But that is in fact an ancient Azerbaijani land. This must be talked about, and in this regard, President Ilham Aliyev is pursuing a very correct policy, trying to reach out to the world and tell it the truth.
This is the opinion of Michael Finkel, well-known Israeli political scientist, Doctor of Law, international relations expert, shared with Day.Az.
Azerbaijan is right to insist on the necessity of sending a UNESCO mission to Armenia, the Israeli political scientist believes. The Armenian side has been actively accusing Azerbaijan of allegedly destroying some kind of Armenian heritage, of vandalism and other things, which, of course, is not true.
“This is like in the old saying, measuring another man’s foot by one’s last. All the historical and cultural monuments of Azerbaijanis, all the heritage of the ancestors of the Azerbaijani people in Armenia itself have been destroyed. The goal is to make sure that no one will ever find out or even think that there is any connection between the lands that are now the Republic of Armenia and Azerbaijanis. But that is in fact an ancient Azerbaijani land. That is why it is essential that an objective and independent UNESCO commission visit Armenia and see it for itself,” Mr. Finkel said.
According to Finkel, Armenia has been systematically destroying Azerbaijani heritage since the 1920s, to keep the world from ever knowing that this territory was once the Irevan Khanate, that Khazaria and Caucasian Albania were there, to keep the world from ever knowing about the connection between Azerbaijani Turks and this land. The Israeli political analyst particularly emphasizes that all this is being done to make sure that Azerbaijan never claims these lands back. This behavior, Mikhail Finkel says, is that of a person who has somehow laid their hands on something that is not theirs and is now trying to prove that it belongs to them and has always belonged to no one else.
“The Palestinians in Israel are doing the same thing, trying to destroy the heritage of the Jewish people, which comes out wherever you dig in our land and shows that Jews have lived here for four thousand years and that it is the Arabs who are outlanders, having come here only in the 7th century CE. Just as the Armenians who came to the Azerbaijani lands invented a ‘Caucasian’ history for themselves, so the Palestinians call themselves Philistines, the name Mycenaean Greeks were called. Both of them are appropriating the history of another people. The identity of Armenians is Hay, the Hay people, and Armenia’s endonym is Hayastan. That is, the Hay people appropriated the name of an ancient people that had nothing to do with them.
Armenia is guilty of so many crimes. The Armenians have destroyed all Azerbaijani heritage in the Republic of Armenia, and all that was in the formerly occupied territories of Azerbaijan. The world is not condemning them because it is positively biased towards this country. First, because it is a Christian country. Second, because there is a powerful lobby that works hard to create a positive Armenian image. Sadly, we have to admit that Azerbaijanophobia, Turkophobia, Islamophobia exist in the international arena. This must be talked about, and in this regard, the President of Azerbaijan is pursuing a very correct policy. The world must know the truth,” Michael Finkel said.
Leyla Tariverdiyeva
Translated from Day.az
