Armine Adibekya
Armenophobia in Azerbaijan
Foreign Policy, an American magazine, asks: “What do Azerbaijan, Estonia and Rwanda have in common? Not very much, you say? Au contraire! All three countries, it seems, have presidents who are prone to picking fights on Twitter”. “The lesson in all this for world leaders? If you’re going to pick a fight with somebody and want people to notice, you’d better do it in 140 characters at a time”, says the journal.275
Heydar Aliyev, ex-president of Azerbaijan, in his speech pronounced on October 13, 1999 in Nakhichevan said: In times of trouble, the people of Azerbaijan saw the help of Turkey and the Turkish people and is grateful for that. Particularly, in 1918–1919, during the struggle for independence under the leadership of the great Atatürk, who cleansed his land of Armenians and other enemies, the Turkish people and Turkey offered their help to Azerbaijan, to Nakhychivan.276
9. Armenophobia in the mass media
The process of intensifying anti-Armenian propaganda and planting hatred in the society must be viewed in the context of an aggression targeting the Armenian identity and the Armenian statehood.
The mass media and journalists have carved out a special niche in this process as they are on the one hand active consumers of this state propaganda and ideology, being at its forefront in dealing directly with their patrons and masterminds without any mediation unlike general public, and on the other hand, they act as the very partisans and agents who translate the propaganda and ideology into the reality.
In this context, the Azerbaijani journalism is under double pressure; after taking its fair share of hatred and aggression, it runs them through itself to pour into the masses now clad in their own judgments and vision tinged and worded as they deem fit.
With the fueling of the aggressive sentiments and incessant but empty promises of a looming showdown, the problem of venting the bottled up charge of the negative feelings still persists. Without this vent, the aggression and hatred get channeled inwards which leads to rampant crime, spiking suicide rate and other social calamities.
All of this can bring about a frustration aggression, i.e. the aggression aimed against those who become an obstacle in achieving the significant goal. And the significant goal in the modern Azerbaijani society is shifted from the primary to secondary needs; that is to say, the solution to problems related to social and living conditions, legal issues, culture and education has been ousted by armenophobia and its ensuing mission of “reclaiming Karabakh”. And until the return of Karabakh and the annihilation of Armenians,277 the age of happiness will not dawn on land of Azerbaijan.
The journalists, who unlike the general public enjoy an opportunity to express their emotions, but lack direct access to target of their hatred, displace their aggression from the frustration dimension into the verbal plane. In this way they meet the needs of their patrons (the authorities), their consumers (the people) and their own.
The blatant manifestation of the verbal aggression is the barrage of verbal abuse from the leading Azerbaijani press, which can be defined as an active direct verbal aggression278. The active direct verbal aggression is a form of an aggression that amounts to inflicting psychological damage using mostly such components of speech as insults and humiliation of another person, group or community.
It must be noted that, apart from their own analysts, the Azerbaijani mass media actively quote experts, historians and artists from both Azerbaijan and abroad; foreigners are invited to Baku and are willingly given platform for airing disparaging comments about Armenians. And the grosser and harsher the outrage, the more positive response it meets from the Azerbaijani community, civil society and power structures.
The range of free wording choices and the set of categories is quite extensive.
