Armine Adibekya
Armenophobia in Azerbaijan
16. Women’s role in shaping armenophobia
Due to social and cultural peculiarities, women as mothers, educators and teachers play the main role in the process of educating generations.
In the Azerbaijani society, women have historically been the repositories of traditions who continue to cultivate values in daily and family life (but then, such picture is characteristic of all Oriental countries). The educational level, spiritual and moral potential of women as well as their educational effort determine in many respects what the future community members will look like. The shaping of the person in line with the moral code, culture, world view and code of conduct is influenced in the first place by women.
The role of the mother holds a special place in this context. The relationships between the mother and her child have a fundamental significance for human interaction. Understanding the notions of security, freedom and self-appraisal depends on how the relationship between the mother or the person acting in her lieu evolved or will evolve with their children. It is the female and maternal figure that lays the groundwork for the first attitudes, value benchmarks, preservation of traditions and their development.
In the modern world, with a wider range of duties the role of a woman extended beyond the family to cover virtually all aspects of the child’s life. As a matter of fact, children, irrespective of their sex, obtain the lion’s share of information, attitudes, stereotypes, prejudices and images through women: mothers, kindergarteners and teachers. The information is communicated to children through books read out to them, fairy tales narrated to them and songs sung to them.
In this context, the role of the woman in the society and in intersocial links can be defined as the forefront that allows envisaging the future prospects of this society as well as ideological and moral makeup of its future generations.
Akif Melikov, director of Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, Meritorious Worker of Arts: I admire the beauty and wisdom of Azerbaijani women. The Azerbaijani women are simultaneously caring mothers, devoted wives, obedient daughters as well as loved and loving sisters. The outer beauty of the Azerbaijani women is in full harmony with their internal beauty.495
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict made its adjustments in the world view and the set of values of the Azerbaijani society. The fervent zealotry and yearning to partake “in the struggle against Armenians” soared among women. More importantly, these feelings are directed against an ethnic group rather than citizens of Armenia or those who are personally responsible for purported or real human suffering.
I’d rather go to war than wait for another 20 years,” said Shafag Ismailova (34), a sniper courses trainee and refugee. “War is bad for all. But sometimes the situation demands it”.496
Inasmuch as the female role was historically confined to home and family, with women shielded from having to resolve vital issues and rarely facing the cruelty of the outside world, it is generally assumed that the woman is the embodiment of the mercy and compassion. However, at the turn of the 20th century, the stereotypes prevalent in Azerbaijan remain the same, while the philosophy of the modern Azerbaijani woman has changed.
However, at the turn of the 20th century, the stereotypes prevalent in Azerbaijan remain the same, while the philosophy of the modern Azerbaijani woman has changed.
Mahira Abdulanin: Let’s march on Karabakh…
I must cut out the eyes of the enemy,
Pull out his tongue and flay him alive.
In the ancestral lands of lions, jackals became
masters,
Let’s march on Karabakh…
Hoist this flag, hoist!
Release this owl form the pinnacle!
The enemy is leeching us and thirsts for our blood
Annihilate Armenians, annihilate!
Go and plant our tricolor flag!497
Overall, the inculcation of xenophobia dispensed from the lips of women follows a classic scenario added to the armory of the official ideology, the only difference being that its female version is more emotional in character and stands at the outset of the nascent personality.
Eluja Atali Explanation for the little Fidan: All of a sudden, little Fidan asked:…-Then, why do we call them (Armenians) ‘mundar’ (dirty, vile)? Her age of 4 years prevented me from gathering my thoughts and giving an accurate answer. Considering her age, I picked my words carefully and said:
– Look, my little one, when a person has a vile and filthy heart, this propagates all over the body through the blood. And no matter how much they wash their hands and face, they cannot get clean. You can’t wash away just any dirt with water.498
For the mother, “picking the words carefully” means a choice of terms and phrases understandable for a 4-year-old child rather than the semantic content of the answer to her question. It is important for the author that the girl learns a lifetime lesson that “Armenians are vile and filthy”.
Women exert impact on future generations through laying the groundwork for the child’s socialization and social adaptation.
