Karabakh Khanate, a book for peace

Azerbaijan won the last war against Armenia over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, but after Russia mediated and its troops guarded the disputed territory, the international community has yet to find a definitive solution to the claims that Baku and Yerevan have over an enclave where 120,000 Armenians still live.

Against this backdrop, a unique book was presented at the National Library of Spain: Karabakh Khanate. Historical and cultural profile. The volume, published simultaneously in English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Italian, has been compiled by a large group of researchers, and is an atlas-catalogue of unique images of finds from the cultural heritage of Karabakh, which are housed in the National Museum of Georgia in the capital, Tbilisi.

Elshad Huseyn Iskandarov, Ambassador-at-Large of Azerbaijan, explains to Atalayar how important the publication, presentation and dissemination of this book is for his country.

- When quite a few European and North American museums receive requests to return certain works to their countries of origin, we do it the other way around. We are very proud that a neighbouring country, in this case Georgia, has managed to preserve hundreds of objects deposited in its National Museum. It was the Russian Imperial Geographical Society that founded it in 1852, and many Azerbaijani artefacts were transferred there, which today prove the existence of a historical, cultural and national identity of Azerbaijan on that territory.

- How different the relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia are from those you have with Armenia!

- Well, it is precisely this model of cooperation between a mainly Muslim Azerbaijan and a Christian Georgia that we would like to have not only with Armenia but with the whole Caucasus, a region whose stability is essential for peace, both for us and for Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. 

- What about Russia?

- It has a complicated situation. We cannot pronounce as diplomats on what is happening in Ukraine, but that war is already having a huge impact on the Caucasus, preventing not only progress on tangible solutions regarding the recognition of our sovereignty but also the slowing down of the many projects for the economic development of the region. 

- Is this book important enough for you to take part in its presentation in successive European capitals?

- It is, and it should be for all the countries that make up the European Union, not least because the roots of their civilisation lie in the Caucasus. Incidentally, Christians, Muslims and Jews lived in harmony in Azerbaijan more than a century before the Russians came to make us part of their empire. 

- Much of European public opinion believes that Azerbaijan is besieging and suffocating the Armenian population that has been encircled in the disputed enclave.

- As this book, written by Georgian scholars and academics, shows, the Karabakh Khanate belonged to the short-lived "Greater Armenia", but was in fact part of Caucasian Albania, one of the oldest Christian kingdoms, as evidenced by the Albanian churches in Kish, Khudaveng, Gandzasar, Gyurmuk, Lakit, Gum, Avey or Jotar. Many of them have disappeared or are in ruins, and now that we have liberated this territory, we are going to undertake a gigantic reconstruction work. Azerbaijan's heritage is not only Muslim, but also that of all the civilisations that have lived there, so that the Muslim heritage is as much ours, and therefore that of the whole world, as the Christian or Jewish heritage that exists in our country. That is why I believe that the European Union in general, and Spain in particular, should become more involved in the preservation of a cultural heritage that is, after all, a fundamental part of its roots.
 

- In the panel presentation of the book, much emphasis was placed on the rehabilitation of Shushá.

- It is already what could be called a garden city. But perhaps not many know that in this capital of Karabakh, founded in 1752 by Panahali Khan, the first ruler of the Karabakh Khanate, the first opera house in the Muslim world was built, and that the first theatrical performances in the Islamic world began. Performances that did not disdain the myth of Prometheus, a titan who played at being a god, lived in the Caucasus mountains and, punished by Zeus, paid a high price for it. In short, it is a centre in which a historical tradition of poetry, music and art was forged, all of which we want to make clear once again so that those who wish to visit us and rediscover at least a part of their own roots can "appropriate" it.