On December 1, 2016, an online-edition mediacity.ge published an Armenophobic article “Armenians’ Black November in UNESCO – Dolma has been attributed to Azerbaijani Culture”, that concerned the event of granting Georgian alphabet a world heritage status. The article says:
“Georgian is one of the 14 main writing systems in the world. In contrast, up until 2013, the webpage of the Encyclopedia Britannica referred to an Armenian public figure, Mesrop Mashtotz (sanctified by the Armenian Apostolic Church) as the creator of Georgian alphabet… Armenian scientists deliberately provided Britannica with the information about the creation of Georgian alphabet with the aim to purposefully falsify Georgian history. Unbelievable, did the historians and scientists not know that Pharnavaz I of Iberia is the creator of Georgian alphabet?!”
1. What does Britannica say about the Georgian Alphabet?
The article on Britannica about the Georgian alphabet says:
“The Old Georgian script must have been derived from the Greek alphabet. This is suggested by the order of the alphabet (which reflects the Greek sequence) and the shape of some of the characters, although the angular shape of the majority of signs of the Old Georgian script appears to be a result of a free creation of its inventor. (Atticsandmore.com) ”
2. The part that attributed the Creation of the Georgian alphabet to Mesrop Mashtotz, was removed from the Encyclopedia in 2011
In the pre-2011 version, Britannica was attributing the creation of the Georgian alphabet to the Armenian scholar, Mesrop Mashtotz. Then, a Georgian contributor of the encyclopedia, Lasha Beraia, addressed the editorial board with a letter requesting the correction of this part. The board considered the request and since 2011, Mashtotz has been referred to as the creator of only Armenian alphabet. Mediacity’s article does not indicate that the encyclopedia corrected the mistake in 2011 and argues that Britannica deliberately falsifies the Georgian history.
3. Britannica’s Editorial Policy
The editorial board of the encyclopedia includes leading specialists of the field, including laureates of the Nobel Prize and winners of the Pulitzer Prize.
“Interaction between the readers, the contributors and the editors causes revision and update of the materials, which, in turn, maintains Britannica’s standards. The changes made in the articles of the encyclopedia are available right next to the articles, so that each article’s history is transparent” – says the webpage of the encyclopedia.
Therefore, the information about Britannica deliberately falsifying the Georgian history is false.
