3.

The point of views by Azerbaijan and Armenian scholars on the historical

territory of Albania. Formation of Albanian ethnic community.

According to several reliable sources and to Albanian author Movses K. the ancient Albania
stayed within the same bounds up to 7th – 8th centuries. The territory of Albania was from
Derbend in north to Araz river in south, from Ibera in west to Caspian See in west. Armenian
scholars assert that todays Karabakh – Arsakh, Paitakaran and Utik regions were initially
Armenian territories. Later they were conquered and added to Albanian territory but still
culturally remained in Great Armenia. Besides that, some Armenian scientist tend to add the
right bank of Kura river to conquests of Armenian king Artashes I in the 2nd century BC. Some
other scientists say that the right bank of Kura was conquered by Tigran II in the 1 st century
BC. On the other hand, Azerbaijani scholars declare that ancient Albania managed to save its
territory and avoided the conquests of Tigran I or any other Armenian king. It also should be
noticed, that due to written sources Albanians despite ethnic diversity. Then how can
Armenian scholars asset that the Arsakh region “culturally remained Armenian?” There are
three main factors that played major role in formation of Albanian ethnic community: 1) The
unity of territory and state. As it was mentioned before, Albania managed to stay within the
same bounds from 3rd century BC till 8th century. 2) Albanian self consciousness was fixed in
the ethnonym Aluank. Ethnonym is the name refeered to the particular ethnic group.
Albanian author Morses K. distinguished Albanian ethnos from Armenian and any other
ethnos. Self consciousness of Albanian nation includes the effort to revive Arsakh in 9 th-13th
centuries, when Armenian author called the Karabakh “the country of Albans-Agvans”.in
addition to that Albanian author wrote a book about Karabakh and called it “The brief
history of Albania” and referred to himself as Albanian. The letter of Udins was faound in
which they called the Agvan nation also Utian nation. 3) unity of religion and language. As
for the later history of Albanian ethnos, during the invasion of Arabs they assimilated the
people living near the Kura and Araz rivers with Turkic speaking people. The other part of
Albans escaped to mountains and accepted Christianity. Thus, they were the base of
Armenian church.