsmen and a large part of the population from Tavriz and Ardabil regions heard of the Panah khan’s successes, his attitude toward the people and love and came to Bayat.”
Let’s hope that Aslanov at least knows where Tavriz and Ardabil are located on the map. The people from those places made up the “ilat” of Panah, which was later moved to Tigranakert-Tarnakut and which the Azerbaijani call Shahbulagh and then Shushi. That was the first “Azerbaijani” population in Karabakh. Azerbaijani intellectuals from Shushi have also accepted the fact that the “Azerbaijani” population of Shushi is not indigenous. I would like to believe that Elnur Aslanov has at least read the Azerbaijani classics. I would like to remind him of Yusif Vezir Chemenzemenlli’s novel called “In Blood” in which he describes the bloody events during Ibrahim’s period of rule. Speaking of Ibrahim’s “servant”, molla Panah Vagif’s family, Chemenzemenli writes: “…The suffering Khazakhtsi didn’t know where to rest.”
The establishment of the khans in Karabakh and the construction of the fortress in Shushi in 1754 gave hope that people would finally rest in the citadel located in the high mountains, and the Kazakhtsis started moving to Karabakh. Vagif and 17 other families of the Saatli clan moved to Shushi, established the “mahal”, which went on to be called “Saatli”.
At a reception with the NKR President during a visit to Artsakh a couple of years ago, Professor Farhad Badalbeyli, whose grandfather was born in Shushi, was proud to say that he was one of the “ghajar”. As to who the “ghajar” were and where their homeland was, I think even Elnur Aslanov knows, writes “Azg” daily newspaper.