Azerbaijan fabricates false narrative about Armenia’s Ashtarak

Former Armenian Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan has debunked false Azerbaijani narrative about the Armenian town of Ashtarak and its churches, stating that Baku is paving the way for fresh aggression against Armenia.

“The agenda of adopting a new Constitution and changing the legislation in Armenia is necessary for Azerbaijan’s authorities in order to divert attention from its crimes, including the forced displacement of Artsakh Armenians and the occupation of Armenian territories, and to legitimize them. Under the veil of this, they deepen the animosity plan towards Armenia, creating artificial grounds for aggression,” he wrote on Facebook on Monday.

He said an Azerbaijani pro-government TV channel aired a program about Ashtarak, a town in Armenia’s Aragatsotn Province, falsely claiming it to be part of so-called “Western Azerbaijan” and the homeland of the Oghuz-Turkic tribes since “time immemorial”.

“Moreover, along with Ashtarak, the ancient Armenian monastic complexes and churches located in that area are appropriated, stating that they are Turkish-Albanian monuments of the 5th century,” said the ex-ombudsman, who currently runs the Tatoyan Foundation.

“Further, according to the false narrative, Armenians were settled here by the Russian Empire in 1828, after the Russian-Turkish war. In fact, this program is part of a specially designed state policy. Not only has it not decreased, but it is also intensively advanced. This is done by both internal and external propaganda.

“It is necessary to expose these false policies and show that the Azerbaijani authorities have no intentions of real peace. Under no circumstances should they be allowed to dictate their agenda and legitimize their crimes and prepare for new crimes at the same time,” reads the post.