Socialization is the process of learning the social roles, cultural adaptation and acquiring the skills of social interaction. This is the process of entering the society by an individual through acquired social experience, meeting social expectations, following norms and values which are in demand for a successful life in the given society.
It is in the process of socialization that personal traits, knowledge and skills formulate enabling the individual to partake in social relationships. Socialization occurs as the individual becomes spontaneously influenced by various life circumstances as well as through deliberate shaping of the individual makeup.
The spontaneous socialization covers companies of children and teenagers, the impact of various prejudiced opinions, old customs and traditions.499 The depictions of children’s games by female Azerbaijani writers Umm-El-Banine and Shabnam Kheyrulla in the early 20th and in the early 21st centuries respectively provide illustrative examples of the spontaneous socialization.
Umm-El-Banine: On holidays, we played our favorite game – the Armenian massacre. Inflamed with racism, we lost our heads and sacrificed Tamara to our enmity and hatred inherited from our ancestors. First, we hurled at her unfounded accusations of killing Tatars and relished in several rounds of executing her by shooting. We feasted our eyes upon the sight of her blood and then resurrected her again to kill her by conventional means: we bound her hands and feet together, threw her on the ground, first cut her tongue and then severed her head; to show our hatred to her Armenian body, we carved out her heart and internal organs and threw them to the dogs. After our wild rampage subsided, and there was nothing left of the poor girl’s body, we started dancing around her body waiving our wooden swords as savages. If anyone passed by, we immediately helped Tamara to her feet and with our tongues dry from fear, grabbed her hand and whirled around the garden singing children’s songs. She never dreamed of making any complaints against us because we would have called her a snitch, a traitor and dirty Armenian; besides, she would lose our company. No matter how much we insulted, humiliated and permanently killed her, she couldn’t live without our friendship.500
Shabnam Kheyrulla: One of these days, I witnessed how the kids from our neighborhood played tag in the street. I was so fascinated with the children’s game that I decided to watch. A girl of five or six, her brother one year younger and other children of about the same age were crying noisily and merrily to decide who was to run and who was to chase. After long bickering, they finally decided to assign roles using a counting-out rhyme. I was about to walk on, but this counting-out rhyme pronounced by the little girl drew my attention because of its unique and original character. It is actually the reason why I set about telling you this story:
Vay-vay, it’s cold,
Armenians are chickens,
Wherever you see an Armenian,
Put the bullet through his brain.
These words brought an involuntary smile to my lips. At the same time, it made me wonder: can it be really true that at this early age our children already understand who Armenians are, who the enemy is, and hate them? The thought was comforting, but I was still incredulous.501
Spontaneous impact may include one-time, non-recurrent emotional publications in the press, single watching of a video, etc. They have a much weaker acceleration effect, but may exert dramatic impact, especially if they can shock the child.
Deliberate socialization: this category covers special institutes of socialization, such as nurseries, kindergartens, schools (with mandatory secondary education), vocational schools, technical schools and universities. This list can be supplemented by all kinds of public organizations. “All of these serve a single goal: align a young individual to the ideal personal standard established by all societies. To a lesser or greater extent, it is always a forcible process”502
The sociologist names five principle ways of how an individual reacts to deliberate socialization: submission, renewal of environment, ritualism, escapism, and creative revolt.
Later, I asked the 4-year-old son of my elder sister a question:
– Who is an Armenian?
– A terrorist.
– Who is a terrorist?
– They kill children.
Then he came dragging a huge book entitled The Armenian Terror probably thinking that it would be easier to explain if he showed me some photographs.
– All these children were killed by Armenians, he said, it’s even on You Tube!
– How do you know all this?
– Grandma told me…503
A 5-year-old girl at school: A daughter of my friends gets ready for school and has begun attending a nursery class. After she came home today, she told her mother what they had been taught at school. The teacher gave them their third lesson.
– Armenians made us unhappy and miserable. Remember this, children. Who are our enemies? Right, Armenians. Learn this well, I will surely ask you about it during the next lesson. Armenians slaughtered our ancestors, completed her speech the 20-year-old teacher.
The girl’s mother was left dumbfounded as she was told this. I also think that this is a sad thing to happen: a 20-year old young teacher and the brain of a 5-year-old baby. Why do you need to hammer this into the head of a 5-year-old girl?
