In the below video, historian Artak Movsisyan talks in detail about the origins of the Armenian ethnos. The data is delivered by Armenian, Greek, Georgian, Arab, and Jewish historical sources.
We have repeatedly covered the topic of the falsification of the Armenians’ history, including their origins. In this regard, Alexander the Great tried to “rewrite” history and make the Armenians the descendants of the Greeks. One of the reasons for such history alterations was that Alexander sought to justify his crusades by some idea of reunification rather than just his imperialistic goals.
The course of falsifications changed in the years of the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks tried to prove that Russians had originated in Transcaucasia. Their theorized region included the whole Armenian Highlands, not to mention the territory of the Byzantine Empire, which is now loudly asserted to be the predecessor state of Russia.
Furthermore, today, the Chechens have joined this general tendency. They now wish to prove that ancient Nakhichevan (pronounced and written as “Nakhijevan” in Armenian) is not an Armenian gavar (province) but the homeland of Chechens’ ancestral tribes.
The Chechen tribes are called Nokhchi and their language is called “Nokhchiin mott”. So here is where the name Nakhichevan comes from, they say! An interesting logical chain, isn’t it? Just replace a couple of letters, and you have a ready history of antiquity!
The Bolsheviks falsified anything possible, including the names of states, cities, settlements, and rulers of the Kingdom of Van. For example, the name of Hrachya, a ruler of the Kingdom of Van, is “correctly” transliterated as Rusa!
How the history was actually written in USSR can be seen from the memoirs of Diakonoff.
But anyway, the latest archaeological finds on the territory of modern Armenia and the Armenian Highlands, as well as DNA analyses, suggest that everything, including the Armenian history, eventually returns to its rightful place.
Vigen Avetisyan
“Art-A-Tsolum”