Hijacking History: Baku’s “Western Azerbaijan” Campaign

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Since its establishment in 1918, Azerbaijan has pursued a state policy rooted in anti-Armenian sentiment, marked by repeated episodes of ethnic cleansing and cultural erasure. The systematic destruction of Armenian heritage and denial of the Armenians’ indigenous presence have been, and continue to be, central pillars of this policy.

Between 2020 and 2023, following its seizure of the historically Armenian region of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Azerbaijan forcibly displaced approximately 120,000 Armenians, emptying the region of its Armenian population, and destroying or appropriating its cultural sites. Having consolidated its grip over Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan has since advanced a new strategy aimed at extending its ambitions into the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.

This strategy seeks to appropriate Armenia’s cultural heritage, distort historical narratives, and advance territorial claims over Armenia through cultural means. Central to this policy is the fabricated concept of “Western Azerbaijan,” which has fueled the creation of numerous state-backed institutions and organizations. These include pseudo-academic centers promoting falsified narratives, as well as cultural events, conferences, festivals, youth camps and publications, both within Azerbaijan and abroad. The goal is to construct a myth of an ancient Azerbaijani presence in the region while erasing or diminishing the Armenian people and their historical legacy.

Since the mid-20th century, Azerbaijan has pursued efforts to present itself as an ancient state by asserting claims over the territories, cultures, and histories of neighboring countries—a process that began shortly after Azerbaijan’s establishment in 1918. In the decades that followed, Azerbaijani authorities systematically produced articles, books, and propaganda materials filled with fabricated accounts, embedding the notion of an “ancient” Azerbaijani past into public discourse, cultural platforms, and political rhetoric. The term “Western Azerbaijan” now functions as a key instrument in advancing these territorial ambitions, framing Armenian lands as the historical homeland and birthplace of the Azerbaijani people.

Under the term “Western Azerbaijan,” Azerbaijan refers to the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia and its entire historical and cultural heritage. While this term occasionally appeared in pseudo-academic Azerbaijani historiography in the 20th century—often without clear geographic boundaries—by 2007, these boundaries were explicitly delineated in official publications.

That year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan published Aziz Alakbarli’s book “Monuments of Western Azerbaijan”, which features a map of the Republic of Armenia labeled as “The Land of the Oghuz Turks – Western Azerbaijan.” This publication explicitly designates the territory of present-day Armenia as part of this fabricated historical narrative.

The Oghuz Turks were nomadic groups from Central Asia who have no historical, cultural, or geographic connection to the territory of Armenia or its cultural heritage.

Today, Azerbaijani authorities claim that Armenia, to the west of Azerbaijan, constitutes historical Azerbaijani territory—despite the fact that no state called “Azerbaijan” existed north of the Arax River and south of the Caucasus Mountains prior to 1918. The absence of Azerbaijan on any preserved historical maps before that date has not deterred the country’s persistent campaign of historical revisionism.

Azerbaijan has recently intensified efforts to promote its policy of appropriating Armenian culture by organizing various state-sponsored events on international platforms.

On April 8, a photography exhibition titled “Cultural and Historical Heritage of Western Azerbaijan” was held at Twardowski Square in Warsaw. The exhibition, which advances territorial claims against Armenia’s sovereign territory and attempts to appropriate Armenian cultural heritage was announced in an official statement by Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Poland Nargiz Gurbanova.

The opening ceremony was attended by Azerbaijani MP and Deputy Chair of the Executive Committee of the so-called Western Azerbaijan Community, Gaya Mammadova, along with other officials. The exhibition was organized by several Azerbaijani state institutions and cultural organizations, including the Western Azerbaijan Community, the Azerbaijan International Development Agency (AIDA), the Baku International Multiculturalism Center, and the Institute of History and Ethnology of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences—highlighting the clear involvement and sponsorship of the Azerbaijani state. 

At the Warsaw exhibition, Azerbaijan presented approximately 3,500 historical and cultural monuments, 500 cemeteries, and 391 mosques located within Armenia’s territory as part of “Western Azerbaijan’s” heritage.