The implication of Azerbaijani schools into the state propaganda presents the perilous prospect of fostering a generation of vengeance brought up exclusively on feelings of malice and hatred, with a traumatized mind.
In 1990s, we heard rumors that Armenians whispered into the ears of their newborn children: Turks are your enemies. I don’t know if the rumor was true, but back then it made many of us feel sorry for Armenians. But as we can see, over time people increasingly resemble their enemies.
Imagine that! Telling a 5-year-old child: “Armenians made us unhappy and miserable!504
In the new Azerbaijani society with its warped set of values, children are brought up in line with the new patriotic philosophy translated into the maxim: “If you love your motherland, hate Armenians”.
The groundwork for socialization is laid in early childhood starting from the moment of forging relationships with peers, developing the perception and sense of self.
Sevinj Parvana, A Conversation in Passing:
(a rhymed story in the form of a dialog for children aged 5-12)
– Don’t cry, my little daughter. Let Armenian infants cry.
– Mummy, and where are Armenian infants?
– On the very bottom of hell.
– Why to let them cry? Shouldn’t we pity them?
– No, no pity. Let the snake bite them, if I lie.
– The infants???
…
– Mother, I want to play with Armenian children, ha…
…
– No, no… I want to play with Armenian children
– No, you can’t, my little daughter. They are far from us.
– How far? In the hell?
– Yes, in the hell.
…
– Where are the children themselves? Mother, can I play with them?
– No, my little daughter. They are bad children. We can’t go to them. They will take your toys away and break them.
– Why is that? Don’t they have their own toys?
– They do, but they will want your toys. That’s why they are so bad.
– I will give my toys to them to play. They will give them back later.
– They won’t give them back. They won’t want to. They never give back what they’ve taken.
– Then, I will not give them.
Baku, 2009505
The socialization encompasses the process of indoctrinating mindsets, precepts and dictates setting up a lifetime program.
G. Ibragimova: I’ll tell my son the whole truth without holding anything back. I’ll tell him: “Son, learn to distinguish good from bad. And remember that every nation has both good and bad people; Armenians are the only nation which doesn’t have good people, or there are too few of them. The great poet A. S. Pushkin venerated worldwide used the obscene word ‘Armenian’ whenever he disliked the person!”
And my main third covenant is the following:
“My son, listen and remember, Armenians are our deadly enemies. Don’t leave your enemy unavenged! If you meet an Armenian even in the most civilized country of the world, treat him as a creature that sucked the blood of your people! Never forgive the enemy! If you forgive, then let the bread of your motherland, your father’s blood and your mother’s milk be cursed!!!”.506
It is amazing how the author of these lines genuinely believes herself to be a conscientious and tolerant person.
<…> You call me chauvinist and accuse me of insulting the entire Armenian nation. A writer accusing an entire nation would just belittle himself/herself. A conscientious person would never venture to accuse an entire nation. All I do in my writings is to exhort the children of my people to be vigilant and to keep away from Armenians.507
The next stage of building armenophobia in Azerbaijan targets the young people and hinges on natural fears already inculcated in childhood. The main message goes along these lines: “Armenians take our places”, “they bewitch our men”, “Armenians are deformed and depraved”. In other words, this represents a classical form of demonization and dehumanization of Armenians.
Chinara Vugar: The mother who had financed Armenians in her time was now marrying off her daughter, but burst into tears in apprehension: “Heaven save us, if the fiancé finds out about it”. <…> I was horrified and wondered how many are those in Azerbaijan, whose manly blood mix with that that of dogs508<…> Ramil Safarov axed an Armenian officer.509 In the beginning, the people supported him, but then they forgot about him. When Eynulla Fatullayev510 was in prison, there were more people grieving at him than at Ramil Safarov who had killed the Armenian serf. <…> So, for example, the entire property of the former mayor of Baku Rafael Allahverdiyev went to an Armenian woman, and what is left of it will go to a daughter he sired with her, right? <…> The school subject of the Azerbaijani Language and Literature is taught by 2 teachers of Armenian descent. They say that the headmaster of the aforesaid school is also of Armenian origin, and although newspapers and the Internet contain reports of this, we can’t do anything about it. In fact, we only know that the school is being destroyed because of the headmaster’s position. Many massage parlors located near the subway station May 28 are owned by mistresses of Armenian origin. These Armenian women pull the Azerbaijani girls into depravity. <…> There is much talk about Armenian women. The daughter of an Armenian senator leads a dissolute life. The daughter of the Armenian singer Sher changed her gender, but that’s not all. Armenians who live in Azerbaijan undergo plastic operations on their noses. Plastic surgeons excise the Armenian noses and turn them into Muslims. Also, the Armenian Constitution does not prohibit prostitution. In fact, the women of this nation are prostitutes, while the men are just “good-looking”.
