Interview with leading analyst of “Noravanq” scientific-educational foundation, cand. of technical sciences Ara Marjanyan

– What is the real quantity of the Azerbaijan Republic’s population?

– The thing is that the simple question “how much is Azerbaijan’s population?” doesn’t have such a simple answer. Though official Baku has put into circulation the figure 9,1mln however in reality it is 6,9-7,1mln.

– But as is known victory and success start with sober assessment of reality.

– That’s why we proceeded to the revelation of impartial picture of demographic situation in Azerbaijan. So on the basis of our supervision we put not only the official data of the Azerbaijan Statistics State Committee but the information from some international competent organizations as well. The results of the comparative analysis were just staggering. We found out that this country sequentially has been distorting migration flows picture, birth and mortality rates statistics, artificially elevating population’s official figure from 2mln to 2,2mln. And it is significant that official Baku’s demographic statistics very strangely is being confirmed and spread by some international organizations.

– What says the statistics about, for example, Talish people?

– According to the census of Azerbaijan SSR of 1926, 77 thousand Talishes lived there, in 1937 – 100 thousand. According to 1959 data, there were no Talishes in that country at all, the same is according to the censuses of 1970 and 1979. Talishes accur in 1989 census – 21 thousand.

– According to your data, how many Talishes are there today?

– Almost 110 thousand.

– Absurd! That means these people have no growth rate during 80 years?

– Azerbaijan SSR’s and present Azerbaijan Republic’s policy of forced “Turkisation” and “Azerbaijanisation” continues till now. Using primitive “demographic arithmetic” this country tries “to make as Turks” Turkic-speaking Iranian people who live in the north of Iran exactly the same way as it was “making as Turks” living in that country 93 ethnicities..

Gevorg Asatryan