FAKE AND FALSIFIED TEXTS IN AZERBAIJAN PUBLICATIONS (BASED ON EXAMPLES OF LEGENDS)

Abstract

One of the key issues in the systematization of Azerbaijan legends is the study of fake texts.
In order to create a true picture of the legend fund of the Azerbaijan people, the catalog should include only traditional texts. There are a lot of fake and changed texts in Azerbaijan publications. To discover these texts, we must learn traditional plots, firstly. To get acquainted with the traditional legend plots of Azerbaijan folklore, we turned to some of the collections from the series “Karabakh - Folklore is a History” by the Institute of Folklore of ANAS, “Azerbaijan mythological texts” by A.Ajalov. There are many legends among the oral examples collected from various regions of Azerbaijan in these sources. Studying the traditional plots of these texts among publications allows us to recognize fake texts . M.Ergin's book "The motive of turning stone in Legends of the Turkic World" (volume II) is also useful in terms of familiarity with the common plots of the Turkic world.
This is because common legend plots can help us to recognize fake plots.
The main indication that the text is a product of people's consciousness is the plot. If the plot is traditional - that is, characteristic of other legends, then it exists. Last but not least, one of these criteria is an variability. Note that many of the texts we encounter in the sources do not have a variant. This means that the plots of these texts are alien to our folklore tradition. The Azerbaijan oral tradition has its own plots and there are hundreds of legends built on these traditional plots.
Fake plots do not follow our tradition, and soo these plots cannot be varied within the tradition. If the text is not in the tradition, it is fake. What is traditional plot? We can explain this issue so: traditional plots is also reflected in other texts of the tradition.