Armenophobia in Azerbaijan

In this case, the same mechanisms are employed as in cases described above, the only difference being that outrage targets other Azerbaijanis who have broken the taboo and contacted Armenians. The mildest punishment for doing so comes down to rejection and calls to boycott the culprit. The worst case scenario may go as far as a questioning by the representatives of security services or even an arrest.

Ilhama Guliyeva, khanende Alibaba Mammadov and Arif Babayev, People’s Artists of Azerbaijan

condemned a young Azerbaijani singer who performed a mugham accompanied by an Armenian band of Armen Alexanyan in one of Moscow restaurants.

Arif Babayev, People’s Artist, presidential scholarship holder: This is very, very bad. As if it were not enough that they are stealing our national music, this incident is just too much. I personally would never perform with Armenians.

Ilhama Guliyeva, People’s Artist of Azerbaijan: I do not even want to discuss this matter. We must first find out what this is young girl’s ethnicity and why she committed such a deed. In general, I consider it to be a disgraceful fact for an Azerbaijani.

The social networks saw an onslaught of a harassment campaign against the Meritorious Artist of Azerbaijan Aybeniz Hashimova and her daughter Aynishan Guliyeva. Aynishan, whose father was killed in Karabakh war, represented Azerbaijan at Slavianski Bazaar-2011 song contest. As reported by the website Fаktxeber.соm, some information about Aynishan befriending Armenia’s representative Narek Margaryan surfaced on the Facebook network.

“She and her mother have even had themselves photographed with an Armenian. How can a shahid’s daughter who represents Azerbaijan befriend an Armenian?” says the website airing its indignation and reminding its readership that “it must be never forgotten that Armenians are the eternal enemies of Azerbaijanis”.

A famous singer Tajir Shahmalioglu (Tасir Şаhmаlıоğlu) from the group Nightingales of Karabakh (Qаrаbаg Bulbulleri) became target of public verbal abuse and condemnation after the appearance of a music video where he sang a dual with an Armenian singer (who, as it transpired, was a Yezidi from Armenia, while Tajir himself is a Kurd)

in one of the Moscow restaurants.

As a result, he was forced to justify himself and reiterate his aversion to Armenians in the press.

<…> Tajir noted that he did not accept it when Azerbaijani singers performed together with Armenians: “This is just not right. About a year ago, I got a call from Moscow.

It was an Armenian. He told me that they were my fans and offered me a fee of 50 thousand dollars for singing at a wedding. I turned him down and said that I didn’t need his 50 thousand dollars, which I would receive for singing at an Armenian wedding. No matter if it is 100 thousand or 1 million, for me, it equals a penny. Up to this day, when I see images of shahids on TV, I can’t hold back my tears. If my elders deem it necessary in the future, I am ready to go into battle with an assault rifle on my shoulder. And I will give away my life for Azerbaijan”.

Target III. Marginalization of third persons who have contacts in both communities

This category covers singers, actors, political figures, writers and public figures at international or regional levels.

It must be noted that the Azerbaijani side keeps a very close and intent track of all references to Azerbaijan and Armenia on behalf of third persons and reacts sharply to any perceived tilting of the balance. A slightest slant in favor of Armenia is viewed at the western coast of the Caspian Sea as a mortification unleashing an instant response.

Apart from the well-known and repeatedly employed influencing techniques aimed at the domestic audience, other methods efficient in the given community are employed to discredit and marginalize the culprit going as far as to use fictitious evidence.

This happened, for instance, with the Iranian singer Googoosh who was caught singing a song in Armenian (the 60-year-old singer purportedly had an Armenian lover).