Commonplace insults and obscenities
If we compare all states of the world taken together with one big family, then undoubtedly, the “Great Armenia” will be reserved a role of a little freak in that family. This little freak is constantly unhappy about something and, unlike the others, keeps trying to play some dirty trick or steal something. But when requested to give back the stolen, the little freak goes off crying bitterly, screaming, howling and squealing like a pig saying that nobody loves him. What is strange, however, is that his elder brothers Ivan, Jean and John don’t even think of punishing this insufferable freak; instead, they encourage him in all ways possible, tap him on the shoulder whetting even more the voracious appetite of this grab-all. They bolster and help him with the crumbs from the master’s table. The cousin Singh could not stand aside and see the misery of the poverty-stricken little freak and gave him several hundred autobuses as a gift”.279
Only after Turkey agreed to accept them, they were simply deported from the “great Kherostan”280 and ripping them off their last money for their stay and use of the public toilet. <…> You shouldn’t attack Azerbaijan and Ramil Safarov like a jackal. It is not up to you to evaluate our actions; you need brains for that and not the “basturma of Ejmiatsin.281
Hey, base enemy! Rest assured that we will take not only Karabakh, but the entire Iryavan; this is our supreme goal. We will wipe off the face of the earth you and your fake state. Our patience is exhausted. Each day, we’ll save the world from hundreds of Armenians. Don’t count on your ‘uncle’ [Sam], ‘bear’ [Russia] or your ‘wenches’; it’s too late now, we’ve given you enough time to get the hell out of our lands. Hey, worthless ones! Rest assured our glorious flag will fly over our land once again before the doomsday. Let nobody forget the price in blood we have paid defending our Homeland! We will fight until there are no more Armenians on the face of the earth!282
Comparison of Armenians with plant and animal species or microorganisms
The Armeniandom is like a variety of flu. There is the swine flu, and there is the Armenian flue. Indeed, why there should be no ‘true Armenian flu’, if there is the Armenian vacuum cleaner, Armenian corn or Armenian coat? All would have been fine, if this contagion had not turned into an epidemic which must be fiercely fought off. We started by comparing Armenians with a contagion for a reason. I have repeatedly written that killing this virus is possible only by understanding its nature, becoming immune to it and destroying it without mercy”.283
It is known that the jackal is a quite timid animal, which, though, stands out as a sly and cheeky beast feeding on scraps, stealing occasionally poultry and scavenging the fields. Jackal is a typical rubbish animal, the carrier of infection and parasite and in the Orient, it is associated with petty flattery, sycophancy and bootlicking. It is also the embodiment of cowardice and meanness. In these countries, the word ‘jackal’ or the ‘son of jackal’ are gross insults. Doesn’t the description of this animal look familiar? You are right; this is a one-to-one description that matches the lifestyle and behavior of Armenians. Just like Armenians, the jackals are cowardly, base, cheeky and crafty. It unwittingly occurs to one who observes their behavior that in late 19th century that the image of Kipling’s Tabaqui was fashioned to mimic Armenians who had settled down in the Southern Caucasus only recently.284
Ascribing certain collective qualities, such as “Armenian baseness”, “Armenian perfidy”, “Armenian thievery”, “Armenian cowardice”, “Armenians are an inferior race”, etc.
And therefore, knowing well the Armenian treachery and perfidy, their natural penchant for betraying their friends and allies, once have been deposed from their high places, it can be warranted right now that after this December Mr. Zatulin, so accustomed to ‘Armenian hospitality’, will see for himself the seamy side of the mean and petty Armenian soul. But that will happen later, and for now Konstantin Fyodorovich is a welcome guest of the Karabakh separatists.285
However, the long absence of state-building skills of Armenians, their filthy habit of stealing culture, history and lands of their neighboring nations ultimately turned into calamities for the Armenian people itself which have walked a huge way from Balkans, Mediterranean and Asia Minor to the Caucasus. Their incapacity or unwillingness to build normal relationships with their neighbors or their perfidious treachery is the reason underlying their woes and the endless nomadic lifestyle of the Armenian ethnos.286
Deceit, perfidy, sycophancy, cowardice, savagery, barbarism, immorality and stabbing in the back are the main symptoms of the ‘Armenian disease’. Necrophilia extensively permeates the thinking of the Armenian writers who are contaminated with this disease.287
But, my dear, I beg your pardon, here we speak about the Ukrainian people whose honor and dignity have never been doubted by anybody. And with Armenians, what honor or dignity is there to speak of? As early as in the 19th century, the great Russian poet Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin could see through the nature of Armenians and wrote in his poem Tazit the famous: “You are coward, you are slave, you are Armenian!” <…> However, the Armenian insolence and arrogance go quite comfortably hand in hand with their innate envy.288
The great Bernard Shaw once said: Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated”. There is a reason for recalling this maxim; it explains most precisely the cause underlying the hatred that Armenians felt, feel and will continue to feel towards the representatives of the Jewish people. This is indeed a marked case of the coward’s revenge. It is petty, dirty and cheap, in the spirit of the global Armeniandom ideology that hands down this base sentiment from generation to generation nurturing and cherishing it.289