The exhibition also featured posters portraying Yerevan as a city of Azerbaijani cultural heritage, referring to it by names such as “Ravan”, “Iravan”, “Irivan”, and describing it as an inseparable part of the Azerbaijani people’s “rich cultural history.” Photographs of sites including the Palace of the Persian Khans of Yerevan, the Yerevan Fortress, and numerous other monuments were presented as examples of the cultural heritage of “Western Azerbaijan.”

The exhibition also included the traditional Armenian dish ghavurma, inaccurately presented as part of Azerbaijani cuisine. Additionally, it featured the historic Black Building (Sev Shenq) of Yerevan State University, falsely portrayed as an Azerbaijani cultural asset. This building, with its century-long history, is officially listed among Armenia’s state-protected historical and cultural monuments.

Beyond the Warsaw event, Azerbaijan’s policy of cultural appropriation has notably intensified since 2022, reflecting a systematic campaign to falsify and claim Armenian cultural heritage. A particularly revealing example came on December 29, 2022, when the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan established new academic departments: “History of Western Azerbaijan” and “Folklore of Western Azerbaijan” at the A. A. Bakikhanov Institute of History, and “Toponymy of Western Azerbaijan” at the Nasimi Institute of Linguistics.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev delivered a programmatic speech that laid out the ideological framework of “Western Azerbaijan”, which set the stage for the institutionalization of an entire academic field dedicated to promoting the “Western Azerbaijan” narrative internationally—through conferences, symposia, seminars, and the recruitment of foreign scholars.

One of the main organizers of the Warsaw exhibition was the so-called Western Azerbaijan Community, an organization that emerged from the renaming of the “Azerbaijan Refugee Society” NGO in August 2022. The community is headquartered in a building that formerly housed the Executive Committee of Shushi and the “Return to Karabakh” organization. Following extensive renovations, the 1,280-square-meter facility was officially transferred to the newly rebranded organization. The interior design of the building reflects Azerbaijan’s Armenophobic policies, with inscriptions flanking a bust of Heydar Aliyev quoting statements by both Heydar and Ilham Aliyev.

“The ancient lands of Azerbaijan are Iravan, Goycha, Zangazur, and others. These are our historical lands. The Azerbaijani people must know this. All our people must know this.”

                                                                                                                      —Heydar Aliyev

“Our historical lands — Iravan Khanate, Zangazur, Goycha—belong to us. Azerbaijanis must return to these historical lands. This is our political and strategic goal.”

               — Ilham Aliyev

 On December 18, 2022, President Aliyev met with representatives of the “Western Azerbaijan Community” and declared: “I am confident that the day will come when, just like the refugees from Karabakh, our compatriots from Western Azerbaijan—their relatives, children, and grandchildren—will return to our historical lands, Western Azerbaijan. Present-day Armenia is our historical land, a fact proven by numerous historical documents and maps.”

The term “Western Azerbaijan” has no historical basis in any sources. Armenian cartographer and historian Ruben Galichian has analyzed this thoroughly, demonstrating that no historical documents or maps use this term.

In 2022, the Azerbaijani president outlined plans for exhibitions like the one in Warsaw, saying: “We have a concept for the return of Western Azerbaijanis, which includes organizing international conferences, events, cooperation with international institutions and media.”

On December 15, 2023, an exhibition, titled “Western Azerbaijan in Cultural Memory” opened at the National Museum of Art of Azerbaijan in Baku. Another illustrative example is an exhibition that opened on November 22, 2024, during COP29. This exhibition showcased cuisine from the fictitious Western Azerbaijan region—distorting Armenian cuisine and culture by presenting it under an Azerbaijani name․

The “Return to Western Azerbaijan” festival, held in Nakhichevan on November 23–24, 2023, and again on June 21–22, 2024, was another such initiative. The festival’s promotional materials featured a political map of Armenia where city and village names were replaced with fabricated, Azerbaijani-style toponyms. 

