Is the official history of Azerbaijan preparing Azerbaijanis for war with Russia? — historian

The incessant news about the anti-Russian actions of Azerbaijan (2025 is already considered the year of a significant cooling in Russian-Azerbaijani relations) forces us to pay closer attention to the ideology of Shahidism adopted in this state and its Russophobic roots.

The topic of the martyrs is not only legitimate for official Azerbaijan, but also extremely relevant. Every year on January 20, the leadership and employees of the Ministry of Education and Science visit the Alley of Martyrs, where events take place to pay tribute and memory to "the martyrs who gave their lives in the struggle for freedom and sovereignty of the Motherland." The visit to the Alley of Martyrs is one of the points of official visits of representatives of foreign countries to Azerbaijan, including guests from Russia.

In addition to the Day of National Mourning in Azerbaijan on January 20, the theme of the martyrs is heard on many other occasions. For example, the website of the Ministry of Education of the republic reports that "Shahid's daughter has been appointed director of the school," and says that "to secondary school No. 2 named after B. Mehdiyev of the city of Gubadli appointed a new director. By the relevant order of the Minister of Education Emin Amrullayev, history teacher Rakhmina Mehdiyeva Bahman gizi was appointed to this position. It should be noted that Rakhmina Mehdiyeva successfully passed the interview stage, and also scored 45 points at the test stage of the competition for the position of director." The website notes that "R. Mehdiyeva's father was a history teacher at the same school and became a shahid of the First Karabakh War. He died on October 26, 1992 in the battles for Ballygaya in the Goranboy district. Mehdi Mehdiyev, R. Mehdiyeva's grandfather, was also killed by Armenians in 1989."

In the official educational historical concept of Azerbaijan, Moscow appears to be one of the parties to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, and not passive, but very active.

So, on the pages of the textbook of the history of Azerbaijan for the 11th grade (The History of Azerbaijan-Azerbaycan tarixi. Textbook for 11 cl. 2023. The authors — Asif Hüseynov, Elnur Hüseynov,Elşşn Qasımov,Faiq Babayev,Hafiz Kabbarov,Niyamafddin Quliyev, P?Rviz Ağalarov, Röv?n H?t?mov,Sevil B?hr?mova) wrote that ""perestroika", "glasnost" and "democracy" had a great impact on the national identity of the peoples who became victims of the empire. History, which was a victim of ideology, began to be studied anew. Falsified and "forgotten" historical moments were highlighted. The process of national awakening of the Azerbaijani people has accelerated. The central government was deeply concerned about the national revival of peoples." Fighting against such a revival, the empire "always creates conditions for the occurrence of massacres on national and religious grounds," therefore, "the criminal Mikhail Gorbachev deliberately turned a blind eye to the actions of the elements, trying to divert the attention of the population," "the creation of hotbeds of national conflicts in the country was also part of this policy."

"One of such hotbeds of conflict was the policy of national genocide, which began with the territorial claims of Armenians to Azerbaijan. The separatist movement that began in Karabakh played a big role in the collapse of the USSR. In fact, the Armenians were preparing for this conflict systematically. As soon as the line of "democratization" began, the nationalist Dashnaktsutyun party became more active in Armenia, aiming at the appropriation of Azerbaijani lands. In various media outlets, the Armenian intelligentsia falsified historical facts and published offensive information against Azerbaijanis, passed off false information as the truth and called peoples to enmity. One of these "intellectuals" was Zoriy Balyan, who became "famous" for criminal acts against the Azerbaijani people. His book "Ojag" was full of slogans such as "To cleanse Armenia of Turks (Azerbaijanis)" and "Great Armenia from sea to sea," the textbook says.

