This week, a course of lectures on the history of Azerbaijan has started at the Azerbaijan Cultural Center at the Library for Foreign Literature. The Library positions itself as a public library of a broad humanitarian profile, at the same time fulfilling the mission of an international cultural center, meeting place for a lively communication of representatives of various countries, peoples, cultures, languages and faiths. The project was initiated by the chairman of AMOR, vice president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Leyla Aliyeva.
The first lecture on the history of Azerbaijan was held by an assistant professor of the Department of the History of the Near Abroad States of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, Ph.D. Ismail Agakishiev. As the chairman of the MGIMO Azerbaijani club, Jeykhun Huseynov, stated in his address, “history is a science that primarily depends on the person who tells it. Its depth, interest and truthfulness depend on the person who tells about it. When I met Ismail Muallim, I realized that this is a right and competent person, who will be able to convey historical issues questions in the right direction, as it is required."
The lecturer spoke about the key approaches to the periodization of the history of human society: “In the history of mankind there is no single model to evaluate the development of one or another ethnic group. Any attempt to fit the development processes of various ethnic groups under a single template is doomed to failure ... In Soviet times, there was a selection of facts to a pre-approved concept, much attention was paid to finding examples of the class struggle ... "
However, the denial of everything positive, which is associated with Azerbaijan in the Russian Empire and the USSR, Agakishiyev called a sad trend.
He also noted that “for centuries, Azerbaijanis have been actively involved in the formation of various Eastern states, many of which could be considered their own, as they played a state formative role in ethnic terms. During certain periods of the development of these states, Azerbaijanis occupied a leading position in the formation of political elites”.
"After Azerbaijan became a sovereign state, the main task of historians was to create a concept based on historical facts and meeting the requirements of historical science. If we take into account that people have lived in Azerbaijan since ancient times, and many pages of history are poorly explored, it will become clear what a tremendous amount of work should be done by Azerbaijani historians. They have to write the history of Azerbaijan from ancient times to today, " Ismail Agakishiyev said.
