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Historical territory and borders

  


 

Karabakh is one of the ancient regions of Azerbaijan. The word Karabakh given by the Azerbaijan nation to a part of their native lands was used for the first time 1,300 years ago (in the 7th century)!?. At first, Karabakh was used as a historical-geographical definition, but it later transformed to cover a larger geographical area. By the way, this aspect is very typical for Azerbaijan: Nakhchivan city - Nakhchivan region, Sheki city - Shaki region, Ganja city - Ganja region, Lenkoran city- Lenkoran region and etc.
The history of the formation of Karabakh as a name of one particular region, provides a better scientific explanation for its etymology. Because the word "gara" has other meanings in Azerbaijani language (also in other Turkic languages) as well - such as "sih" (dense), "galin" (thick), "boyuk" (big, large), "tund" (strong), and others. From this point of view the term Karabakh gets such meanings as "gara bag" (dark garden), that is "boyuk bag" (a large garden), "six bag" (a dense garden), "galin bag" (a thick garden), "safali bag" (a picturesque garden) and others.

About the territory of Karabakh its regent Mirza Jamal Javanshir in consideration of this question in his work the "History of Karabakh" (1847) wrote: "According to the ancient historical books the frontiers of Karabakh are: from the southn the river Araz, from Khudafarin Bridge to Sinig Bridge. At present (Siniq Bridge) is among the population of Gazakh, Shamseddin and Demerchi-Hesenly and Russians call it using the Russian term Krasniy Most that is the Red Bridge. From the east it is the Kura River, which flows into the Araz River in Javad village and flows into the Caspian Sea. From the north the frontier of Karabakh with Yelizavetpol is till Kura river - the Goran River, and the Kura River crosses it in many parts and riches the Araz River. From the west are the high mountains of Karabakh called Kusbek, Salvarti, Erikli

Such a detailed description of the territory and frontiers of Karabakh at the first stages of Russian occupation and colonization are explained by the following factors: 1) this fact is described by an official person directly connected with the government of Karabakh, in other words, this fact is reflected in an official document composed by an official representative of Russia; 2) on the other hand this fact is not only based at practices and realities, but it also finds reflection in the references. It is not occasional that ancient books are used to prove the position of Mirza Jamal.
There was a general definition of Karabakh, which was not used only for Daghlig Garabagh, but for both mountainous and plain parts. In other words, the word combination of "Daglig Garabag" (Mountainous Karabakh) is a product of the subsequent periods, the name given to the one of the part of Karabakh as a result of separatist intentions.



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