Fine art in Western Azerbaijan
Regardless of whether it is recognized or not, the facts prove that the current territory of Armenia is a Turkic land historically belonged to Azerbaijan. Consequently, this is confirmed by the Armenian sources themselves. The ancestors of the Azerbaijani people have left irrefutable evidence of a rich cultural heritage proving their standing as the indigenous inhabitants of these geographies.
The image of the city of Iravan is reflected in the 18th century engraving. A detailed study of that engraving shows that the structure of the city, as well as individual residential buildings and religious buildings, have the same characteristics and forms as the structure of medieval Azerbaijani cities. The notes in the works of medieval travelers (for example, Evliya Chalabi) coincide with that engraving and prove that Iravan has been a city of Azerbaijan since ancient times.
The first archaic architectural monuments we meet in the territory of Western Azerbaijan, which is now called Armenia, are menhirs (French men-stone, hir-uzun). Menhirs can be found in Zangezur, Vedi, Garakilsa regions. Among the local population, they were called “troop stones”. The Turkic tribes calling these monuments “stone hordes” is the result of ancient animistic beliefs and the cult of ancestors. Unquestioning obedience and worship to tribal elders created a cult of ancestors. Menhir stones were viewed as a living creature, a powerful, omnipotent being. Based on the traditional continuation of the ancient understanding, these stones were remembered as a living, armed group of people. In Garakilsa settlement of Zangezur district, there are remains of megalithic buildings dating back to the II millennium BC. They have the same structure and characteristics as the menhirs in other areas of Azerbaijan (Khojali, Ziyaratdag – Dashkasan, Big and Small Garamurad villages – Gedebey). Local people still consider those stones as sacred.
It is interesting that menhirs have a certain affinity with human figures created in Azerbaijan at the end of the Iron Age (the end of the 1st millennium BC, the first centuries BC). The analysis of the stone statues found in the villages of Shamakhi region (Khinisli, Dagkolani) shows that these statues were placed on the grave of a deceased warrior so that his soul would come and find him later. Similarly, menhirs symbolized the spirit of a dead warrior. Apparently, the menhirs found in Western Azerbaijan have the same ideological basis as the ancient Turkic sculptures in other areas. It would be right to investigate the rock paintings for the oldest traces of humans in the territory of Azerbaijan.
In the Armudlu and Gachaqgirilan valleys near Garakilsa of Zangezur district and Soyugbulag village of Loru district, there are rock inscriptions dating back to the 5th-4th and 3rd-2nd millennia BC. The stylistic similarity of those rock paintings with the rock paintings discovered in the mountains of Gobustan, Shuvelan (Absheron), Gamigaya (Nakhchivan MR) and Kalbajar, the plasticity, conventionality, schematicity of the figures, the arrangement of the figures, the images (human, horse, goat, deer, tiger , wolves, etc.), the similaity of dance and hunting scenes convey the life and lifestyle of our ancestors in a unique and interesting language, and clearly proves that the lands of Western Azerbaijan belong to Azerbaijani Turks.
Among the images discovered near the village of Soyugbulag is the drawing of a deer with the image of a dragon with conventional, schematic and rigid outlines. The image of a deer is considered a symbol of abundance and blessing, and a dragon is considered a symbol of evil forces. The image of a deer and a dragon is one of the motifs widely used in Azerbaijani art. Back in 1898, the Russian scientist A. Bobrinsky addressed a letter to the German language teacher E. Resler, who was conducting excavations in Karabakh, and asked to learn the origin of the pattern similar to the letter “S” found on the Karabakh carpets, and wrote: “…I am sure that at present this symbolic decoration represented real existence in the distant past. Therefore, we should look for its ancestor in living nature…”.
Indeed, it was not in vain that we gave a large space to the dragon motif in our art. This motive has occupied an important place in the life, folklore and mythology of the Turkic-speaking peoples in the distant past and even now. Even today, there are place names related to snake and dragon totems. “Ilan Dag” in Nakhchivan, “Dragon Rock” in Gazakh, “Dragon Rock” in many places around Goycha Lake, “Dragon’s Home” in Challi village of Karvanserai (now Ijevan) district, “Dragon Rock” in Zod village of Basarkecher district, etc. the so-called places are an example of this. Dragon image has a wide place in Azerbaijani folk tales such as “Malikmammad”, “Tapdiq”, “Black horse” etc. In these tales, the dragon mainly represents evil forces. Azerbaijani scientist and folklorist M.A. Seyidov shows that the word “dragon” common among Turkic-speaking peoples is a Persian word. Turks used the word “buka” to refer the creature. According to researchers, in the early Middle Ages, “Buka” was both the name of the tribal ongon and the name given to the religious and secular leaders of the tribe. There are 16, 20, 24 dragon drawings in the pile carpets of Karabakh, including “Varni” carpets. Carpets woven in the baklava composition scheme, which is made up of stylized dragon drawings, popularly called “Khatai” are stored in Topkapı, Kali museums in Istanbul, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and Museum of Decorative Arts in Budapest. The reason for the spread of the dragon image in the Caucasus, Iran and Anatolia is related to the migration of Turkic tribes from Central Asia to the west.