How correct was the wording chosen by the president Ilham Aliyev when he labeled this stateless pack as SAVAGES! Only the gang of landless hayish290 savages291 is capable of killing children! It is not true that savages don’t have any nationality. All they do; it is the Armenian nationality!292
Disparaging comments about Armenian women
In Armenia, Anais was revered as the goddess of prostitution293 whose temple was reminiscent of the temple of Mylitta in Babylon. The temple was surrounded by vast fields behind high walls housing women who had devoted themselves to this goddess. Only foreigners were allowed into the place. Priests and priestesses of the temple were chosen from among male and female representatives of the most noble and aristocratic families of the country, and the term of their service to the goddess was always set by their family. After leaving the temple, the women left there all their earnings and were successfully married off, with their future husbands inquiring at the temple about their behavior. The girl that had been visited by the greatest number of foreigners was the most desired bride”, says the book. This work by Cesare Lombroso gives an insight into the origins of the Armenian code of honor.294
Incidentally, knowing the lewdness of the Armenian fair sex and their morbid taste for the stronger sex of the Azerbaijani people, it is not hard to guess what kind of exam was held for the female applicant by her future boss.295
Depraved and ill-mannered women can be found in any nation. However, the depravity of the Armenian women, representatives of the oldest profession, is known worldwide. In fact, I’m not the only one who says so. For instance, Vasili Velichko, a famous Russian historian, wrote: “Armenian women have always been in relationships with other nations, even if it was sometimes by force and coercion…” <…> The Armenian Constitution does not proscribe prostitution. Actually, the women of this nation are prostitutes, while the men are just “good-looking.296
Another important point that Armenians didn’t notice (or chose not to notice) is that nobody asked the question why Hrachya Harutyunyan was wearing a bright-colored female dressing gown in his hospital room? Is it possible that they could not find a piece of men’s clothes? Or maybe he likes to change into ladies’ wear? But most probably, that is the national garment of Armenians. That is how their women dress up to meet the clients, while their husbands toil by the sweat of their brow in Russia, and the same gown is worn by men as they are dragged around to appear before courts…297
Personal insults against individual ethnic Armenians, their family members, ancestors, friends and colleagues
Unfortunately, this scumbag, the killer of Azerbaijanis and the raper of Armenian girls of Karabakh is still at large. It is amazing, but even knowing Babayan’s service record, Armenians continue to consider him a hero and celebrate the birthday of this bastard with great pomp and circumstance. It appears that his merits for banishing the Azerbaijani population of Karabakh outweigh the outraged honor of Armenian girls. Well, like nation, like its heroes. Happy Birthday, Samvel Andranikovich!298
Insults against non-Armenians who hold a purported anti-Azerbaijani position
We would like to touch upon an area that our country is not allowed to approach within a gunshot. Of course, you must have guessed that I refer to the foreign television or more precisely, the Russian television. And even not its portion responsible for broadcasting individual television materials, i.e. its editorial staff, where the Armenian names can be seen with the naked eye as octopus tentacles, but the television competitions, and particularly television song contests.299
The fact is that this woman (Caroline Cox) received money from the Armenian lobby and has been constantly engaged in destructive activities for many years, without anybody in the world being able to resist it.300
Novruz Mammadov: Various printed media have repeatedly highlighted the fact that Kazimirov who was the co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group in 1992–1996, is experiencing problems with reason and logic. <…> Why, these qualities have accompanied him since the years of his youth. However, recently, the senile dementia that hit this retired diplomat at his advanced age was joined by the political schizophrenia. <…> Well aware that Kazimirov would do anything for money, his Armenian accomplices, who enforce the terms of their deal, became so excited that they propagate their spoon-fed ideas across a variety of articles.<…> This shows, that not only Kazimirov has morbid thinking, but also those who write in his lieu according to their deal. <…> Exactly for 20 years now, Kazimirov has acted as a hireling of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia in Russia. Such diplomats cannot understand (because of their palsied mind) that actually, they create big problems for Russia. Kazimirov is one of those guilty of the biggest catastrophes of the 20th century. At this advanced age, he may just as well take pride in his schizophrenia. He must sense to live the last days of his life. Kazimirov feels it incumbent upon him in terms of his contract to release all stench, filth and malicious intent that he has accumulated over years. He doesn’t say anything on his own. Why, he cannot speak properly and therefore, has given his consent that his Armenian friends write just anything with his reference. This old fogy who has been serving Armenians since 1992 (and who has trampled underfoot the honor and dignity of a diplomat) know no limits. <…> Kazimirov, in any case, you know yourself well. You know that you are very insignificant with all that malice of yours. <…> Actually, your life is not worth a fig301.302
Here, we deal with a large-scale use of hate speech defined as a form of self-expression that includes disseminating, inciting, promoting or justifying racial hatred, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and other kinds of hatred based on intolerance, including intolerance in the form of aggressive nationalism or ethnocentrism, discrimination or hostility in respect of minorities, migrants or persons with emigrant background.
