Head of the Central Information Department at the NKR President’s office David Babayan said that the decision to rename Aghdam town as Akna was adopted by the regional administration one year ago.

Babayan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter that there has never been either Aghdam town or Aghdam region. He noted that refugees reside on the territory of former Aghdam, they deal with agriculture. And to provide these people with a status from the point of view of self-organization, it was decided to form a community here, which will become a district of Askeran town. “The decision was taken rather calmly, it is a regular phenomenon and does not cause additional pother among us,” said David Babayan.

Referring to Azerbaijan’s protest against the event, Babayan said that Armenian settlements have been located on the territory of modern Aghdam. The town was located near one of four Tigranakerts. The Turkic nomads came to this territory in the 13th-15th centuries for the first time. They named the town as Aghdam, which is translated from the Turkic as White Castle, as the nomads were surprised by the construction they saw.

Babayan noted that Azerbaijan should carefully treat the history and refrain from speculating on it. According to him, the Azerbaijani state was established in 1918. Moreover, the state was created artificially to lay claims to original Azerbaijan through newly established Azerbaijan. “Baku has no any moral right to dictate Stepanakert what to do. They have immorally renamed our settlements. We do not do any extraordinary thing – we just return historical names to the settlements. Eventually, Artsakh is a sovereign state and has the right to dispose its heritage,” concluded David Babayan.