Village Names Are Not 'Azerbaijani': Iranologist Presents Evidence of Their Armenian Identity

Iranologist Vardan Voskanian writes: 'It is stated that village names like Baghanis-Ayrium, Ashaghi Askipar and so on are 'Azerbaijani.' However, 'Ayrium' is a known surname, and the representatives of that clan appeared in the unified Armenian historical-cultural territory of Baghanis during their seasonal migrations relatively recently.

The term 'Ashaghi' translates from Azerbaijani as 'internal,' and Askiparan (also known as Aksiparan due to later changes) is a distorted version of the Armenian Voskepar in Azerbaijani. Therefore, it refers to the Internal Voskepar, which is part of the historically Armenian cultural area of Voskepar, where the Ayriums also appeared much later.'