Summary
Artak V. Maghalyan
The history of the Meliqdoms of Artsakh constitutes an important segment of the history of Armenia. In the absence of an independent Armenian statehood, for centuries the Meliqdoms represented the sole power which could potentially serve as a basis for the resurrection of the Armenian state.
For decades, Azerbaijani historians have been trying to falsify the History of Armenia and to present events related to Armenia and the Armenians through reflections in distorted mirrors of the Azerbaijani state propaganda. In this context, Armenian Artsakh – with its past and present – remains the primary target of Azerbaijani pseudo-historical constructions. One can hardly find a period in the history of Artsakh which would not be purposefully falsified by the Azerbaijani historian-falsifiers. The latters are targeting particular at the remnants of the Armenian statehoods in Artsakh, namely the history of the Meliqdoms of Khamsa (Five Principalities). Azerbaijani “studies” published in Azerbaijan and abroad make all efforts to present the Meliqdoms of Artsakh as “Albanian” (of Caucasian Albania) entities, which fall in sharp contrast and contradiction to accounts of numerous historical sources and original documents of the time. The Azerbaijani state-sponsored propaganda translates these pseudo-scientific “studies” into various languages and disseminates them around the world.
The present article focuses on two such pseudo-scientific publications, namely by O. Efendiev, Corresponding Member of the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences, and G. Mamedova, Candidate of Historical Sciences. Their articles were included in a compilation entitled “Garabag: Kurekchay – 200” published by A. Bakikhanov Institute of History of the Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences on the occasion of the 200-th anniversary of the Treaty of Kurakchay.
The present article reveals the falsifications of the above-mentioned Azerbaijani authors regarding the Meliqdoms of Artsakh in the 17–19-th centuries, and on the basis of reliable historical sources, as well as original documents demonstrates the falsehood of the Azerbaijani “historiographical theories”.