The Azerbaijani website Day.Az: We could unearth sensational details about the singer’s decision. These details were communicated by Mr. Salman Pishnamaz, an Iranian national and native of Tabriz, who organizes the tours of Iranian artists in Azerbaijan. “For 2 years, I have been negotiating with her over her tours in Azerbaijan, but she procrastinated all the time. Then I discovered the reason. It became known that her Armenian boyfriend didn’t allow her to go on tour if he couldn’t go with her. And so he said: “She is not going anywhere without me!” fully aware that I cannot invite him to Azerbaijan. Moreover, she preferred to go with him to Armenia. So Googoosh’s Armenian boyfriend didn’t allow her to visit your country”, told S. Pishnamaz in his interview to Day. Az.

The Azerbaijani website 1news.az: A video has surfaced on the web which shows the famous Iranian singer Googoosh performing an Armenian song Zepyur Kdarnam. The Azerbaijani singer Yaqub Zurufcu declared that he severed all communication with Googoosh: “Now, she is of no interest to me. After this video appeared, we stopped talking. Today, her coming to Azerbaijan is out of the question.

The Azerbaijani website Azeritоdаy.соm: To be honest, we must think twice whether we need the coming to Azerbaijan of a singer who disregards the fact that Azerbaijan is at war with Armenia and who has continued up to recent years to perform Azerbaijani songs in Armenian.

Target IV. Countries and their services and goods boycotted by Azerbaijan for their cooperation with Armenians, with Armenia or for a disloyal attitude toward Azerbaijan

Recently, after the French Parliament passed a law criminalizing the negation of the so-called Armenian Genocide, one of popular Azerbaijani radio stations proudly announced that it was about to “stop the broadcasting” of all French songs. In addition, it informed that at the time of signing Armenian-Turkish protocols in Zurich, it had temporarily refrained from airing Turkish songs.

In 2010, the broadcasting of TV channel Mir was stopped in Azerbaijan because the channel was airing a program entitled “Independence Day: Armenia”. The Azerbaijani cable television KA TV 1 notified its subscribers in Azerbaijan that the rebroadcasting of Mir TV channel on September 21 would be temporarily stopped between 4:05-4:25 p.m. by Baku time.

The Russian website NR2.ru: The Netherlands company Kales Airline Services, which is a partner of Azerbaijan Hava Yollari (Azerbaijani airlines), was forced under the pressure from Baku to fire its ticket sales agent Mary Sargsyan only because she was Armenian.

The Azerbaijani website ANS-Press: The online air ticket booking service OneTwоTrip started operating in May 2011 and can draw on a network of over 500 airline companies. The founders are Peter Kutis and Hovhannes Poghosyan. <…> It must be noted that there is a confirmed record of various Armenian products finding their way to the market of Azerbaijan. Thus, there have been repeated incidents of various victuals produced in Armenia (butter, coffee, etc.) appearing in our shops from unknown sources. Recently, there have been increasingly numerous cases of Armenian products permeating the Azerbaijani market. Competent authorities must tighten their control procedures to prevent similar cases in the future.

The Azerbaijani website 1news.az: The research has revealed that 100 % of surveyed Azerbaijanis answered ‘No’ to the question of whether airline companies operating on the territory of Azerbaijan were entitled to sell tickets for their flights through companies belonging in whole or in part to Armenians.

100 % of the surveyed answered ‘Yes’ to the question of whether the airline companies operating on the territory of Azerbaijan and selling tickets for their flights through companies belonging in whole or in part to Armenians must be punished in some way.

The success of such campaigns is achieved through their impact on an essential component of all human needs – the need to be a part of the community. The notions of patriotism, affiliation with an ethnic or social group (you are not Azerbaijani) are exploited, and people are intimidated with scary stories from remote and not so remote past (“all Armenians donated money to Krunk; they ripped open pregnant women; a nurse in the maternity hospital squeezed the testicles of new-born Azerbaijani boys” etc.)

Here, the help of people who are highly reputed and respected in a given community is enlisted, so as they showcase by their own personal example the righteous line of conduct from the perspective of the dominating ideology. The fear of being ostracized and castigated, along with the existence of an external devious foe, firmly cements the self-awareness and bears fruit.

