Yerevan hosts first international conference on Tat people studies

The first international conference on the Tat people studies started today at Yerevan State University (YSU). The conference brought together over 40 scientists from Armenia, Iran, Russia, Georgia, France, Germany, Poland, the U.S. and other countries. The participants will make speeches on the language, culture, history and ethnography of the Tat people living in the territory of present-day Azerbaijan.

“We began planning this conference about a year ago. In fact, the YSU Center for Iranian Studies is one of those few academic circles and establishments which are engaged in studies of the Tat people, its language, culture, anthropology, ethnography, political currents and other issues,” Vardan Voskanyan, an associate professor of the YSU Sub-Department of Iranian Studies, member of the event’s organizing committee told Aysor.am.

“It would not be an exaggeration to say that Armenia today is one of those few centers dealing with two biggest Iranian native peoples – the Talyshs and the Tats. In general, Armenia views these native peoples as an important center, based on whch it can advance its goals,” V. Vosaknyan said, stressing that

“These peoples anticipate Armenia’s assistance in several areas. The first area is propaganda – I mean the presentation of these peoples to the international community. Armenia has such an opportunity from the scientific point of view, as well as thanks to its mass media and involvement in various international structures. The second area is moral assistance: they consider it very inspiring that while being deprived of a chance to study their own culture, language and history on the homeland, they can see it done in another country – a country, which is represented by their homeland’s state propaganda as being affected by hunger and poverty, and in general Armenia is represented as a very hostile country. Due to this contradiction, many Talyshs, Tats, Lezgins and Avars have begun to wonder why Armenia, their enemy, deals with their problems, whereas their ‘friendly authorities’ do not address their problems. And they draw a relevant conclusion,” Voskanyan noted.

In his words, the participation of scientists from a number of countries in this conference is especially important.
“I would like to stress that an interesting delegation came from Russia and scholars have arrived from France, Poland, Iran, the United States, and many countries. We also have a Tat participant from Azerbaijan who, however, does not want to be conspicuous, so to speak, so as not to face some difficulties later,” V. Voskanyan said.

It is noteworthy that during the conference the participants received a greeting telegram in Azerbaijani language from Shirvan Liberation Front organization (it stated about its activities two months ago and aims to proclaim an independent Persian republic of Shirvan in the territory of present-day Azerbaijan). In the telegram, the liberation front’s members expressed gratitude on behalf of the whole Tat people for organizing a conference at such a level and raising their problems.