Armenia is once again in the midst of a historical and political storm following remarks by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev: "It is enough to look at early-20th-century maps published by Tsarist Russia to see that the overwhelming majority of toponyms in what is now Armenia are of Azerbaijani origin. There was no lake Sevan on those maps. There is Lake Goycha on those maps, along with all other Azerbaijani historical toponyms we use. We did not compile those maps for anyone to say that we are committing fraud".
Following statements by the Armenian Parliament Speaker and others, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also weighed in. According to Pashinyan, "On the map being referenced, the area labeled as Armenia is indeed called ‘Armenia,’ and Azerbaijan is not mentioned at all. How should this be interpreted?" He dismissed the debate as meaningless, arguing that if one relied on maps from earlier eras, it could be concluded that neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan existed. Pashinyan also stated: "Who said these are Azerbaijani names? They are Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Mongolian, Russian. But what difference does that make? None."
It is a notable, and positive, step that Pashinyan has moved away from arguments of the type: "These lands belonged to us during the times of the Arsacids and Bagratids, so they must belong to us today". Yet historical falsifications continue to have consequences, especially when one considers that erasing Azerbaijani toponyms from maps was part of a broader, politically charged campaign that began after Armenian resettlement in the Caucasus - a topic often avoided in Armenia.
Maps are complicated. One can draw and label anything. Recently, Armenian cartographers presented a "10th-century map" showing Armenia, but not Azerbaijan, without noting that it also depicted the Mingachevir Reservoir, which was built in 1953. German maps from the 18th-19th centuries show Georgian kingdoms and Azerbaijani khanates, including Georgia and Azerbaijan, but Armenia is absent. Russian military maps drawn immediately after the Treaty of Turkmenchay, covering lands of modern Armenia, contain no Armenian toponyms - only Turkic ones.
Claiming that these names are Persian, Arabic, Mongolian, or Russian rather than Azerbaijani is an old tactic of Armenian polemicists in historical debates: to divert attention from the core issue and get lost in details, for example, whether the "Blue Mosque" in Yerevan is Persian, Azerbaijani, or "Turkmen". How names like Göycha, Sofulu, Istisu, or Garakilsya could be Mongolian or Russian is likely only clear to Armenian geographers.
But the question is not trivial. First, it does not matter whether these names are Arabic, Mongolian, or something else - they are not Armenian. Second, why were these names erased from maps, and not in ancient times, but in the 20th century, during Stalin’s era?
The erasure did not stop at maps. Bulldozers soon followed ink and pencil. In Armenia, historical urban architecture of Turkic and Muslim origin was systematically destroyed. At the start of the 20th century, Russian scholars, concerned about the state of the Yerevan Fortress, petitioned Tsar Nicholas II: "Russia appears barbaric in the eyes of the East! Funds are urgently needed to restore the fortress!" The Tsar supported the idea, but World War I, the revolution, and the abdication prevented action.
By the mid-20th century, the fortress was demolished, along with the Khan’s palace - one of the region’s most beautiful - and six of seven mosques, plus residential buildings. The city was leveled and rebuilt in Soviet-era styles, which were labeled "Armenian". The destruction continued into the 1960s and 1970s.
Armenia effectively became an open-air museum of vandalism. This was not the end: by the mid-1980s, ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis in Armenia began. Hundreds of thousands have been prevented from returning to their homes to this day.
While the current Armenian authorities may not be held directly responsible for the historical destruction of Armenian cities, this does not justify attempts to propagate cartographic falsifications that initially laid the groundwork for ethnic cleansing, first of maps, then of architecture, and finally of people.
Fuad Akhundov
political analyst