“GEGHARD”
SCIENTIFIC ANALYTICAL
FOUNDATION
2024
2024
Within the framework of the 'Western Azerbaijan' thesis, Azerbaijanis continue to spread Armenophobia and hatred. This time, their target is the village of Kutakan in Gegharkunik region.
As a continuation of the fabricated 'Western Azerbaijan' thesis, Azerbaijanis have 'appointed their imaginary leaders' for communities of the Republic of Armenia. One of them is Anatoli Orujov, who presents himself as the president of the so-called Western Azerbaijan's Basarkechar region's Janahmed rural community (referring to the village of Kutakan in the Vardenis community of Gegharkunik region).
The 'Azerbaijani leader' of Kutakan village not only rules the imaginary community but also writes about the community's history. Orujov presents the village's history with distorted facts, hatred against Armenians, and hostility. The author notes that although no archaeological excavations have been carried out in the village area to date, and it is impossible to provide accurate information about the ancient history of the village, this fact does not prevent him from making a 'firm' conclusion.
It is known that until 1969, the village was called Janahmed, and until 1991, it was called Gyunashli. Contrary to this, there is a 12th-17th century Armenian Christian cemetery in the village area with khachkars (cross-stones) and tombs, and a church has been preserved near the village. Orujov presents the Armenian cemetery of the village as a 'pre-Christian era cemetery of Caucasian Albanian Turks' and, to convince his readers of the connection between crosses and Turks, adds that at one time Turks helped the Albanians, and these crosses were part of pre-Christian religious rituals.
The fact that starting from the 11th century various Turkic tribes migrated to Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Asia Minor, and other territories is undeniable. But these tribes could not directly participate in the formation of the Azerbaijani ethnicity that emerged more than 9 centuries later and have no connection with the Azerbaijanis.
According to the author, the tribes he speaks about were part of the Qara Qoyunlu tribal confederation. “Like other regions of Western Azerbaijan, the village of Janahmed has been the home of ancestors of various Turkic tribes since ancient times, and their traces have reached our days”, writes Orujov.
Orujov links the emptying of the village, and its later repopulation with Azerbaijanis, to the so-called 'exile of Azerbaijanis' that took place during the Soviet period (1945-1959), presenting it as Moscow's support for Armenia. It is undeniable that there were Armenian villages in Soviet Azerbaijan and Muslim Turkic-speaking villages in Soviet Armenia. The village of Kutakan was mainly Muslim Turkic-speaking during the Soviet period. According to Orujov, Armenians also Armenianized the village's cultural heritage, destroyed some of it, and allegedly expelled the Azerbaijanis. However, the reality is that in 1988, the local Azerbaijanis moved to the territory of Soviet Azerbaijan.
It should be noted that during the same period, mass killings and displacements of Armenians took place in Azerbaijan.
Thus, ignoring the brutal actions of his own nation, the 'Azerbaijani leader' of the Armenian village of Kutakan, by distorting historical facts, invents a 'new Azerbaijani history'․
Photo by Narek Aleksanyan