The Ancestral Tree of Aghvans According to Kaghankatouatsi

A most significant record in History of Aghvank is Movses Kaghankatouatsi’s presentation of the ancestral tree of the Aghvans. As it appears, at his time, the Aghvans were seen to be of the same origin as the Armenians, namely the descendants of Hyke, the forefather of the Armenians according to their mythology.

Hyke is no fantastic creature endowed with supernatural powers or unnatural anatomical growths but a mere mortal yet a skilled archer who liberates his people by defeating their tyrannical oppressor, Bel, who he kills, thus, avoiding unnecessary bloodshed on both sides, of fighting soldiers. This is also a reflection of the worldview of the Armenians who even in their mythology disdain senseless loss of human life, albeit in the context of war.

Whether Hyke existed or not is less relevant to our subject, rather the fact that the Aghvans and Armenians were thought to be from the same origin long before the Turks devastated the region, gains importance in the light of the shameless historical fabrications of the “Azeris” to somehow convince the world that they are not the leftovers of hordes of nomadic, Ural-Altaic, Mongolo-Tatar, Oghuz-Turkmen, cattle-herder, prowling invaders that only appeared this side of the Caspian from the 11th century onward, but they are descendants of settled, civilized, Christian Aghvans who had already disappeared from the scene of human history, mainly having assimilated with the Armenians. Besides, the Turks consider a gray wolf, which, according to their oral accounts copulated with a bleeding, mutilated youth, as the origin of the Turks.

Table 6

It’s obvious that Movses Kaghankatouatsi has used the fifth century Armenian historian, Movses Khorenatsi’s History of Armenia as his source for the ancestral tree of the Aghvans from Noah to Tigran Yervanduni. Again, whether some of these names belong to the realm of mythology or not is irrelevant, the tree reflects the fact that the Armenians and the Aghvans regarded each other descendants of the same ancestors none of which have anything to do with the Turks, stronger even, after the first couple of names, with any other nation!

It is worth mentioning that Movses Khorenatsi also cites the names of the ancestors of the Hebrews and the Chaldeans in two additional columns parallel to the Armenians.