Hate speech is an umbrella term generally used to include all verbal forms of expressing a pronounced negative attitude of “opponents” who have a different set of religious, national, cultural or more specific subcultural values. This phenomenon may manifest itself by taking the form of racism, xenophobia, interethnic enmity and intolerance <…>. Besides, in individual cases, it may amount to a lacking culture of debate.303
Three types of hate speech can be isolated in the Azerbaijani mass media.
Deliberate emphasizing of the protagonist’s ethnicity, Armenians surrounding him/her or suspicions to such effect
Armenians steal everywhere, even overseas in America! Two Armenians were apprehended in the Californian city of Burbank, with one of the two being a teenager and probably following an internship in thievery from a senior colleague. And there are tens of thousands more standing in line and waiting eagerly for their move to the blessed States from the starving Armenia. So, watch out, America! Armenians are talented people, and they know how to steal.304
A loud heading or announcement that not only fails to reflect the content of the article but also contains an obligatory insult or inappropriate statement about Armenians
Hatred is ingrained in Armenians’ character. It is limitless;305
Perfidious plan of the occupying forces;306
Another mean trick of Armenians on the eve of January 20;307
At the PACE session, Armenia had to pose as a defenseless damsel in distress;308
Another base act of Armenians condoned by the organizers of the exhibition.309
Juggling with statistic data, rounding off and inflating figures, scales and statistics to exacerbate the negative attitude towards Armenians
Myth on a million of refugees
Ilham Aliyev: The number of displaced persons keeps growing. If in 1992, their number comprised 1 million persons, now their number comprises 1 million 100 thousand or probably even reaching as much as 1 million 200 thousand persons.310
Ilham Aliyev: It is known that as a result of the Armenian aggression, 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands were occupied, which led to over 1 million people becoming refugees and displaced persons and living in very harsh conditions: in tent camps and other places not fit for living.311
Arif Yunusov: On February 1, 1990, the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan officially registered 207.5 thousands of refugees in the republic flowing into Azerbaijan from Armenia and about 48 thousand Meskhetian Turks. Later, a portion of these refugees from Armenia and Uzbekistan moved to Russia, but, at any rate, the number of refugees in Azerbaijan from Armenia and Uzbekistan always fluctuated between 210 and 230 thousand persons. <…> In early 1994, the government of Azerbaijan declared that the country had over 1 million refugees and displaced persons. Later, the situation in Azerbaijan became a bit more stable, and on April 1, 1998, the country’s authorities reported the registration of about 233 thousand refugees from Armenia and Uzbekistan and 611 thousand displaced persons. Thus, according to official sources, a total of 844 thousand refugees and displaced persons were registered in Azerbaijan comprising about 11 % of its population. However, according to UNHCR and IOM, the number of refugees and displaced persons in Azerbaijan comprises 782 thousand. These figures are close to the truth and are equally backed up by independent experts who believe that the number of refugees and displaced persons in Azerbaijan comprises 750 thousand or 9 % of its population.312
It must be noted that Arif Yunusov, too, is far from the real figure overstating it only by 50 %, while the official Baku doubled it. According to Leonard Petrosyan, the interim president of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, dating back to 1997, the number of refugees and displaced persons comprised 583 thousand.313
In 1988-89, 168 thousand Azerbaijanis left Armenia during 8-10 months following the Armenians pogroms of Sumgait and the forced banishment of over 350 thousand Armenians from the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan. The former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was abandoned during the hostilities of 1991-92 by virtually its entire Azerbaijani population of 40.6 thousand persons or 21.5 percent of its total population (according to the 1989 census).
