Как рассказывают национальную историю детям в Азербайджане

• Main Author: Sergey Rumyantsev
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Editura ARC 2016-06-01
• Series: Plural: History, Culture, Society
• Subjects: Azerbaijan; national history; textbooks; Turkish world
• Online Access: http://plural.upsc.md/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/03-Rumeantev.pdf

In post-Soviet Azerbaijan, national history underwent a certain revision in which “friendship of peoples” ceased to be its central theme and was replaced by the images of Soviet-inspired national heroes, and fighters for independence. At the same time, given the fact that building an independent Azerbaijan coincided with the Karabakh conflict, it is quite natural to expect that these events would have had an impact on the texts included in the history textbooks which, in their turn, are intended to rear patriots of their country capable of discerning “one’s own” from “others” and ready to take part in yet another conflict when and if the need arises. A number of ethnic myths have sneaked in to the textbooks during the process of reviewing school programs and getting rid of the “dark stains” in Azerbaijani history. These myths are made up to serve the official ideology of the already independent state. The main creative group comprises professional historians, very often they are the specialists of the History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, implementing the state order on developing history textbooks for secondary schools. Schools are using only one version of narratives approved by the Ministry of Education. New textbooks on national history in the post-Soviet period were first developed in the mid 90’s. These textbooks underwent upgrading only once, in early 2000, and these versions were published for each grade (from grade 5 to 11, i.e. for seven grades), and which schools are using to this day. The role and place of independent Azerbaijan in the modern world is determined, above all, within the Turkish world (certain resounds of pan Turkism), while the central place among the states conventionally described as Turkish is assigned to Turkey – the major regional ally.