On 25 September 2026, Baku Engineering University (BEU) hosted a scientific seminar devoted to the toponymy of territories that came under Azerbaijani control during and after the 2020 Second Karabakh War. The event, organized by the university’s Department of Azerbaijani Language and Pedagogy, was held in connection with Azerbaijan’s 27 September Remembrance Day.
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The seminar carried the title “Place names in the territories liberated from occupation are an affirmation of our history and national identity.” That formulation reflects the Azerbaijani institutional perspective presented at the event. From an onomastic point of view, however, the seminar also addressed a broader and particularly important question: how geographical names become instruments of historical memory, identity, linguistic continuity and political authority.
The meeting began with a minute of silence in memory of those who died in the 2020 war. Agasi Malikov, Vice-Rector for Science and Innovation at BEU, opened the seminar. He emphasized the importance of studying and preserving what Azerbaijani scholarship regards as the historical cultural heritage and traditional place names of the territories concerned.
Tarana Hajiyeva, Head of the Department of Azerbaijani Language and Pedagogy, then discussed the origins of geographical names and their connection with historical and cultural symbols. She stressed the importance of introducing younger generations to the historical background of local toponyms and noted the growing scholarly interest in their study.
The central academic presentation was delivered by Sevinj Aliyeva, Associate Professor at BEU and Professor of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. Her paper, “The Etymology of Place Names in the Territories Liberated from Occupation,” approached toponyms as objects situated at the intersection of linguistics, history and geography. Aliyeva also referred to naming traditions among ancient Turkic peoples and emphasized the broader cultural importance of names for individuals, communities and nations.
A major theme of the presentation was toponymic replacement. According to the BEU report, Aliyeva argued that changes made to geographical names during the period of Armenian control were intended to weaken or erase Azerbaijani historical memory. This interpretation formed part of the seminar’s wider understanding of place names as evidence of national continuity.
One of the examples discussed was Suqovuşan. In October 2020, Azerbaijan formally renamed the settlement previously officially known as Madagiz to Suqovuşan. The relevant law was signed on 6 October 2020. The BEU seminar treated the restoration of the name Suqovuşan as an important example of the recovery of historical Azerbaijani toponymy. Aliyeva also emphasized the correct pronunciation and grammatical use of geographical names according to Azerbaijani phonetic, morphological and syntactic norms.
From a wider onomastic perspective, the event illustrates how strongly toponymy and collective memory can interact in conflict and post-conflict landscapes. Place names are rarely merely geographical labels. They can preserve older linguistic layers, indicate settlement history, encode ethnic or cultural associations, and become symbols through which competing historical narratives are expressed.
This makes regions such as Karabakh particularly significant for toponymic research. A scholarly analysis of such landscapes ideally requires not only etymology, but also the comparison of historical maps, administrative records, multilingual name forms, settlement histories and successive official naming policies. Azerbaijani, Armenian, Russian and older imperial-era sources may preserve different forms of the same place name and sometimes different interpretations of its history.
The seminar at BEU therefore highlights an important contemporary role of onomastics: documenting names at moments when the linguistic landscape itself is undergoing rapid change. At the same time, the politically sensitive setting demonstrates why researchers need to distinguish carefully between documented historical forms, linguistic etymology, administrative renaming and national interpretations of those changes.
The meeting concluded with questions from participants and a broader discussion of the issues raised during the seminar.
Source
Baku Engineering University. “Toponyms of Territories Liberated from Occupation Discussed at BEU.” 25 September 2026. BEU event report
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