The positive reference ban can be conventionally divided into three types:

The first type of the ban on positive reference to Armenians consists in excising all depictions (films, literary works or TV programs) that contain a reference to Armenians in the positive sense or which portray Armenia’s achievements; this ban also extends to engaging in joint projects with Armenians.

After the motion picture In a Southern Town, another film by Azerbaijan’s people’s artist, director Eldar Guliyev went under ban. We refer to the motion picture Hostage in which an Armenian is portrayed as a positive character. According to the film’s plot, an Azerbaijani named Karim becomes a prisoner of Armenia during the Karabakh war. To swap him for another prisoner, the villagers decide to give Karim’s wife an Armenian hostage. Over time, she comes to discover the positive traits of the Armenian man.

After the information on the involvement of Azerbaijanis from Georgia in the shooting of an Armenian film entitled “Open Door” surfaced on the web, the information agency of Azerbaijan turned for commentary to Zumrud Gurbanli who is one of the leaders of Gheyrat movement for Georgia-based Azerbaijanis and who stated that “no Azerbaijani living in Georgia would ever agree to appear in a film shot by Armenians”.

The second type of bans consists in stripping the culprit of any chance to pursue a professional activity and firing the person routinely by own wish or on the demands of the staff (the people). The charges of superfluous feelings of sympathy towards Armenians become a sufficient ground to spell doom for the accused.

The journalist Asef Guliyev was fired for his participation in an international conference on Freedom of Information in Caucasus held in Armenia on July 11–14, 2010. Immediately upon his return from Yerevan, the journalist was offered to quit of his own accord. However, he refused to do so. In addition, Guliyev emphasized that he did not represent public television at the conference, but took the trip while he was on vacation.

On the initiative of the PACE rapporteur on the South Caucasus, Leo Platvoet, and the Chairperson of the delegation of the European Parliament to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, Marie Anne Isler Béguin, a concert by the Caucasian chamber orchestra was given on PACE premises in 2007. The orchestra was directed by conductor Uwe Berkemer (Germany). The organizers’ artistic intent for the concert was that musicians from three countries of the Southern Caucasus showed the harmony needed by the nations of the region. However, the authorities of Azerbaijan forbade Azerbaijani musicians to participate in the concert. Then, the musicians from Armenia and Georgia also played the works of Azerbaijani composers to support their fellow musicians.

Rovshan Nasirli: On August 12, I was summoned to the Ministry of National Security and questioned why I had voted for the representatives of Armenia. I was accused of not being patriotic because Armenia occupied territory belonging to Azerbaijan. <…> The representatives of special services had the names and telephone numbers of 43 persons who had voted for the Armenian duo whose song ‘Jan Jan’ had ranked tenth in final of the Eurovision song contest held in Moscow in May of this year. <…> If it’s about a war, why then the officials of Azerbaijan, for example, Polad Bülbüloğlu, the ambassador to Russia, as well as members of the parliament visit Armenia?

The third type of bans concerns in the first place reputed and influential persons taking the form of obstruction, defamation and public vilification in the press and may go as far as to include an entry ban or even threats of arrest.

In 2012, a group of staff members from the Azerbaijan Theater of Young Spectators filed a request with the Ministry of Culture to fire the “mercenary” artistic director Jannat Salimova on the ground that she was a “Zionist and armenophile”.

A. Idrisoglu: “J. Salimova must be released from her position”. <…> “She only engages in staging classical works without giving us a chance to stage the topical works of modern authors”. <…> “In her performances, she discredits the people of Azerbaijan”.

N. Kyazimov: With her mixed Jewish and Lezgin ethnicity, she treats us, the staff of the theater, as a stepmother. Moreover, in a dispute with a staff member of the theater, she declared: “I love the Jewish people and I want that everybody knows that I have utmost love for the great Armenian people and I bow my head before them”. Though she renounces these words, but facts remain. I think that she must be dismissed, as a person like her has no right to work with our children.

