Representation of the War for State Integrity in Azerbaijan Prose

Abstract

The article deals with the representation of the course of the Azerbaijan-Armenia and Russia-Ukraine wars for the preservation of state integrity within internationally recognized borders. The texts of Azerbaijani literature are taken from the publication “Bayrakdar. Karabakh tragedy. Kyiv: VD Dmytro Burago, 2020. 320 p.”, therefore they deal with events before the start of the 44-day war in the autumn of 2020. Therefore, they talk very little about the course of hostilities, instead the main attention is focused on the motives of the loss of the native land in Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven adjacent districts, the difficult life of refugees, longing for their homeland, national unity, conversion to the native language and culture as the basis of patriotism, unshakable faith that victory and return to their native lands are inevitable. The same motives are widespread in Ukrainian military literature of 2014–2025, with certain variations (for example, the wandering of refugees not only in the Motherland, but also abroad). Similarly, Azerbaijani and Ukrainian writers recreate the horrors of war, the bloody crimes of the invaders (Armenians and Russians in the NKAO, Russians on the territory of Ukraine).

Instead, in the works of Ukrainian literature, combat operations and everyday life, actions, thoughts, motivation of fighters in their self-sacrificing readiness to give their lives in defense of their native state, native land, culture, clan, family are much more often reproduced; much less often, but this is also mentioned in the works of Azerbaijani literature. The explanation for this is that Ukrainians have been waging continuous heavy battles for four years. Common to the writers of Azerbaijan and Ukraine are the motives of heroism, commemoration and honoring those who took up arms and stood up for the defense of their native land, the conviction that their compatriots are waging a just war.