{"id":759308,"date":"2022-09-27T06:14:10","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T03:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/tr\/content\/?p=759308"},"modified":"2022-12-01T11:13:56","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T08:13:56","slug":"the-short-lived-fake-republic-of-west-azerbaijan-goycha-zangezur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2022\/09\/27\/the-short-lived-fake-republic-of-west-azerbaijan-goycha-zangezur\/","title":{"rendered":"The Short-Lived Fake Republic of \u201cWest Azerbaijan Goycha-Zangezur\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week, two Azeris arrogantly declared themselves to be the leaders of the fake \u201cWest Azerbaijan Goycha-Zangezur Republic,\u201d which claimed to include Lake Sevan and the Syunik province of the Republic of Armenia. This announcement was made a few days after the barbaric attack on the eastern border of Armenia by Azerbaijan!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has frequently referred to large areas of the Republic of Armenia as part of Azerbaijan, giving them fake Azeri names. Here is what he said in September 2013: \u201cAzerbaijan\u2019s state flag should be waved in Shusha [Shushi], Khankendi [Stepanakert], and Azerbaijanis should live in their historical lands in the future. Our historical lands are Irevan [Yerevan] khanate, Goyce [Lake Sevan] and Zangezur regions. There will be times; we will live in these lands. I believe it, I am sure. Everyone should put their efforts in order to achieve it.\u201d Furthermore, Aliyev stated in March 2015: \u201cAzerbaijan will restore historical justice and reclaim not only the breakaway Nagorno Karabakh region and areas around it, which are currently held by Armenians, but also parts of present-day Armenia.\u201d He boastfully envisaged that after \u201cliberating Karabakh, we, Azerbaijanis, will return to our ancient lands &#8212; Yerevan, Goyca [Lake Sevan], Zangezur [Armenia&#8217;s Syunik region], etc. The younger generation must know that our lands are not limited to the current territories of independent Azerbaijan. We must go back to those lands as well and we will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the President of Azerbaijan makes such outrageous statements, it is not surprising that other Azeris parrot his baseless claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week, two Azeris, Rizvan Talibov and Mehmet Ali Arslan, proclaimed themselves to be the \u201cPresident and Vice President\u201d of \u201cWest Azerbaijan Goycha-Zangezur Republic\u201d and declared its independence, with its capital in Ghapan or Vardenis, Armenia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These Azeris attended the inauguration of the first representative office of this fake Republic in Ankara, claiming that Turkey was the first country to recognize it. \u201cPresident\u201d Talibov declared that Turkey and \u201cWest Azerbaijan Goycha-Zangezur\u201d are \u201cone nation, two states.\u201d He must have forgotten about the Republic of Azerbaijan which uses the same slogan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regrettably for the Azeris, their euphoria was short-lived. Eurasianet.org published an article on Sept. 22, titled, \u201cThe rise and fall of Azerbaijan\u2019s \u2018Goycha-Zangezur Republic.\u2019\u201d This \u201cRepublic\u201d lasted for three days, even though Azerbaijan\u2019s pro-government initially publicized this fake news. Tural Ganjali, a member of Azerbaijan\u2019s parliament had immediately endorsed the non-existent \u201cRepublic.\u201d However, Ganjali deleted his Facebook post within hours and most Azeri websites removed all references to this \u201cRepublic.\u201d The pro-government media discredited not only the \u201cRepublic\u201d but also its equally fake \u201cPresident\u201d Talibov who had been appointing ministers and adopting decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Azerbaijan\u2019s news agency, APA, condemned Talibov, stating that he \u201cactually has no scientific knowledge about or research on \u201cWestern Azerbaijan. He knows neither the history nor the geography of Western Azerbaijan. It is impossible to find a single serious person around him, and most of the people he named, appointed, and included in the structures do not even know about it. Talibov \u2018appoints\u2019 and gives \u2018authority\u2019 of the highest positions to anyone, regardless of their identity or political views in return for flattery or a meal or 5-10 manats [a few dollars].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A member of Azerbaijan\u2019s parliament Hikmat Babaoghlu wrote on Sept. 21: \u201cThe so-called \u2018Goycha-Zangezur Republic\u2019 is a political-ideological terror against Azerbaijan.\u201d Babaoghlu continued: \u201cSuch a political hypocrite [Talibov] has no moral right neither to create the \u2018Goycha-Zangezur Republic\u2019 nor even to pronounce these holy names. Because this idea, while Azerbaijan is insisting on the issue of the Zangezur corridor, creates the impression that Azerbaijan does not intend to open a corridor in Zangezur, but to create a state there. This is a real provocation against the opening of the corridor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is not the first time that such a lame-brained idea has been floated by someone in Azerbaijan, according to Eurasianet.org. \u201cIn 2020, an Azerbaijani academic in Turkey, Gafar Chahmagli, formed what he called the Republic of Western Azerbaijan (Irevan), which would have had an even larger territorial reach. That project (which also was called the Irevan Turkish Republic) was connected to another group with apparent government links, the West Azerbaijan Community (WAC), but it did not get the (brief) level of state endorsement as the Goycha-Zangezur Republic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greatly disillusioned, \u201cPresident\u201d Talibov wrote on his Facebook page: \u201cWhile we were expecting attacks from Armenians, some of \u2018ourselves\u2019 attacked us with an unseen aggression, full of slander!!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All those Azeris who condemned Talibov and Arslan must not have realized that they were indirectly also condemning President Aliyev who has made similar baseless statements about territories of the sovereign Republic of Armenia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, two Azeris arrogantly declared themselves to be the leaders of the fake \u201cWest Azerbaijan Goycha-Zangezur Republic,\u201d which claimed to include Lake Sevan and the Syunik province of the Republic of Armenia. This announcement was made a few days after the barbaric attack on the eastern border of Armenia by Azerbaijan! President of Azerbaijan, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4101,"featured_media":774085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-759308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harut-sassounian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}