The above-mentioned history textbook of Azerbaijan for the 11th grade contains the following reasons for Azerbaijan's claims against Moscow, they are also indicated as facts of the policy of national genocide of Azerbaijanis and crimes of Armenians:

1. Moscow has agreed to transfer thousands of hectares of land from Gazakh and Kedabek districts of Azerbaijan to Armenia. However, thanks to the efforts of the local population, this plan was not implemented.
2. Since January 1988, Armenians began expelling Azerbaijanis living in Armenia from their historical homeland — from the Gafan and Meghri districts of Armenia.
3. Protest rallies against Azerbaijanis were held in Armenia and Khankendi (Stepanakert).
4. In 1988, on February 28, in Sumgait, Azerbaijan SSR, "the Armenians, according to a pre-prepared scenario, on behalf of the Azerbaijanis, committed a massacre (Sumgait rebellion) against their own people... As a result of the inability of the central government to investigate the true perpetrators of the crime and give the event a correct political assessment, the information war against the Azerbaijanis expanded. After that, the process of mass resettlement of Azerbaijanis from Armenia intensified" — by 1991, "230 thousand Azerbaijanis living in Armenia had to be forcibly relocated from their historical lands." Armenians and Moscow jointly carried out the deportation of Azerbaijanis from Western Azerbaijan (Armenian SSR), a textbook informs Azerbaijani schoolchildren.
5. In December 1989 The Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR, "grossly violating all political norms, officially declared its claims to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and decided to annex Karabakh to Armenia" — "after the Sumgait rebellion, the bloody anti-Turkish movement organized by the government and the leaders of the "Karabakh movement" in Armenia has grown even more.

As a response to the actions of Armenians and Moscow by Azerbaijan, the textbook cites the following events:

1. A rally on November 17, 1988 in Lenin Square (now Azadlig Square) in Baku, where "the people demanded that the USSR leadership stop the occupation policy of Armenia and aggression against Azerbaijani lands." For the first time since the establishment of Soviet power, slogans such as "sovereignty", "freedom", and "independence" began to be heard at the rally. It was a "high demonstration of the national solidarity of the people." The tricolor flag of the People's Republic of Azerbaijan was raised here for the first time. Moscow was very concerned about the scale of the movement and its spread to other regions.
2. In response to Moscow's actions, Azerbaijan moved to the active phase of the independence movement, as "everyone understood perfectly well that it was by having a sovereign state that it was possible to defend the motherland and protect the population from the brutal Armenians."
3. On December 31, 1989, the "national forces" in Azerbaijan "dismantled the Soviet-Iranian border facilities built on the banks of the Araz River and other territories, starting from Nakhchivan, and established live communication with the southern Azerbaijanis."
4. To which "Moscow began to further incite the occupation policy of Armenia," which was manifested in the attacks of Armenians on Azerbaijani villages. (The history of Azerbaijan-Azerbaycan tarixi. Textbook for 11 cl. 2023. The authors are Asif Hüseynov,Elnur Hüseynov,Elşşn Qasımov,Faiq Babayev,Hafiz Kabbarov,Niyamafddin Quliyev,P?Rviz Ağalarov,Röv?n H?t?mov,Sevil B?hr?mova. pp.146-149)

And this is a textbook on the history of Azerbaijan for the 9th grade: "On January 19, Armenian military detachments with the support of Soviet army units attacked Nakhchivan. The population of Nakhchivan rose up to defend their native land and forced the enemy to retreat. And the Supreme Council of Nakhchivan announced its withdrawal from the USSR. In order to suppress the nationwide protest growing in Azerbaijan and maintain control over the socio-political processes, it was decided to use military force. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree "On the introduction of a state of emergency in the city of Baku from January 20, 1990." But because of a deliberate explosion on the evening of January 19 in The Baku power supply unit of the Azerbaijani Television, the population was not informed about this decree.

On the night of January 20, the Soviet army launched an attack on Baku from different sides. In protest against the entry of troops into The population built barricades on the entrance roads of Baku, which were crushed by tanks, and the defenders of the barricades were subjected to artillery shelling. During the introduction of troops, hundreds of civilians were killed and injured. Units of the Soviet army following Baku staged pogroms in the regions as well. After the bloody January events, the Azerbaijani people clearly realized the senselessness of Azerbaijan's further stay in the Soviet Union, whose leadership mercilessly dealt with the civilian population. Only by restoring the independence of their state, the Azerbaijani people could count on the protection of their rights and interests. Distrust of the Soviet regime has deepened," the textbook says ("History of Azerbaijan". History textbook for grade 9. Authors Yagub Mahmudlu, Gabil Aliyev, Mehman Abdullayev, Leyla Huseynova, Hafiz Jabbarov. p. 158.) about the event in memory of which delegations of the Ministry of Education and Science of Azerbaijan visit the Alley of Martyrs in Baku every year.