It must be noted that Azerbaijan deliberately overstates the number of Azerbaijani population of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast mentioning “60 thousand Azerbaijanis” or “one third of the population”. The Azerbaijani population of Shahumian region remained in their houses in all 4 Azerbaijani villages perched along the borders of the region in its northern and eastern parts. <…> According to the above Azerbaijani sources, the population of 7 regions fully or partially occupied by the Defense Army of Nagorno-Karabakh comprised 483.9 thousand persons in 1989.
Considering that the regions of Aghdam and Fizuli have been but partially occupied, the total number of displaced persons who had to leave the said regions made approximately 420 thousand persons, of which 45 thousand returned to their homes in 1997, according to Azerbaijani sources.
Thus, only 375 thousand persons of the total population of these 7 regions are displaced persons and refugees. So, the total number of Azerbaijani refugees and displaced persons in the Republic of Azerbaijan adds up from the above figures with refugees from Armenia (168 thousand persons, as noted above, swapped their houses and received compensation and, therefore, can be considered refugees only if we stretch the definition) and from Nagorno-Karabakh (40 thousand persons) to be factored in. Hence, the number of refugees and displaced persons moving to Azerbaijan as a result of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict comprises 583 thousands persons which amounts to 7.9 percent of the population of the Republic of Azerbaijan as declared by Azerbaijani official sources.
Myth on the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory
Ramiz Mehdiyev: Armenia, which disregards these factors, committed an unabashed act of military aggression pulling Azerbaijan into a military conflict and occupying 20 percent of its territories.314
In fact, during the hostilities the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army established full control over 5 regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan: Lachin – 1835 sq. km, Kalbajar – 1936 sq. km, Qubadli – 802 sq. km, Zangilan – 707 sq. km and Jebrayil – 1050 sq. km, and partially the regions of Agdam and Fizuli – approximately 30 percent (383 sq. km and 347 sq. km, respectively).<…> The total territory controlled by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic equals 7059 sq. km which comprises 8 percent of the territory of the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, i. e. 2.5 times less than 20 percent endlessly claimed by the leadership and representatives of Azerbaijan deliberately misleading the international community and the global public opinion.315
It must be emphasized that even if we factor in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, the total area of the territories of the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan not controlled by Baku equals 11,309 sq. km which comprises 13.05 percent.
S. Kara-Murza explains quite accurately the reasons for juggling the figures: “The magical power of suggestion held by the figure is such that if a person has accepted any absurd quantitative allegation, it becomes almost impossible to oust it using not only logic, but also by other quantitative arguments. Figure has the quality of sticking irreversibly in the m i nd”.316
Shifting the focus from domestic problems to an aggressive rhetoric and outrage against Armenians
Our children look at other houses and see that other people live well and they feel ashamed,” says Jamila, returning. Write that it is the damned Armenians who are to blame for this.317
Encyclopedia Britannica qualifies as racist the conviction that racial characteristics have a decisive impact on capacities, intellect, morality and behavioral patterns or traits of an individual, rather than a community or social group.
But since we brought up the subject of culture, we won’t waste the time of our readers by describing the filth, unscrupulousness, greed, cowardice, baseness, treachery, cruelty, envy, cynicism and all the abomination that fills the inner world of Armenians.318
The verbal aggression is considered to be good manners in today’s Azerbaijan, despite the fact that all of the above apart from contradicting the professional ethics is a violation of the Azerbaijani legislation and falls under Article 148 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.319
Article 148. Insult
148.1. The insult, deliberate humiliation of honor and dignity of a person, expressed in the indecent form in the public statement, publicly or in mass media shown product – is punished by fine of three hundred up to one thousand of the nominal financial unit, or by public works for the term of up to two hundred forty hours, or by corrective work for the term of up to one year, or imprisonment for the term of up to six months.