All the NPRC could send me was his final pay voucher that shows he served for 3 years and was discharged in September of 1945 at the convenience of the Government (AR615-365).
County clerk does not have a copy of his DD214.
I'm assuming it is completely impossible to prove his military service?
Anyone who has posted anything about Artsakh on the internet has almost certainly been met with hate, disgusting words, and fake historical facts spread by jealous Azerbaijani citizens. Fake history as “researched” by Azerbaijani sponsored historians is an internationally recognized phenomenon and a disgusting one at that, done by a nation who are insecure in the longevity of their neighbors to the west.
Most of Azeri revisionist history is aimed at creating fake Azerbaijani roots in the Caucasus region and cleansing any Armenian heritage and history in the region. In the words of The European Center for Law and Justice: “The Azeri revisionist steamroller takes many forms: irreversible destruction, degradation (Armenian cupolas modified, Armenian inscriptions erased, crosses removed), reassignment (churches become mosques), reappropriation through outright denial of its Armenian origins.” The European Center for Law and Justice also states that “Azerbaijan has gone beyond merely destroying Armenian heritage…Azerbaijan seeks to erase…even the memory of the Armenian people.” Even the UN recognizes Azerbaijanis “pattern of destruction and appropriation of Armenian sites…and their organized reinterpretation of the history of Artsakh to erase…Armenians.”
Anti-Armenian historical revisionism developed in the 1950s-1960s under the leadership of Mir Cefer Bagirov, who served as First Secretary of the Azeri SSR. Under his leadership, the myth that Azerbaijanis are descendants of the indigenous Caucasian Albanians was first developed. By the 1980s, Azeri propaganda got even more extreme, spreading the false history that no Armenians ever lived in Artsakh, and that Armenians only came to the region after Russian intervention. These revisions contributed to ethnic tensions, and in some cases, Azeri historiography prohibits the mention of Armenians in the region with the hopes of erasing Armenian roots in the region.
One example of this erasing of Armenian roots is the proclamation that Armenian cross-stones (khahkar) in Artsakh were actually Albanian Khachdash. This myth feeds into the albanization of the Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh. While the world denied these blatant lies when they were first expressed by Davud Aga-oglu Akhundov at the 1985 All-Union Archaeological Congress in Baku, Azeri historians and propaganda embraced this historical-erasure of Armenian roots in the region.
The rhetoric used by Azeri nationalists is vast and varied, but it mainly takes shape through two methods: False territorial claims and falsification of sources.
For example, Azerbaijani historiography portrays the early to mid 1800s as the ideal time for Azeri Sovereignty, with Azeris exerting control over Artsakh and Northern Iran. This is in spite of the fact that Azerbaijan was never an independent country and was always under the control of the Persian Empires in the region. The Azerbaijani government also constantly uses the rhetoric of referring to Armenian lands (both historic and modern) as Western Azerbaijan. This rhetoric is used by Azerbaijani nationalists to paint Armenian territory as land that once belonged to the Azeri people and will again belong to the Azeri people. This propaganda is spread by the highest levels of their government, with President Ilham Aliyev calling critical Armenian regions and landmarks with falsified Azerbaijani names. This is not even mentioning the Azerbaijani “Great Return” program, which is aimed at settling allegedly ethnic Azerbaijanis on the territory of the historically-Armenian Artsakh.
The second piece of rhetoric used by Azeri nationalists is source falsification. For example, a large number of Armenian, Russian, Arab, and other primary sources point to large populations of Armenians in modern-day Armenia and Artsakh, which greatly annoys Azerbaijani pseudo-historians. To this end, Azerbaijani historians began republishing medieval primary sources with parts about Armenians deleted and edited to suit the Azerbaijani narrative.
For example: Nazim Akhundov’s 1989 reprint of Mirza Jamal Javanshir’s book Tarikh-e Qarabagh consistently omits the word “Armenian” while talking about possession of Artsakh. This is not the only example of falsification of Armenian history by Azeri Nationalists: texts by Hans Schildberger (a 15th century German writer), Yesai Hasan-Jalalyan (a 16th century Armenian historian) were also falsified by Azeri nationalists, even during the Soviet Union. Publications of these texts to this day are accepted by the Azeri government, which is just more proof that the Azeri government will believe any history except the truth: Armenians have lived in Armenia and Artsakh for thousands of years. And they’re not going anywhere.