All this allows us to conclude that the official educational course of the history of Azerbaijan contains the main installation that modern independent Azerbaijan arose as a response to the oppression of the Azerbaijani people in the USSR by the Armenians and the close, friendly to the Armenians Soviet government in the person of Gorbachev and his team, who wanted to use the Armenians to fight the resurgent national sovereign Azerbaijan.

By the way, in the above-mentioned textbook on the history of Azerbaijan for the 11th grade, a specific date for the beginning of the struggle for national Azerbaijan is indicated and it is frankly, specifically spelled out how it happened: "In 1962, at a secret meeting attended by representatives of the country's intelligentsia, the National Azerbaijani Headquarters (OURS) was organized. OUR branches have been established in the regions. Most of the members of the organization, of which Ogtay Rafili was the chairman and Khudu Mammadov was the deputy, were officials. The main goal was to ensure the presence of Azerbaijanis in senior positions, to try to resolve the issue of contributions to the republic's budget in Baku, not Moscow, and serve the cause of national awakening" (p. 140).

Since the end of the 1960s, the policy of "national awakening", as indicated in the textbook on the history of Azarbaijan for the 11th grade, was carried out by Heydar Aliyev, appointed by the head of the Azerbaijan SSR.

"At the initiative of Heydar Aliyev, the attention of party and state bodies, public organizations, intellectuals to strengthening the national human resources potential of the republic has increased. Thousands of young Azerbaijanis were sent to the leading educational and scientific institutions of the USSR for education. In April 1978, the new Constitution of the Azerbaijan SSR was adopted. This Constitution expanded the legal framework for the preservation and development of the spiritual wealth of the people, especially their language, within the limits of the limited possibilities. Despite the objections of the USSR leadership, the Azerbaijani language retained the status of the state language in the republic as a result of the political will of Heydar Aliyev." (p. 142)

In response to the economic and spiritual growth of Azerbaijan in the 1970s-1980s, according to the authors of the textbook, "Armenian nationalists who held high positions in the competent authorities of the Soviet Union expanded their treacherous activities to inflict major blows on the economy of Azerbaijan." Or so: "The hostile forces of Azerbaijan could not accept the fact that the grape-wine complex created conditions for the annual growth of the economy of this main wine-growing republic of the USSR. In 1985, under the guise of combating alcoholism, the abolition of viticulture began." (p.144)

The anti-Armenian position of Azerbaijan is well known, therefore, some of the formulations in describing the events of the 1980s and 1990s from Azerbaijani history textbooks are hardly unexpected, but the analysis of other paragraphs of textbooks, as well as a textbook on the history of Azerbaijan for the 8th grade, cannot but be alarming.

So, in the textbook on the history of Azerbaijan (The History of Azerbaijan by Azerbaycan tarixi. The textbook for the 8th grade, authors — Yaqub Mahmudlu,Leyla Hüseynova, H?c?r Hlişova, Sevil B?hr?mova, Hafiz Kabbarov, Esmira Musayeva) states that "since the time of Peter I, the Russians have attached special importance to the Armenians and used them in espionage activities against Azerbaijan. The Armenians held "special" events to collect the necessary espionage information for the invaders. The Armenians, who dreamed of creating a "Great Armenia" state on the lands of Azerbaijan, the Ottoman Empire and Georgia, hoped that they would achieve their goals by helping the reactionary policy of tsarist Russia in the Caucasus." (P. 149). Therefore, children are taught in schools in Azerbaijan, "after the annexation of the Karabakh Khanate to The Russian tsarist government began to oppress the Muslim-Turkish population of this region and relocate Armenians to its territory." At the same time, "it is well known that, despite the policy of Armenization pursued by tsarist Russia after the occupation of the Karabakh Khanate, the overwhelming majority of the population here were Azerbaijanis." (p. 191) The textbook emphasizes that the Turkmenchay Treaty contained an article protecting the rights of those who moved from Southern Azerbaijan to the South Caucasus. This article was included in the agreement on the resettlement of Armenians from the territory of the Qajar state to the lands of Northern Azerbaijan. As a result, Armenians began to be resettled en masse to Nakhichevan, Karabakh and Irevan Khanate. (Pp. 180-181).

