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Director of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), MP Yagub Mahmudov is going to rewrite the history of Azerbaijan. He stated this in an interview with the Azerbaijani news agency "APA".

According to Mahmudov, the history of Azerbaijan has been forged after the Gulistan and Turkmenchay agreements. According to the Azerbaijani historian Nakhijevan, Karabakh and Yerevan have also been a part of "ancient Azerbaijani lands."

In his interview Yagub Mahmudov has also touched upon the history of Dagestan. "No one can deny that Derbent is an Azerbaijani city as Dagestan has been founded on Azerbaijani lands. How can you forget it? It is possible that some will get offended, however we will rewrite the history of Azerbaijan during the Soviet period," the historian said.

The historian did not leave out also the topic of the monastery complex of David Gareji (Azerbaijanis call it "Keshik Dag"). He claims that the monastery is an "ancient Albanian chapel", and the ownership issue raised by the Georgians is a false step. According to Yagub Mahmudov, in 2007, by the decree of President Ilham Aliyev, an area of state culture protection was established in here, as the monastery complex, according to the historian, was erected on the "Azerbaijani land."

"Georgia claims that the territory up to Shamakhi region is Georgian. If Georgians continue to impose such requirements, Azerbaijan, in its turn, will claim that Tbilisi has been a Muslim emirate. It is necessary to ask Georgians: where have the residencies of Tbilisi emir gone? Or, how can we see today the Mosque built by Shah Abbas on the river Kur? All these buildings have been razed to the ground, and we currently are studying this issue," noted the Azerbaijani historian.

The Georgian monastery complex David Gareji is situated on 60 km from Tbilisi, at the Georgian-Azerbaijani border, and is stretching for 25km along the slopes of semi-deserted Gareji ridge. It has become a stumbling block between Azerbaijan and Georgia, which cannot determine the boundaries between the countries because of it.