A special structure must be created within the Ministry of National Security to scrutinize the population for the presence of Armenian blood. For instance, the parents who want to marry their children should be able to file an inquiry with this structure to find out if their future in-laws are related to Armenians by blood. Maybe then we will be able to cleanse our blood from its mixing with the filthy Armenian blood.511
The statement of the people’s artist of Azerbaijan and Armenia, singer Zeynab Khanlarova in her commentary of the ethnically motivated gruesome murder by Ramil Safarov512 is a glaring example of dehumanization, i.e. unabashed expression of contempt and readiness to back and commit atrocities.
“He (Ramil Safarov) is a hero of not only Azerbaijan but the entire world. Monuments must be erected in his honor. Not every man is capable of accomplishing what he did. There are 2 heroes: one is Mr. Ilham Aliyev, and the other is Ramil Safarov. If I were in Ramil’s place, I would do the same. He took an Armenian’s life and rightfully did so”.513
Along all of the above, the woman’s status of a mother and a respected community member is used to marginalize all interaction with Armenians.
Nazperi Dosteliyeva, people’s artist of Azerbaijan: I can’t bring myself to call Azerbaijanis those who are in friendly correspondence with enemies who don’t know the meaning of humaneness. I don’t know who they are. But as a citizen of my country, as a mother and most importantly as a People’s Artist of Azerbaijan, I won’t forgive these people.514
Khalida Bayramova, chairman of the Commission for the Protection of Minors and Juvenile Cases of the Sabail District of Baku: Maybe, for our future piece, we must take some steps, but I’m against friendship with Armenians, because the one who betrayed once, will never become a friend, and must be clearly marked as an enemy. It is impossible to forget what Armenians did in Azerbaijan, and they, in their turn, have nothing but hostile feelings towards us. There is a notion of pathological hatred, and it seems that it is exactly the kind of hatred I feel for Armenians. For an Azerbaijani or a Turk, there can be no good Armenian. It may be wrong, but that’s what I think!515
The capacity to feel kindness and empathy, love or hatred, calm or aggression as well as many other personal traits are instilled in an individual during childhood and remain ingrained for a lifetime. In other words, the state armenophobic policy and propaganda are planted into a fertile soil tilled by armenophobia and dating back to the years of childhood.
Shirin Kerimbeyli, Ahriman516 of the Globe
Hey, Armenian, hey, cutthroat,
Devil, shaitan, tell me who are you?
The Ahriman of the globe
Hey, perfidious provocateur,
Hangman and criminal,
Isn’t the blood you spilt enough?
Isn’t the massacre over?517
17. Azerichild.info
Children acquire behavioral stereotypes in the early years of their lives, i.e. the sense of affiliation to an ethnic group is not innate but is gained through socialization.518
The shaping of the national identity conventionally occurs in three stages.
1) At the age of 6–7, a child gains his/her first knowledge, albeit fragmentary and unsystematic, of his/her ethnic affiliation. At this stage, the child’s family and immediate social environment have the utmost significance for the child rather than his/her country and ethnic group.
2) At the age of 8–9, a child already clearly identifies himself/herself with his/her state, can recognize the fundamentals of such identification (the nationality of his/her parents, the place of residence and the mother tongue); dormant national feelings surface.
3) At the age of 10–11, the national identity is fully shaped, the child knows the peculiarities of various peoples and can designate the uniqueness of their history, the specific character of their daily life, including their ethnic culture.
Over the course of his/her life any person acquires a multitude of stereotypes about other ethnic groups, nations and peoples. In the event of children, the shaping of stereotypes bears the impact of the older generation and parents as detailed in the foregoing chapter.
