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A round table on ‘Native peoples of the Republic of Azerbaijan: reality and prospects’ was organized today, February 27, by the Institute of Native Peoples of Caucasus-Caspian Region and Modus Vivendi Centre in Yerevan.

The head of Modus Vivendi center, a retired diplomat Ara Papian, said that the stateless people living in the territory of modern day Azerbaijan have a number of commonalities: they are indigenous, have thousands-year-old history and culture, they do not belong to the Turkic family of languages, are divided between and by borders of few states in the region. According to the expert, Talish people, for example, live in Azerbaijan and Iran, Lezgins habitate in Azerbaijan, Russia and Russian Dagestan.
“The native peoples living in the territory of Azerbaijan have survival, cultural and language preservation issues,” said director of Indigenous Peoples of Caucasus-Caspian Region Institute, expert in Oriental Studies Garnik Asatryan during the discussion.

“A vivid return to the roots of their national identity can be observed now,” Ara Papian continued. He then added that the number of those people understanding that Armenians are a ‘brotherly nation’ increases.

“We should start a dialogue with these peoples. They understand that local Armenians too were part of Soviet Azerbaijan and like them also were under pressure. They understand that it’s useless to fight against us, although they did during the Nagorno-Karabakh war,” said Papian, stressing that Armenia should establish more friendly relations with those peoples.

Ara Papian also noted that such discussions help them realize their identity, as “they were not allowed to develop or express themselves. They are under pressure in Azerbaijan”, he concluded.