At the festival, photographs and decorative art pieces were displayed to portray Armenia’s territory as part of Azerbaijan’s cultural heritage. 

A notable example of this policy was also the gathering organized by the “Western Azerbaijan Community” in Berdzor on August 6, as part of the Diaspora Youth Fifth Summer Camp. This strategically planned event, held from August 1-7, brought together 115 young people from 60 countries worldwide.

The event promoted Ilham Aliyev’s policy of appropriating Armenian territories through state support, with funding from the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and organization by Azerbaijan’s State Committee for Work with the Diaspora. This official involvement is documented on the “Western Azerbaijan” community’s website.

At the meeting, members of the “Western Azerbaijan Community” delivered speeches that revealed Azerbaijan’s territorial ambitions towards Armenia, repeatedly using the misleading term “Western Azerbaijan.” The event featured speakers Galib Gasimov, as well as community workers Sanan Akhmad and Anar Irzaguluev, who openly discussed the appropriation of Armenian territory. The program included a book presentation and screening of the documentary film “A Look at Western Azerbaijan,” which featured photographs of Armenia’s historical monuments falsely describing them as Azerbaijan’s ancient heritage. Azerbaijan has already laid claim to several Armenian regions, including Sevan, Syunik, and Yerevan. Now, it is also falsely presenting Carahunge—also known as Zorats Karer, a renowned historical and cultural monument in the Sisian region—as a “monument located in the historical territory of Azerbaijan.”

Azerbaijan is publishing purported “scientific articles” to justify its policy of appropriating churches and cultural monuments within Armenia. Azerbaijani media platforms frequently discuss monuments in demarcated areas and beyond, claiming their “Albanian origin” and asserting that Armenian renovations are erasing evidence of this alleged heritage. In the article, both the HolyTrinity Church of Kirants village and the Surb Astvatsatsin Church of Voskepar in Armenia are labeled as “Albanian monuments,” with claims that other monuments share this same status.

The Azerbaijani “indictment” mentions the renovation of the Yereruyk basilica, describing it as “an old Turkic monument located on the left bank of the Arpacha river in the Agin region of Shorayal, Western Azerbaijan.” It is absurd to characterize an early Christian temple as a “Turkic monument.” The temple, which dates to the 5th-6th centuries, is recognized on UNESCO’s preliminary World Cultural Heritage list and is included in Europa Nostra’s list of the Most Endangered Cultural Monuments. 

In a related development, Baku launched a “Western Azerbaijan” television channel. Aziz Alakbarli, Member of Parliament and Chair of the “Western Azerbaijan Community” Board, states that the channel’s mission is to “support peaceful and secure efforts for the return of Azerbaijanis to their ancestral lands.”

The International Relations Analysis Center (ICRI) and the Western Azerbaijan community recently demonstrated these efforts at a meeting on June 10. They held a discussion entitled  “Return of Azerbaijani refugees to Armenia: history and politics of deportation” and presented an English-language report.

At the event’s opening, Alakbarli emphasized the report’s significance, asserting that the return of Azerbaijanis to their claimed “paternal” (but historically Armenian) lands is crucial and justified under international law.

Azerbaijan’s policy of appropriating Armenian cultural heritage violates UNESCO’s principles of authenticity. These principles require that cultural heritage be preserved according to scientifically verified knowledge and original context. This approach is articulated in the Nara Document on Authenticity, adopted in Japan in 1994.

The appropriation of Armenian historical and cultural heritage violates the cultural rights of the Armenian people, as enshrined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also contradicts Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1966.

These actions deny future generations their right to access and experience their history and cultural heritage.

Azerbaijan’s policy aims to deny the Armenian people’s historical rights to their indigenous lands while distorting and appropriating their history and cultural heritage. These actions require a clear and appropriate response from the international community. In a broader context, these practices constitute a policy rooted in genocidal intent, racial discrimination, and cultural intolerance—all of which contradict the fundamental principles of modern international law.

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