Armenia celebrated the 35th anniversary of ending the Soviet occupation on September 21, 2026, marking 35 years since the historic 1991 referendum where citizens voted overwhelmingly to end Soviet rule. The his- toric referendum mandated the re-establishment of Arme- nian statehood, independence, and sovereignty. In September 1991, the Republic of Armenia returned to the international stage carrying the torch of statehood and tracing its origins back over three millennia as a sovereign state. While both Georgia and Armenia can rightfully claim a recorded civilization and culture stretching back more than 3,000 years, the Baku-centered ‘Republic of Azerbaijan’ may not feel as lucky. Coca-Cola is older than Azerbaijan. The adoption of the name “Azerbaijan” by Czarist Rus- sia is a case of stolen identity. The name is ‘borrowed’ from Iran’s historic Azerbaijan province tracing back to ancient Atropatene (in English), Atrapatakan (in Armenian). Baku-centered Seljuk/Turkic Azerbaijan Vs. Iranian Azerbaijan: A Case of reverse engineering? In their pursuit of imperial ambitions in the South Caucasus since the late 1800s and early 1900s, Czarist Russia conceived the idea of creating a Baku- centered Seljuk/Turkic ‘Azerbaijan’ to 1) keep Armenia down and 2) keep Iran out of the South Caucasus. After the fall of Czarist Russia (1917), its successor Soviet Russia continued to follow Imperial Russia’s foreign policy in South Caucasus in 1918 by imple- menting the creation of the Baku-centered Seljuk/Turkic ‘Republic of Azerbai- jan.’ After the destruction of the Soviet Empire in 1991, also called as the “Evil Empire’ by U.S. President Ronald Reagan (1981 to 1989), The Russian Federa- tion emerged only to continue the same ill-devised foreign policy of inciting ‘per- petual war’ between Baku-centered Seljuk/Turkic ‘Azerbaijan’ and indigenous Armenians of the twin republics of Armenia and Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh. Moscow has helped mastermind the 44-day anti-Armenian aggression in Artsakh by Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkiye, Pakistan and Israel in Fall 2020. Moscow’s concoction of the Baku-centered Seljuk/Turkic state’s name as ‘Azerbaijan,’ in early 1900’s would give Kremlin a major playing card against both Yerevan and Tehran. A case of reverse-engineering: Against Tehran: The Kremlin can trigger Baku’s false claims against Iran’s northern Azerbaijan region. Against Yerevan: Kremlin can encourage Baku’s false claims for lands against entire Republic of Armenia. The current “Western Azerbaijan” rhetoric is a Baku- and Moscow-backed ideological and political campaign devised to fo- ment perpetual war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Ironically, on September 21, 2026, the same day as Armenia’s Independence Day, Azerbaijan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan joint military exercises Azeri-occupied Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh, Nakhichevan and the Azerbaijani sector of the Cas- pian Sea. An official source reported: “The key objective of the exercise involving personnel, combat equipment, navy and aviation assets, as well as UAVs, is to enhance the level of readiness for joint operations, improve troop coordination and standardize training procedures, as well as develop the combat capabilities of the units…. In accordance with the relevant plan, necessary measures have been taken to accommodate the personnel and address other organizational issues.” What can Armenia and world Armenians do in order to deter the Seljuk/ Turkic military junta from carrying yet another unprovoked anti-Armenian ag- gression – this time against Armenia proper? They should actively support Armenia’s Sovereignty, Independence and De- fense. They should also empower Armenia to expedite its transformation into a gar- rison state under the motto: “Every able-bodied citizen is a ready member of Armenian defense forces.”