On June 18-19, an international conference titled “Controversial Issues of the Common History of the CIS Member States: Modern Views and Approaches” was held in Moscow. The two-day event saw participation from scientists representing Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

The conference featured welcome speeches from notable figures, including Alexander Chubaryan, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Scientific Director of the World History Institute; Konstantin Magilevski, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation; Mikhail Lipkin, Director of the General History Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; and Academician Efim Pivovar, President of the Humanitarian University of the Russian Federation.

Academician Chubaryan highlighted key issues on the conference agenda, such as theoretical and methodological issues of history, collaborative work on the history of the Great Patriotic War in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Second World War, and various aspects of the common history of the CIS countries.

Academician Ashot Melkonyan, Director of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, along with applicant Astghik Ghazaryan, Head of the Scientific-Research Works and International Relations Department of the National Archive of the Republic of Armenia, Varditer Grigoryan, and Yevgine Muradyan, Chief Archivist of the Scientific Information Works Department, represented Armenia at the conference.

Academician Melkonyan, Director of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, presented a report titled “The Place and Role of Russia in the Documents of Armenian Political Parties in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries.”

In contrast, Azerbaijani historian Cd. Hist. Sci. Haji Hasanov delivered a speech rife with anti-Armenian rhetoric and historical distortions. Hasanov falsely claimed that Nakhichevan, Yerevan, and other khanates were Azerbaijani territories seized by the Russians, alleging that this prevented the unification of a so-called united Azerbaijani state.

A. Melkonyan, the chairman of the second session of the conference, addressed Hasanov’s report in his concluding speech. He noted that Azerbaijani falsifications have extended to the North Caucasus, Turkmenistan, Iran, Armenia, and, more recently, Georgia. Melkonyan challenged him to present a single document from the early 19th century containing the phrase “Northern Azerbaijan,” emphasizing that the real Atrpatakan-Azerbaijan is located in the northwest of Iran and has no connection to present-day Azerbaijan. Melkonyan highlighted that at the state level in Azerbaijan, including statements from the president, there is a persistent falsehood claiming that Armenia never existed. This narrative suggests that Armenians had no homeland and lived on a “balloon,” from which the Russians allegedly relocated them to the “Azerbaijani” lands of Yerevan and Nakhichevan to create the country of Armenia.

He further criticized Azerbaijani historians for appropriating the histories of various state formations and dynasties, such as the Turkmen Koyunlu states, the Iranian Safavids, Avshars, and Qajars. Additionally, he noted that Artsakh Armenians are being falsely identified as Caucasian Albanians-Azerbaijani. Recently, even Georgians have been declared “Azerbaijani,” with the prominent Georgian Orthodox monastery complex of Davit Gareji being labeled as Caucasian Albanian-Azerbaijani.

Such falsification is unacceptable and has no place in scientific discourse. Hasanov attempted to object, but in response to Melkonyan’s question about why, after the merger of the Khanates of Nakhichevan and Yerevan into Russia, the Armenian Oblast was formed from those administrative units instead of an “Azerbaijani Oblast,” it became evident that Azerbaijan did not exist in Eastern Transcaucasia in the 19th century.

Hasanov claimed that in the 19th century, Azerbaijan “formally (“формально”) existed, and that it was officially declared on May 28, 1918. Regarding Artsakh, Melkonyan pointed out that as a result of the Azerbaijani invasion in September 2023, Artsakh Armenians were forcibly displaced and depatriated from their historical homeland.