The agenda of the meeting that the Toponymy Commission of the Milli Majlis held on 13 November had items dealing with the renaming of the village of Gushchubaba in the administrative territory of the Khojali Province and of the village of Tsakuri in the administrative territory of the Khojavend Province of the country.

The Commission Chairman, Vice President of the NASA, an MP and Academician Isa Habibbayli opened the meeting. He told the assembled that the victory that Azerbaijan had secured in the Highland Garabagh Conflict and the restoration of the territorial integrity of the country had been possible thanks to the firmness as well as the outstanding talents and abilities of President and Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev in politics, ideology, information and military training guidance. This victory, which is celebrated in the name of Azerbaijan, matters enormously in our statehood history; it is a milestone when it comes to carrying national unity into life and to the state interests alike.

Then, Mr Habibbayli said that renaming our villages reconquered thanks to the glorious victories of the Azerbaijani Army achieved under the leadership of President and Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev would be discussed again at the meeting. A certain amount of research had been done to that end in conjunction with the Geography Institute, the Linguistics Institute, the Institute of History and the other concerned organisations. The research had covered the background, meanings and spelling of the toponyms.

The name of the Gushchubaba village situated in the administrative territory of the Khojali Province has to do with the occupation of the local populace. Meanwhile, the village has been renamed as Baharli upon the suggestion of President Aliyev, which is crucial for the erasure of the Khojali Tragedy’s aftermath and highlighting the current triumph of Azerbaijan.

Though various opinions had been put forth regarding the name of the Tsakuri village in the Khojavend Province, the research had not found a justification for any of them, Mr Habibbayli remarked, adding that Azerbaijanis had always lived there. There are no arguments in favour of other peoples’ having ever inhabited the place in question. Incidentally, Mr Habibbayli mentioned, our heroic Army had freed Tsakuri from occupation these past days. It is renamed as Hunerli at the suggestion of the Head of the State and this name reflects the strength and prowess the Azerbaijani Army had manifested.

The new village names perpetuate our splendid victory and will tell future generations of the present-day reality, which is a really rather important thing to do.

The Chair of the Labour and Social Policy Committee Musa Guliyev, the MPs Nizami Jafarov and Sevinj Fataliyeva, and the Director of the H Aliyev Geography Institute also serving on the Toponymy Commission Ramiz Mammadov spoke at the meeting and found it expedient to rename the villages in the Khojali and Khojavend provinces in the context of today’s political realia as well as linguistically and ethnically.

The Press and Public Relations Department  
The Milli Majlis