“West Azerbaijan” is an anti-Armenian program that shows the pace of concession no gives Geghamyan

The artificial concept of “West Azerbaijan” is part of the official state program of Azerbaijan. In Azerbaijan, it is understood as a program that includes almost the entire territory of the Republic of Armenia. He said this during the expert panel discussion entitled “Primary Armenia in Turkish-Azerbaijani programs”. Turkic scholar Varuzhan Geghamyannoting that this marginal term, familiar only to orientalists, has turned into one of the most discussed issues on the public agenda in the last 5 years.

“This approach with pan-Turkish roots, the first practical manifestations of which could be seen in 1918-1921, has always been present in the political discourse of post-Soviet Azerbaijan. For the first time, Heydar Aliyev started talking about “Western Azerbaijan” at the state level, from whom all this, like everything else, was transferred to his son, Ilham Aliyev, but with a few features.

One of those features is that, unlike the time of his father, Ilham Aliyev, it is not only about the fact that “Western Azerbaijan” is a historical heritage, a historical memory that should be known, talked about and sometimes dreamed about, but already in Ilham’s time, even before the April war, we are witnessing how they start talking about “Western Azerbaijan” being a strategic goal and policy. This is a direct quote from Ilham Aliyev’s speech,” commented the Turkologist.

According to the Turkic expert, after the war of 2020, a reality was created in the South Caucasus, which, although it is interpreted as an “era of peace” in Armenia, it is interpreted in a completely different way in Azerbaijan, and most of the conversations there are anti-Armenian. According to him, after the 2020 war, Azerbaijan, which positioned itself on international platforms as “the world’s main defender of the principle of territorial integrity”, stopped talking about territorial integrity, but mainly talks about historical-geographical revisionism, so to speak, declaring that today’s borders of Azerbaijan do not fully reflect “real Azerbaijan”.

“I have listed the main directions of the anti-Armenian policy, which can be easily found with a Google search, starting with the ongoing blockade and economic pressure on the Republic of Armenia, ending with the internationalization of ambitions for the territory of the Republic of Armenia. All these can be easily found. However, among these demands, the directions of anti-Armenian policy, one stands out, which, in my opinion, essentially includes all the other demands, and it can be said that it is the main tool of the pressure currently carried out by Azerbaijan against Armenia and Armenians. We are talking about the promotion of the dimensionalist concept of “Western Azerbaijan” or “Western Zangezur”, which is also a component of the so-called “Zangezur Corridor”.

According to Varuzhan Geghamyan, historical revisionism has become one of the main state ideologies in Azerbaijan after 2020. The main coordinator is the staff of the President of Azerbaijan, whose “outsourcing”, so to speak, is done by the organization called “Western Azerbaijan Community”.

“Also, we have leaked documents that prove that it is fully financed by the office of the President of Azerbaijan. In the true sense of the word, dollar after dollar is being spent to advance this project both in Azerbaijan and outside of Azerbaijan,” the Turkologist added.

According to the Turkic expert, the artificial concept of “Western Azerbaijan” has the meaning of both internal and external consumption. “Some political forces in Armenia present the situation in such a way that this is just propaganda for internal consumption, and they put a sign of equality with the idea of ​​Western Armenia, which is completely wrong not only from the point of view of science, but also from the point of view of logic, but moreover, it should be understood that when we approach the topic of “Western Azerbaijan” exclusively as a phenomenon of internal consumption, we do not see all the possible threats arising from it and the various programs implemented within it.”

Secondly, according to the specialist, the intensification of the institutionalization and publicization of the “Western Azerbaijan” concept began after 2020, and this approach does not correspond to the “era of peace” in any way.

“The concept of “Western Azerbaijan” implies a multi-component program, and it cannot be considered with other manifestations of anti-Armenian policy. It is not possible to talk only about “Western Azerbaijan” and understand what it is. One of the most important parts of it is the concept of “return”, where the following is literally written that “West Azerbaijanis” should not only return to “West Azerbaijan”, but also a legal framework should be provided there, that legal framework should be adapted to the settlers, a change of place names should take place, an international mission with police and civil administration powers should be located in Armenia, etc. This is part of the official state program, which does not often become the subject of our discussion. And fourthly, the “Western Azerbaijan” concept is a program in action,” added Varuzhan Geghamyan.

The panel discussion was organized by the Armenian Center for Advanced Research.

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