This fertile soil is cemented by the state propaganda at the next stage. Over time, ethnic stereotypes become so perpetuated in the mind of a child that it is extremely hard to abandon them even if there is a wish to do so and an awareness of the problem. In the events where the reference groups continue to exert pressure on the individual by planting these stereotypes, it becomes virtually impossible to get rid of them.
The individual may be under the impression that his/her views of any given ethnic group represent a personal opinion where in fact, he/she re-circulates the opinion of his/her reputed reference group (ethnic group, people). The ethnic stereotypes mostly manifest themselves on subconscious level; however, they can imperceptibly affect the self-awareness of the person. One such manifestation consists in perceiving information matching the ingrained mindset and confirming the stereotype, while rejecting everything else.
The education is one of the most efficient ways of instilling the “image of the enemy” in the public mind. The teacher is an authority in the eyes of a pupil, while the information derived from books is perceived by the children as an indisputable truth and is instantaneously assimilated without any critical analysis. The statements of the teacher become even more convincing for the children if these are not at odds with their views and stereotypes imported to school from their families, television programs, fellow peers in the courtyard, etc.
Thus, it can be claimed that children and teenagers represent the most vulnerable group most exposed to the anti-Armenian propaganda in Azerbaijan. Such state policy further exacerbates the ethno-religious, cultural and territorial conflict between the two nations.
Numerous fairy tales and children’s drawings appearing on the website of Azerichild.info project which clearly reflect the image of the Armenian enemy and virtually always portray Armenians as negative characters give an example of a product of the armenophobic propaganda among the children of Azerbaijan. The main subject of the children’s drawings is the brutal killing of the Azerbaijani children and women by the Armenian military.
Let us examine a specific example: the story entitled Armenian519 recognized by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Youth and Sports as the Story of the Year in 2008 and authored by Elkhan Zeynalli, member of the Union of Azerbaijani Writers contains 65 instances of negative depiction of Armenians manifested through the use of various clichés, such as: “blood-sucker”, “base”, “double-faced”, “kill all Armenian dogs”, “set all Armenian men on fire”, “rape all Armenian women”, “strangle the Armenian children”, “inhuman Armenians”, etc. Instead, all references to the Azerbaijanis are exclusively in the positive vein with 23 favorable epithets, such as: “forgiving”, “kind”, “respectful of parents”, “courageous”, “friendly”, “caring”, “tolerant”, etc.
This story, which arouses hostility and contains unabashed armenophobic propaganda, is incorporated into Azerbaijan’s school curriculum for home reading.
Overall, the study of about 50 literary works and 100 children’s drawings has revealed that the state indoctrination of the propaganda against Armenians occurs at an early age in Azerbaijan. Constantly recurring negative rhetoric can exert and impact even on adults, let alone on yet immature minds of children.
It is of note that such propaganda of hatred and the emotive character of the communicated information reflect the covert fears of the Azerbaijani society, with the country’s domestic situation projected onto the Armenian society. In their turn, the aggressive exhortations and labeling help cope on the verbal level with psychological problems and the inferiority complex inherited from the time of Azerbaijan’s defeat in the Karabakh war.
However, raising their children in the spirit of hatred, aggression and hostility, the authorities of Azerbaijan foster an individual who can become perilous for their own society, as in the absence of other targets for venting his/her aggression such individual will take revenge on the weak: their wives/husbands, children, old people, etc. Alcohol, drugs and suicide can also become a vent. In today’s Azerbaijan, all of these categories display a statistic spike.
Another emblematic point is that the Armenians appear on the drawings as formidable warriors brandishing weapons. This means that the image of Armenians formed in the child’s mind portrays a powerful, united and militarized enemy eliciting, as a result, fear of this image. And if in peacetime this image of Armenians helps consolidate the Azerbaijani society, in wartime, the fear of the image can become a serious problem. The Azerbaijani authorities may not realize that such propaganda thwarts the society’s natural psychological development, generates socially dangerous individuals and reduces the combat efficiency of the army.
Mariam Hakhnazaryan,holder of a master’s degree from the Chair of Social Psychology of the Yerevan State University.