Artsakh is a historical region that was part of Greater Armenia from 189 BC when the Artaxiad Dynasty came to power (although historians also believe that Artsakh may have been part of the Satrapy of Armenia, which was part of Achaemenid Persia).
The Roman historian and writer Strabo describes the conquests of Greater Armenia under the rule of King Artashes. King Artashes conquered territory in every direction, including the lands of the Caspian (under the rule of the Medes) and a certain land of Phaunitis, which is considered an error in copies of the manuscript, and rather, according to historians, refers to the lands of the Saunities, i.e. Syuniki. The land of the Syuniks included the land between Syunik and the Caspian Sea (i.e. Artsakh and Utik.) Strabo describes Artsakh as the province that provided more cavalry than any other region of Greater Armenia. Classical Armenian sources describe the Syunik region as a strategic and fortified region, although they also described it as one of the more savage and barbaric regions of Greater Armenia.
Under Armenian rule, Christianity flourished in Artsakh. The Armenian historian Agathangelos mentions the princes of Utik and Sotk (most likely part of Artsakh) as two of the 16 Armenian princes who accompanied Gregory the Illuminator to Caesarea, where he was appointed Patriarch of Armenia.
In the second half of the 4th century, several wars broke out between Sassanian Persia and Armenia, during which the Armenian nobility in Artsakh and other Armenian provinces rebelled and refused to support King Arshak II and turned their support to Arshak's son, Pap. Pap came to power with the help of the Romans, and the Supreme commander of Armenia severely punished Artsakh and other regions that rebelled against the Armenian kingdom.
From the 7th to 9th centuries, the South Caucasuses was mostly under the control of Caliphates, and in the early 9th century, two Armenian princes, Sahl Smbatian and Yesai Abu Muse rebelled against Arab rule in the region, and established two independent principalities.: The Principality of Dizak and the Principality of Khachen. The rulers of the Khachen Principality called themselves the Kings of Artsakh.
After 1260, the principalities split into smaller parcels of land, which eventually became vassals of the Iranian rulers until the end of the Russo-Persian War in 1813, when control of Artsakh was transferred to the Russian Empire in the Treaty of Gulistan.
PLEASE CORRECT ANY MISTAKES I MAY HAVE MADE.
You may have seen posts from me about Khor Virap, and while researching it, and reading about Surb Grigoriy, I started to think about how if the things the historians wrote are more or less true, or even close to true, then how can someone even doubt religion?
What Armenian language sources talk about Tiridates III and Saint Gregory? When were they written?
Is it possible to talk with priests in monasteries about this? How would I go about doing it? Do they speak Russian?
Thanks for any information!
In 2022, I visited the wonderful country of Armenia for the first time. One of the very first sights I saw was Khor Virap. Խոր Վիրապ (Khor Virap) in English means something along the lines of "Deep Dungeon". It’s famous for the fact that St. Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned for 13 years in a deep pit within Khor Virap.
Gregory the Illuminator was the son of the Parthinian Anak, who killed the Armenian King Khosrov II. Gregory's entire family was executed except for Gregory himself, who was carried away by a woman named Sophiy to Caesarea of Cappadocia. There, he was given the name Gregory and was baptized.
To make up for the sins of his father, Gregory entered the service of the King of Greater Armenia, Tiridates III the Great. When the Christian Gregory the Illuminator refused to make a sacrifice to a pagan god, Tiridates III tortured him, and when the King found out that his father had been killed by Gregory's father, he imprisoned Gregory, and detained him for 13 years in the pit of Khor Virap, expecting the christian to die quickly.
But death never came for Gregory, at least not in Khor Virap. A certain woman threw bread into the pit for him every day, and thus he was saved from death. When Tiridates started to lose his mind and began to behave like a wild boar (going into the forest to eat grass and things like that), people began to think it was all over. But then, an angel appeared to Tiridates’ sister on 5 separate occasions, and on these 5 occasions, the angel told her Tiridates III would not heal until Gregory was rescued from the pit. They pulled him out of the pit, fed him, clothed him, and asked him how to save the King. He eventually preached to the pagans for 66 days (some sources say 70), ordered a large church to be built, and the king was healed instantly.
As soon as the king was healed, in 301 A.D., he was baptized and converted to Christianity, and thus Armenia became the first country to convert to Christianity in the history of the world.
IF YOU SEE ANY MISTAKES, FEEL FREE TO CORRECT ME. I DO MY BEST TO GIVE ACCURATE INFORMATION.