The reactionary policy of tsarist Russia showed its true face. The rights of the Azerbaijani khans, beks, agha and other noble rulers were limited. They resorted to all sorts of intrigues to get them to leave the country. The lands and property of the khans and their heirs who left their homeland were transferred to the treasury (state) and were occupied by separate Russian and Armenian military (p.170).

The topic of the resettlement of Armenians to Azerbaijan by the Russian government in textbooks is one of the central ones, which is confirmed by numerous quotations on this subject. In the above-mentioned textbook on the history of Azerbaijan for the 11th grade, this topic is touched upon repeatedly:

"In March 1828, another historical injustice occurred. By the decree of Tsar Nicholas I, the so-called "Armenian province" was created, covering the lands of Nakhchivan and The Irevan Khanate. This step, along with the official abolition of these khanates, paved the way for the future organization of the Armenian state on historical Azerbaijani lands. Thus, in the short time that has passed since the Russian occupation, the system of local self-government has been completely replaced by a new military administration," which created conditions "for unprecedented arbitrariness and robbery of the population." (Pp. 21-22)

"The Russian tsars, who did not deviate from the will of Peter I, paid special attention to the resettlement of Armenians to Northern Azerbaijan. Tsarism pursued several goals in the resettlement of Christians to the South Caucasus: 1. Since the absolute majority of the population living in the occupied territory were Muslims, he wanted to create a reliable social base for himself by settling non-Muslims who would not be in favor of the Ottoman and Qajar states and would faithfully serve the Russian Empire; 2. Create a buffer zone by settling the Christian population on the border with neighboring Muslim states, weakening the ties of the local Muslim-Turkish population with the Muslim East; 3. Pursue a policy of Christianization and Russification; 4. Accelerate the economic conquest of the region and increase treasury revenues. To this end, tsarism paid special attention to the Armenian factor. Armenian church leaders and officers of Armenian origin who served in the Russian army conducted propaganda among representatives of this people living in the territories of the Qajar and Ottoman states regarding resettlement to the Caucasus. The tsarist government also promised them that it would create a state on Azerbaijani lands." (p. 23)

"The settlement of Armenians in Northern Azerbaijan continued until the beginning of the 20th century, and the ethnic composition of the population underwent serious changes. The resettled Armenians were exempted from taxes for a while and received fertile lands. In the future, the taxes levied on them were also significantly lower than the taxes levied on the local population. The mass resettlement of Armenians on Azerbaijani lands created the conditions for the emergence of today's territorial claims by the notorious neighbors" (p. 24)

"On October 20, 1830, Nicholas I issued a decree on the resettlement of Russian peasants to Northern Azerbaijan. By this decree, the first Russian settlements were founded in Azerbaijan. In subsequent periods, the process of Russian settlement of the northern lands of Azerbaijan continued. The most fertile lands, as well as territories used by the local population as pastures, were given to the newcomers." (p. 25)

"With the approval and encouragement of Moscow, Armenian nationalists and Dashnak communists periodically demanded the expulsion of Azerbaijanis from their historical ethnic territories in the Armenian SSR, and first of all, the separation of Karabakh and its transfer to Armenia. They tried to prove to Stalin that the territory of Karabakh is economically connected with the Armenian SSR... According to the decree, in 1948-1950, 100,000 Azerbaijanis were to be resettled to Azerbaijan "on a voluntary basis." Azerbaijanis deported from Armenia were resettled in the Kura-Araz lowland and other regions of the Azerbaijan SSR (Saatli, Goychai, Imishli, Ali-Bayramli, Zardab, Salyan, Kurdamir, Sabirabad, Yevlakh, Ujar, etc.). During this stage of ethnic cleansing in the Armenian SSR, more than 100,000 Azerbaijanis were forcibly resettled or forced to relocate. At the same time, thousands of people from other republics, including Armenians, were resettled in new industrial centers established in Azerbaijan — Sumgait, Ali Bayramli, Mingachevir, Dashkesan." (P.138)

