THEFT OF CULTURE

Interview of Major Gevorg Asatryan with Candidate of Historical Sciences Victoria Araqelova.

– You are the editor of the book “Politization of Persian poet Nizami” which was published recently in Yerevan. What is it about?

– The book’s authors are scholars, S.Lornejad from USA and A.Doostzadeh from Canada. In this monography they analyze how incorrectly the Azeris comment on the literary heritage of prominent Medieval Persian poet Nizami Gyanjavi. This started in 1930-s in the Soviet Union after the functions dedicated to the 800-th anniversary of Nizami. They even “found” and published so called “Nizami Gyanjavi’s Turkish Collection”. Falsifiers doctored of poems in Turkish language to the Persian poet whereas in his rich literary heritage even with a loupe you can’t find a single line in Turkish or other dialect.