Iravan is historically Azerbaijani land and Azerbaijanis should return there, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said, speaking at the 6th congress of the ruling party on February 8. Armenian side either didn't understand this statement of the head of Azerbaijani state, or simply decided to distort its meaning both in their own and in Russian media. President Ilham Aliyev also stressed that Iravan is historically Azerbaijani land and that this fact can't be to refuted because it's the truth. We will provide historical facts that confirm this.
Even before the Iravan Khanate existed, there was the Chukhursaad province, which was one of the four provinces of the Safavid Empire. In 1504, on the order of Shah Ismail, Safavid commander Revangulu Khan began to build fortress here.
It took seven years to build a fortress on the rocky bank of the Zangu River (later renamed by Armenians to Hrazdan). In honor of Revangulu Khan, it ws named Revan Galasi ("Fortress of Revan").
There's a very simple answer to the question "Why fortress' name was pronounced as Iravan, and not Revan?", which also shows how wrong Armenians are when they claim that Muslim population of the region, like Safavids themselves, were anyone but Turks. The fact is that in Turkic languages, including Azerbaijani, words can't begin with such letters as "l" or "p". Almost all words that begin with these consonants are borrowed from other languages. That's why local population pronounced Revan as Iravan. For example, Azerbaijanis who don't know any languages except for their own pronounce names such as Rasim, Ramin and so on as Iramin, Irasim.
At that time this fortress, which turned into a city, was famous for large number of mosques and minarets - there were 8 mosques and arout 800 houses, where Turkic Azerbaijanis lived.
During expansion of the Russian Empire into the Caucasus and other regions, contrary to Russians' plans, who were sure that they will conquer these territories within 2-3 years, the city of Iravan successfully opposed Russian troops for 23 years.
In 1827, on fifth attempt, Russian army finally managed to capture this fortress.
Despite the fact that over the past years this fortress was partially destroyed, there still were a couple of buildings inside Iravan fortress until the 1920s, when, after Soviet authorities came to power in Armenia, local authorities began to completely demolish this fortress, including and other building that were an evidence of Muslim and Turkic past of Iravan.
Iravan, which would have turned 500 years old in 2011, was renamed into Yerevan in 1936.
However, there are still picturesque paintings and photographs, which depicts Muslim heritage of Iravan.
It also should be remembered that throughout the 20th century, Armenia periodically carried out ethnic cleansings, deportations and killings against Azerbaijani population. That's why there are no Azerbaijanis in Armenia today.
Xenophobic policy of official Yerevan is also evident because of the fact that Armenia, located in one of the most multi-ethnic regions of the world, is the only mono-ethnic country there.
It should be noted that at the beginning of the 20th century, despite numerous resettlement of Armenians from Iran and the Ottoman Empire during the second half of the 19th century, Azerbaijanis were still a majority in the city of Iravan.
Rthnic cleansing and massacre of unarmed Azerbaijani population, committed by Armenians throughout Armenia, especially in Zangezur, led to significant reduction in the number of Azerbaijanis and their mass outflow to neighboring regions of Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey.
After Soviet authorities came to power in Armenia, it repeatedly presented a plan to take Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan and make this Azerbaijani region a part of Armenia to Soviet leadership.
At the same time, they raised the issue of repatriation of Armenians from foreign countries to Armenia.
These issues weren't seriously considered until the end of the Second World War.
But in 1947, Stalin, who planned to attack Turkey in order to seize the Bosphorus and Dardanell Straits, signed a decree on deportation of about 100,000 Azerbaijanis from Armenia to Azerbaijan.
As a result, from 1948 to 1954, over 100,000 Azerbaijanis were forcibly deported from their native lands, while over 90,000 Armenians came from abroad, which had a serious impact on demographic situation in Armenia. Since mid-1980s, another stage of Armenians' attempts to seize the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan began. Taking advantage of tacit support of the leadership of the USSR, in 1987 Armenia began to deport Azerbaijani population from Armenia. By the beginning of 1990, there were no Azerbaijanis left in Armenia.
This is a historical aspect of this issue.
As for political aspect, it should be noted that every logical person can easily understand that after the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on norms and principles of international law, as well as corresponding resolutions of the UN Security Council, Azerbaijanis will can to return to their homeland - to Iravan, Zangezur and other territories of Armenia.
Naturally, it also means that just like Azerbaijanis can return to Iravan, Armenians can return to Baku, Ganja, Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions of Azerbaijan.
All of this will happen after peaceful and just settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijani government supports this peaceful settlement.
Against this background, one can only guess why Ilham Aliyev's statement mdae the Armenian side so mad.
It happens despite the fact that current Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who participated in the crime against humanity in the city of Khojaly, previously said that the goal of Armenian leadership is not only to take Azerbaijani territories, but also to prepare new generation of Armenians for new aggressions.
This isn't a baseless fact. Armenian President said that in July of 2011 at a meeting with participants of the 5th Pan-Armenian Olympiad.
One of participants in this event asked Sargsyan the following question: "My name is Grigor Ambartsumyan, I'm a student of the Shaumyan middle school of the Ararat region. Dear President, Armenia is considered one of the most ancient countries in the world, and at one time, during the reign of Tigranes the Great, our country was also one of the most powerful states in the world. But we can't say the same about current Armenia. I wonder if our future will resemble the Treaty of Batum, or we will see the future where Western Armenia returns together with Ararat."
Armenian President responded: "It all depends on you and your generation. I think my generation already fulfilled its duty when in the early 1990s we protected one part of our homeland, Karabakh, from our enemies. And I'm not saying this in order to put a burden on someone, I want to say that each generation has its own duty and it must be able to fulfill this duty and fulfill it well..."
Let's compare the message of President Ilham Aliyev - "Iravan is historically Azerbaijani land, and Azerbaijanis should return there" - and the message of President Serzh Sargsyan - "My generation returned Karabakh, Ararat's return is a duty of your generation."
While Azerbaijani President says that Azerbaijanis should return to Iravan, Serzh Sargsyan orders Armenian youth to return Ararat.
That's what he asks future generations of Armenia to do. This is one of the many evidences of aggressive nature of Armenians. That's Armenia's position and it will never change. Most importantly, it's impossible to resolve problems together with this country in a peaceful way. State that promotes fascism, occupation policy and use of force only understands the language of power.
