US newspaper writes about meeting of Azerbaijani President with members of West Azerbaijan community

The Jewish Press, one of the most prominent Jewish newspapers in the US, published an article titled “Azerbaijan’s President Pushing for Territorial Justice to Open Corridor to Turkey”, Report informs.

The article by Rachel Avraham, the CEO of the Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy and an Israel-based journalist, said that Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev recently met with a group of intellectuals from Western Azerbaijan and condemned the transfer of Yerevan back to Armenia in 1918:

“If someone thought that by giving Yerevan to Armenia, in 1918, we protected ourselves from even bigger disasters, then giving Zangazur to Armenia once again proves that it was a very wrong and false step, and as I have already said, it was a betrayal. You should never retreat even to those who are stronger. One should always defend his rights, especially in the native land.”

The article cited an 1897 book titled “The Azerbaijani Turks” by Audrey Altstadt, as in 1897, 77,491 Azerbaijanis were living in Yerevan, and only 58,148 Armenians. The author said South Azerbaijani journalist Ahmed Obali, who runs Gunaz TV, proclaimed: “Yerevan used to be part of the Yerevan Khanate. Armenia used to be majority Azerbaijani. These people need to return to their homeland.”

“After the Russian takeover of the Aras River in 1828, there was an agreement between the Qajars and Russia that the Armenians from Iran could migrate to Russia easily and the Muslim community north of Aras could migrate to the south,” he noted. “This was supposed to be voluntary, not forced.

Russia used this to bring many Armenians to Yerevan and Karabakh. They tried to change the ethnic composition of this area. In 1893, a majority of Yerevan was Azerbaijani. It was 57 percent Azerbaijanis and there were others besides the Armenians.”

According to him, “The Azerbaijanis were then forcibly deported or killed so that there would be no more Azerbaijanis in Armenia. The campaign began in the late 1890s and it included Yerevan, Karabakh, Zangezur, etc. Azerbaijan and Nachshivan used to be connected. The Soviets took that away and gave it to Armenia. Karabakh was part of Azerbaijan and stayed in Azerbaijan. Karabakh and Zangezur were mostly Azerbaijanis. After 1925, they changed the ethnic composition of those areas.”

The article emphasized that the President of Azerbaijan, in his meeting with the Western Azerbaijanis representing the local people of Western Azerbaijan, i.e. present-day Armenia, gave a message that they will return to their historical homeland.