Monument Watch: Efforts to appropriate Armenian culture have intensified around the term “Western Azerbaijan”

Various Azerbaijani events and attempts to appropriate Armenian culture have intensified lately around the false term “Western Azerbaijan”, reports Monument Watch.

The exhibition “Western Azerbaijan in Cultural Memory” has been opened at the National Art Museum of Azerbaijan since December 15. Under the false term “Western Azerbaijan”, Azerbaijan is trying to present the history of Yerevan in the light of decorative art, photographs, and falsification of historical documents. The exhibition is based on photographs of the palace of the Persian khans of Yerevan, objects originating from the Yerevan fortress, as well as monuments that are presented as the culture of “Western Azerbaijan”.

On November 23-24, 2023, the Return to Western Azerbaijan Festival was held in Nakhichevan, which was preceded by the Road to Western Azerbaijan conference. The poster of the festival features the political map of Armenia with fictitious names of cities and villages. As part of the “event”, the state propaganda machine of Azerbaijan announced the “return of artificially created Armenia (in their “terminology”, allegedly Western Azerbaijan – ed.) to Azerbaijan.”