Are there villages in Armenia with Azerbaijani names, does that mean Armenia is Azerbaijani?

Aliyev has filled his people's heads with lies, claiming that Armenia never existed, only Azerbaijan did. Now, we say, yes, Shushi was Azerbaijani, and tomorrow we will say something else. I am outraged by this statement, especially because such statements should not be made from a high podium. This was stated by the former mayor of Shushi, Artavazd Sargsyan, in an interview with Tert.am, in response to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statement that before the conflict and liberation, Shushi had over 90% Azerbaijani population, and whether a Shushi with such a population can still be considered Armenian in its status.

“I will say this: when there were Azerbaijanis in the Soviet period in Armenia, for instance, in the Masis region, does that mean that Masis was Azerbaijani? Why do they not say that how many Armenians were in Sumgait, that Sumgait was an Armenian city? Why do they not say that Gandzak was Armenian? Why don’t they talk about the 450-500 thousand Armenians that were in Azerbaijan? Let them talk about that. Where are our Shahumyan and Getashen? Why do they not say that those are genuinely Armenian? Leo was born in Shushi, Muratsan was born there, and many great figures emerged from there. Can they say that they are also Turks?” said Sargsyan.

He posed the question, having lost territories and yielding them, are we now giving up our history too? “History needs to be studied to understand that Shushi is an ancient Armenian city, with 11 churches. How could it be forgotten that all this time Shushi was a historically and culturally Armenian city, built in Armenian style? There are villages in Armenia that have Azerbaijani names, so does that mean those were Azerbaijani villages in Armenia at one time, and Armenia is Azerbaijani? I do not understand how irresponsible such a statement is,” he said, noting that such statements contribute to Azerbaijan.

“Now Aliyev says Yerevan was Azerbaijani, should we stand and say, yes, it belonged to them? It is necessary to inspire the nation, but at a time when the nation is experiencing deep dejection, they hit again on a leadership scale. This cannot be done. What has happened has happened; at least let us think about the present and refrain from making such statements. Let us say that Aliyev is right in saying that Yerevan was Azerbaijani, that Lake Sevan was Azerbaijani. What, have we decided to fill Azerbaijan's watermill?” said Sargsyan.

According to him, it is well known that during the USSR, Azerbaijanis gradually emptied many settlements, therefore it is clear that the majority of the population of Shushi could have been Azerbaijani. However, we should think about preserving the remaining Armenian territories. “Now they say that these lands were sold, and we should have given them. They should study history, they should walk through the liberated lands, we had a sanctuary, a church in every piece of land, ancient churches. They should investigate to understand whether that land is Armenian or Azerbaijani. Now let us forget and say that Artsakh was also Azerbaijani, that’s it. Heydar Aliyev aimed to depopulate Artsakh, so it should be 90 percent Azerbaijani. Now Azerbaijanis spread fear, putting their hands around their necks, showing they will cut. Let’s stop this; resolve the issue so that people don’t leave the remaining areas either,” he said.

In response to the observation that according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pashinyan was offered to stop the war earlier and under more favorable conditions while retaining Shushi, while Nikol Pashinyan stated that there was no opportunity to stop the war with less territorial loss, Sargsyan replied, “There was indeed a very good alternative to not surrender Shushi. If the war had ceased on the 20th, what talk of surrendering Shushi could there have been, what talk of surrendering Karintak could there have been? Therefore, it was conditioned that such a thing should happen, Shushi had to be surrendered. I know how Shushi’s liberation was organized; Shushi was an impregnable fortress. If the defense had been well organized, if there was the intention not to surrender, Shushi would not have been surrendered. It was clear they knew it had to be surrendered; people like us naively went in and were sacrificed. When his wife spoke about the Artsakh Liberation War, saying that there were meaningless sacrifices, oh, the meaningless sacrifices were at that time, we made organized sacrifices,” he said.

In response to the implication that the authorities realized Shushi would be surrendered but created the illusion that they were unable to protect Shushi, Sargsyan responded, “Of course. These statements lead to that interpretation. He also stated that Shushi was a dull, unfortunate city. They are indoctrinating people that way; now when you talk to people, they say, did we need Shushi? They are spreading this in the nation. Tomorrow or the day after, they’ll say, did we need Artsakh? But aren’t we the ones demanding our rights? Why are they speaking of Western Armenia then, that we have lost lands, why are they talking about the Genocide? Well, let’s forget everything,” he said.

According to Sargsyan, there was an opportunity to stop the war earlier and with fewer losses. “There has always been a possibility to stop. During the first war, it was the Azerbaijanis who were fleeing because we had spirit; the boys were determined to win, to liberate our lands,” said Artavazd Sargsyan.