"Toponyms related to the history of Azerbaijan, whose names were changed by Armenians in Karabakh, were involved in extensive research."

APA reports that this was reported by Elchin Ismayilov, Department of Toponymy of Nasimi Institute of Linguistics.

He said that as it is known, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, in his opinions about the return to Western Azerbaijan, gave instructions to conduct research on the fate of the population of Azerbaijan who were deported from these lands and subjected to genocide in the last 200 years and to prepare the concept of return to Western Azerbaijan.

In this regard, one of the three departments established in the Academy related to Western Azerbaijan by the decision of the Presidium of ANAS is the Department of Toponymics of the Institute of Linguistics named after Nasimi.

"One of the innumerable crimes committed by Armenians in the territory of Western Azerbaijan is related to changing the names of toponyms. In Karabakh, toponyms related to the history of Azerbaijan were massively changed from time to time, some names were translated during the occupation, and some were given new Armenian names. In Western Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani people in general "More than 760 toponyms belonging to the region have been changed. Some villages have been completely erased and their population relocated. The names of some villages and towns have been changed after Armenians were moved to these areas, some were changed when Azerbaijanis lived there, and some were changed after Azerbaijanis were completely deported from these areas."

According to the head of the department, along with toponyms, thousands of microtoponyms (bridge, spring, street, forest, mountain, river, etc.) have been renamed.

He noted that a settlement has one toponym and more than 15 microtoponyms.

In total, about 7-8 thousand toponyms have been renamed, including the name of the city of Yerevan.

Elchin Ismayilov, who gave information about the linguists conducting research in this direction so far, pointed out that prominent researchers such as Ibrahim Bayramov, Sirajeddin Geybullayev, Budag Budagov, Hasan Mirzayev, Mahira Nagygizi, Afad Gurbanov are the authors of works related to the toponyms of West Azerbaijan.

Speaking about the activities of the Department of Toponymy that he leads, the scientist said that the department will deal with the research of toponyms of Western Azerbaijan and Eastern Zangezur and onomastic units of territories freed from occupation, restoration of the onomastic landscape, and identification of names.

In the department, studies will be conducted in the direction of nationalization of the names of toponyms that were freed from occupation and renamed by Armenians.

He pointed out that a new book will be published as a result of research based on specific scientific facts within the next 2-3 months, and this publication will be presented to the world community as well as the republic.

"We can say with certainty that we will mobilize all our resources towards the implementation of the tasks set before the department by our state, including the ANAS Presidium, considering that this issue is nationally important research," said Elchin Ismayilov.