"Deportation. Having failed to resolve the Karabakh issue in their favor, the Armenians resorted to another intrigue. Thanks to their intrigue, on December 23, 1947, the USSR Council of Ministers decided "On the resettlement of collective farmers and other Azerbaijani population from the Armenian SSR to the Kura-Araz lowland of the Azerbaijan SSR." Another resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated March 10, 1948 defined a specific action plan for the implementation of this work ... In 1954 academician Imam Mustafayev was elected first secretary of the Central Committee. I. Mustafayev and his colleagues sought to improve the situation of the republic and the people in the new conditions, to develop national, spiritual values, culture, science, education, to make progress in the national economy. As a result of the rapid development of industry, the opening of new jobs, the influx of The role of Azerbaijani cadres in the economic and social life of the capital has increased among the rural youth of Baku. In Baku, which became famous as an international city, the composition of the local population began to change in favor of Azerbaijanis. Thus, Moscow's plan to exclude Baku from Azerbaijan as an international city was thwarted." (p. 138).

To fully understand the role assigned by the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan to Moscow since the beginning of the XIX century, it is worth quoting the names of paragraphs from the 8th grade history textbook — we are talking about the first decades of the XIX century: "The beginning of the Russian occupation of Azerbaijani lands", "Russian occupation of Jar-Balaken and Ganja Khanate", "Russian occupation of Karabakh, Shaki and Shamakhi Khanates", "Occupation of Derbent, Baku and Guba Khanates", "Russian colonial regime in the northern regions of Azerbaijan", "Occupation of Nakhchivan and Irevan khanates". And in the textbook on the history of Azerbaijan for the 9th grade ("History of Azerbaijan". History textbook for grade 9. Authors Yagub Mahmudlu, Gabil Aliyev, Mehman Abdullayev, Leyla Huseynova, Hafiz Jabbarov. p. 158.) paragraph 11, devoted to the history of Azerbaijan at the beginning of the twentieth century, is called even more specifically — "The policy of national massacre carried out by tsarism" (p.62-65). It tells about how Armenians and tsarist soldiers staged systematic acts of genocide of Azerbaijanis in 1905-1906. The same is said in the paragraph — "The policy of genocide of the Baku Council against Azerbaijanis" (p. 82).

Summing up, I would like to note the following points.

Of course, it cannot be denied that during the 200 years of Azerbaijan's accession to Russia, bloody excesses could have taken place, in which peaceful Azerbaijanis died with the connivance of Moscow. However, the statement that Russia, together with Armenia, occupied Azerbaijan during this entire period, where the genocide of Azerbaijanis was carried out, is absolute nonsense. Residents of the central regions of the RSFSR, and later Russia, are well aware that by the end of the "occupation" of Azerbaijan during the late USSR, an impressive share of the trade in vegetable and fruit crops was in the hands of Azerbaijanis. Moreover, trade is not only in melons, which grow in this region, but also, say, Oryol potatoes, to the production of which the Azerbaijanis had nothing to do with the word "at all." The statement about the "occupation", "oppression", "oppression" of Azerbaijanis looks like an absolute fiction, when this statement is correlated with another statement by the authors of the line of history textbooks — that Azerbaijan created the strongest wine industry in the USSR, ensuring the growth of the economy of this republic. It is difficult to imagine that during the occupation of the USSR by the Nazis and the genocide of Slavic peoples, Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians took control of entire sectors of the German economy, in particular, the sphere of trade, forced the producers of Munich sausage to sell them this product at low prices, and then resold in Berlin.

