June: 8, 2026
In recent days on the Internet, especially՝ Various Azerbaijani media platforms spread the news that a cuneiform inscription related to the joint reign of Urartan Ishpuin and Menua was found or rediscovered on Mount Odzasar in Nakhichevan. What is the purpose of this Azerbaijani propaganda?
We talked with Mikael Badalyan, candidate of historical sciences, archaeologist, urologist, former director of “Erebun” historical-archaeological reserve-museum.
– Mr. Badalyan, in recent days the news has been spreading on the Internet, especially by various Azerbaijani media platforms, that a cuneiform record related to the joint reign of Urartian Ishpuin and Menua was found or rediscovered on Odzasar Mountain in Nakhichevan. This news is also spreading in Armenia. As a urartologist,՞what can you say about that?
– In fact, the Urartian inscription of Odzasar was discovered in 1988 by the director of the seismological and analytical center of the National Seismic Protection Service of the Republic of Armenia, candidate of geological sciences V. by Igumnov. V. of 1996 Igumnovi, H. Karagyozyan and S. Hmayakyan published an article on the Odzasar inscription and its reading in the “Historical Journal”. Later, prominent urologists N. Harutyunyan and M. Salvini also published articles on that record, introducing certain clarifications for its reading. In recent years, the famous urologist R. Dan, and to the cultic aspects mentioned in its text, also the author of my stanzas.
The record mentions Ishpuini and Menua conquering the lands of the cities of Artsin and Aniani, erecting a monument in honor of the god Khaldi, and offering animal sacrifices to Khaldi and Khaldi’s wife.
Odzasar is located near Khoshakunik settlement of historical Armenia.
– What do you think?՞What is the purpose of spreading the Odzasar protocol now? Yes?՞Does it have a purely scientific purpose?՞ may also have political implications.
– Why exactly in this period did the Azerbaijanis start spreading the news of finding the Odzasar inscription? In addition, they already say that the record documents the presence of the Urartian power in Nakhichevan and also mention that there was also a frontier.
Until recently, Azerbaijanis officially forbade mentioning and writing that there was a presence of the Urartian power in Nakhichevan. Even a fragment of a typical Urartian jar identified by a cuneiform inscription found at Oghlan Kala was considered to be a manifestation of local writing. They even tried to force foreign scientists working in Nakhijevan to mention in their works that there are no traces of Urartian presence in Nakhijevan.
One of the vivid proofs of this is the famous American archaeologist, Bradley Parker’s “Azeri Nationalism and the Silencing of the Past”, which is the text of his report, where the famous scientist put the message of his letter and the letter addressed to him by the Azerbaijanis, in which the latter tries to convince Parker that the fortresses of Nakhichevan are not Urartian.
However, now we see once again that Odzasar’s inscription was rediscovered in Nakhijevan. A question arises. if they really wanted to, they could have found that record earlier. Another question arises, why did they just now start to present about that record, talk about the Urartian heritage in Nakhijevan? It is very interesting that in the shameful map of Urartu of the 7th grade Armenian history textbook, which was never changed, there is no current Republic of Armenia, there is no Erebuni, that is, the current Republic of Armenia is not included in the map of Urartu. But hey, Nakhichevan is included. Let me remind you that the first theory regarding the origin of Armenians is presented in the same textbook, that according to the Balkan hypothesis, the ancestors of Armenians are Phrygian colonists who migrated from the Balkans. Not a word about the Erebuni-Yerevan connection, on Tigran the Great’s map it is Azerbaijan, and so on…
Currently, Azerbaijanis have started preaching that Armenians have nothing to do with Urartu. In my personal opinion, these circumstances may indicate that a process has begun, a planned process at that, when they are trying to take Urartu from us. Moreover, if earlier Turkey claimed Urartu, the kingdom of Ararat, now Azerbaijan is also making an application.
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