There is not and could not be an "Armenian heritage" in Agdam

Hamlet Petrosyan, an Armenian "black digger" and professor at Yerevan State University, became famous for unearthing another "Tigranakert" Petrosyan archaeologist, and acquired the title of "black digger" due to the fact that he had been conducting illegal excavations in the occupied Aghdam region for many years, and a few days before After the end of the Second Karabakh War, he brought to Armenia a large amount of valuable archaeological material and artifacts discovered during archaeological excavations. Simply put, he stole it.

After the war, this figure appeared everywhere, gave interviews, wrote, sounded the alarm, trying to draw attention to the "destruction of the Armenian heritage." There was a lot of noise, but there was zero reaction. The artifacts stolen from Karabakh, contrary to his expectations, did not cause any stir in scientific circles. All this was necessary for propaganda purposes during the occupation, but why would anyone need these potsherds now? Even in Armenia itself, no one goes to the "museum" created by Petrosyan from stolen valuables. The ancient ruins excavated by the YSU professor near the city of Agdam have never been legitimized by the Armenian side as the "city of Tigran" and thus substantiate the "Armenian" history of Karabakh. Hamlet Petrosyan became sad, and after the public presentation of the book "Cultural Heritage of Artsakh" was canceled in Berlin a year ago, he completely collapsed.

Recently, he reappeared on one of the YouTube channels with claims to the historical and cultural heritage of Azerbaijan. First of all, of course, by recalling the alleged "Tigranakert".  

"I would like to emphasize that all archaeological excavations conducted by Hamlet Petrosyan during the occupation period are illegal from the point of view of international law, as they violate the norms and principles governing archaeological research in the occupied territories," he said in an interview with Day.Hasan Mirzoev, an Azerbaijani expert in the field of cultural and historical heritage research and protection.

According to the expert, the allegations about the existence of "Tigranakert" in Karabakh are nothing more than a distortion of history for political purposes and an attempt to substantiate Armenia's claims on the territory of Azerbaijan. Armenian historians, the same Petrosyan, fundamentally ignore such a large-scale historical factor as Caucasian Albania in their claims to the Christian heritage of the region. In his interview, Petrosyan deliberately overlooks the data confirming the Albanian origin of many monuments and uses a one-sided approach.

"As for Tigranakert specifically, Hamlet Petrovyan's argument does not stand up to any scientific criticism. Firstly, there is no historical evidence, no mention in ancient and medieval sources of the presence of such a city on the territory of Karabakh. Science has long known and repeatedly recorded that all known "Tigranakerts" were located outside our region, for example, in Mesopotamia.

Secondly, it is unclear why Petrosyan calls his findings a city. In fact, as a result of these illegal excavations, only a few ancient sites unrelated to the urban settlement have been identified. These finds - fragments of ceramics, remains of buildings - are typical for different eras and do not confirm the existence of a large city. Simply put, Tigranakert is pure political speculation," Hasan Mirzoev said.

According to him, it is a well-known fact that the Armenian presence in this region became significant only in the 19th century, after the resettlement of Armenians by the Russian Empire from Iran and the Ottoman Empire. They were resettled in lands inhabited by other peoples, mostly Turks. But Petrosyan, in his insinuations, tries to ignore this fact, considering history exclusively through the prism of Armenian identity.

Our interlocutor drew attention to the fact that Petrosyan conducts research only on those sites that can be interpreted as "Armenian" and ignores monuments attesting to the presence of other cultures. This creates the impression that there are no other peoples in the territories that Armenians are interested in, in the past and present, and creates a basis for claims.

"Contradictions with international science: Many international scientists question Petrosyan's methods and conclusions. For example, his statements about Tigranakert are criticized for the lack of evidence and the use of hypotheses instead of facts. His interpretation of the monuments of Caucasian Albania as "Armenian" is not supported by independent experts specializing in the ancient history of the Caucasus. The real history of Karabakh is the history of diversity, not the monopoly presence of one culture, and it must be studied objectively, without political distortions," Hasan Mirzoev concluded.

It should be noted that in the same interview Hamlet Petrosyan spoke about the Azerbaijani historian, director of the Center for the History of the Caucasus Rizvan Huseynov.

Huseynov did not respond to the attacks against him, but only reminded Day in a comment.It should be noted that Yerevan State University, of which Hamlet Petrosyan is a professor, has always served as a hotbed of nationalism. Within its walls, the most notorious nationalists from science and public figures gathered and nurtured, who had been inciting hatred towards the Azerbaijani people since the late 80s. It was YSU students who were among the first to go to rallies in Yerevan, on Theater Square, and called for aggression against Azerbaijan. It was the university and its scientists who justified the aggression against our republic. It is YSU that stands behind the Armenian hoaxes and their introduction into the consciousness of the Armenian people.

"Because of such "scientists", the Armenian people fell into a trap and suffered. Of course, they don't talk about it in Armenia. People like "black digger" Petrosyan do not understand that it is pointless and counterproductive for the Armenian side to return to the topic of "Tigranakert" in the new realities. Armenian pseudoscience has been searching for this fictional city for many years. Sometimes they find it on the territory of Turkiye, then on the territory of Iran, and after the occupation of the Aghdam region, they deliberately "found" it in Aghdam in order to substantiate their claims to lowland Karabakh as well and to stake out for themselves a certain right to occupy not only the mountainous part of the Karabakh region.

After the liberation of Aghdam, I was one of the first to visit the site of Hamlet Petrosyan's illegal excavations near the Shahbulag fortress. At a glance, it is clear that the remains found by the Armenians belong to a medieval city. Perhaps it was built on the site of an older settlement, but this fact does not make it a "Tigranakert" in any way. On the territory of the settlement, you can see the remains of a Muslim hammam, an ovdan well, which was converted and passed off as an Armenian church. There was an obviously hastily installed khachkar next to these objects, which is especially amusing. Why? Because the same Petrosyan claims to have unearthed a certain ancient city built before the advent of Christianity. In short, the Armenians' hastily concocted lies are easy to expose. We just need to work on it purposefully," said Rizvan Huseynov.