It was in the last decades of the "genocide and occupation" that the Soviet state trained a huge number of specialists for all areas of the state, economic and cultural life of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which then "wiped its feet" on Russia. Researcher R. Mammadli in the article "The development of higher education in the Azerbaijan SSR in the 70-80's. If in 1970 there were 13 higher educational institutions in the republic, in which there were 105 faculties, 450 departments and training in 139 specialties was conducted, then in 1980 there were 17 higher educational institutions with 530 departments and 136 faculties. And this is only a small part of what Moscow invested in Azerbaijan in the twentieth century. The compilers of textbooks "forgot" about it.

A similar situation is revealed when analyzing the content of paragraphs of school textbooks on the history of Azerbaijan concerning Russian-Azerbaijani relations of the nineteenth century. A logical question arises as to why the textbooks did not include many facts about Russia's positive role in the region and the friendly nature of Russian-Azerbaijani relations. For example, such as the deliverance of the Azerbaijani people from the ruinous invasions of foreign Persian invaders and internal feudal feuds, from the power of Shah Iran, which at that time lagged significantly in socio-economic development from some Azerbaijani khanates. Or the active participation of Azerbaijanis in almost all the battles of the Russian-Iranian and Russian-Turkish wars of the early XIX century. Or, as researcher Oleg Kuznetsov notes in his article on the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Gulistan Peace Treaty, that "it was the Russian conquests in the Caucasus that united the scattered Azerbaijani khanates and tribes under the administrative jurisdiction of the Russian Empire that laid the foundation for the emergence of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic first, then the Azerbaijan SSR and modern sovereign Azerbaijan."".

The comparison of the educational historical concept of modern Azerbaijan and historical scientific research allows us to unequivocally assume that by deliberately distorting the facts and making false accents, the following is laid in the student's mind through the historical concept of the Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan: Russia and Armenians were the main enemies of Azerbaijan in the XIX-XX centuries. Russia has been pursuing a colonial policy of genocide of Azerbaijanis against Azerbaijan for two centuries, helping its Christian Armenian allies to settle the territory of Azerbaijan and evict the indigenous Turkic-Muslim population from there. Azerbaijanis in 1960-1980 They began to secretly form and train national (or nationalist) cadres to speak out against Moscow and the Armenians. On May 20, 1990, there was a protest against the colonial policy of population replacement and genocide. It was suppressed by the authorities from Moscow in the interests of Armenia, but this could not stop the movement for the independence of Azerbaijan from the oppressors.

There may be words about historical fraternal good-neighborly relations between Russia and Azerbaijan in modern Azerbaijani textbooks somewhere, but they are lost behind the general line of textbooks, very reminiscent of Russophobia in order to educate the young Azerbaijani population of a negative perception of Russia.

The hostility of young Azerbaijanis to their neighbors — Russia — can be beneficial to Azerbaijan only in one case — if the citizens of this country are being prepared for war against it. In all other cases, Azerbaijan cannot benefit from the rejection of Russia. But the benefit of educating young people in an anti-Russian spirit may be for those who, since the beginning of the nineteenth century, have been actively hindering Russia's fruitful contacts on the The Middle East itself wants to bring this region under control — through provoking various conflicts in Transcaucasia, through division and discord.

At the same time, I would like to draw attention to the fact that, saying "A", the authors of the textbook should also say "B". If they repeatedly say that Russia stood behind Armenia in the region for 200 years, then it should also be repeated many times that Persia, Ottoman, and then Turkish pan—Turkists, Russia's competitors on the European continent — England and France, probably someone else - stood behind the aggressive, anti-Russian part of Azerbaijan. -that. It should also be openly said that on the example of the complex history of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, on the example of regions that have found themselves at the crossroads of civilizations, in a zone where civilizational, ethnic and religious dominants have repeatedly changed over the centuries, on the example of these regions, it is clear that the fierce confrontation characteristic of the Middle Ages, the war of civilizations, continues in the world in this case, Islamic-Turkic and Christian. At least, the textbooks on the history of Azerbaijan, according to which children are taught and brought up in schools, are written on the basis of the ideology of waging a civilizational war against Russia. And it's time to understand this.

Timofey Aleksandrovich Balyko, history teacher, especially for EADaily