The case of Rustam Ibragimbekov, in whom the existing system discerned a threat, is quite emblematic. Here, a familiar arsenal of epithets is at play, such as: “Armenian servant”, “armenophile” and other similar abuse.

Yeni Azerbaijan: Rustam Ibragimbekov is ill-mannered, immoral and armenophile. <…> His invitation of the film director Roman Balayan and a certain Rudik Ovanesov who worked in one of Azerbaijan’s Ministries in the soviet times to take part in the Serq-Qerb (East-West) festival in Baku at the expense of the organizers is quoted as evidence of his sympathies towards Armenians.

Niyameddin Ordukhanli, Deputy Chairman of the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party for political matters: Ibragimbekov directly serves the interests of Armenia and Russia.

Ibragimbekov was not allowed to enter Baku. At Heydar Aliyev Airport of Baku, after an hour-long detention by the border service, one of the border guards said to the dramatist as he returned him his passport: “We don’t recognize you just as you don’t recognize our supreme commander-in-chief (i.e. the President of Azerbaijan)”. To this, Ibragimbekov replied: “I have never said that I do not recognize him. I said that if he did not recognize me, then I would not recognize him”. Ibragimbekov also pointed out to the border guard: “If you do not recognize me, then I will not recognize you”.

Ali Ahmedov, executive secretary of the ruling party Yeni Azerbaijan (YAP): Every citizen of Azerbaijan must loathe the approach, thinking and ideology of Rustam Ibragimbekov”, said the deputy chairman in his statement to the journalists on Wednesday. – “Rustam Ibragimbekov, who considers himself an Azerbaijani intellectual, doubts that Karabakh is an Azerbaijani land. I believe that this inflicts a severe damage to the national interests of Azerbaijan.

Frequently, authorities invoke contacts with Armenians and alleged armenophile feelings against their political opponents in a preemptive strike or in the hope that this may discredit them to the extent of wrecking their career.

Siyavush Novruzov, Member of Parliament, deputy executive secretary of the ruling party Yeni Azerbaijan: This comes to prove once again that Ali Karimli and his clique are ready to be in league with the devil himself to come to power. <…> We have seen this repeatedly. At one time, the people of Ali Karimli even negotiated with Armenians in Georgia and received money from them. And now as elections draw near in Azerbaijan, we have seen how these people together with Armenians act against successful initiatives and reforms implemented in the country as well as against those who serve their motherland. They are ready to cooperate with Armenians only to grab some place in the power structure of Azerbaijan.

Fazail Agamali, chairman of the political party Ana Vatan, Member of Parliament: I wouldn’t like to specify any names yet, but I have every reason to say that a number of opposition parties of Azerbaijan are funded from sources closely related to Armenia. <…> I have been talking about the Armenian funding of opposition parties for over a year. <…> Non-governmental organizations can also be used for funding purposes”. <…> “He is confident that political parties which accept this assistance fall under the influence of Armenians”, reports Zerkalo newspaper.

The Azerbaijani website Hurriyyet.net: The information spread through social networks concerning the commander-in-chief of the general staff of the Azerbaijani armed forces, General Najmaddin Sadikhov and his close relative or, more precisely, the son of his uncle by his paternal side who is a serviceman in the Russian military base № 102 stationed in Gyumri (Armenia) has become widely known. It is reported that N. Sadikhov maintains contacts with his cousin who is a colonel on the said military base and meets him at least once a month on the territory of Dagestan. It is of note that despite the fact that this information has been around for quite a while, neither competent law enforcement authorities nor independent military experts voiced their position. This fact itself constituting a very tangible threat to the security of the country should have long come under a thorough scrutiny. However, for some reasons known to all, considering the high rank and standing of the person in question in the country, competent authorities keep their silence. <…>. Abusing his close ties with the leadership of the country, he achieved a position where nobody can point a finger at him and alert to what is obvious. We believe that there will be time when N. Sadikhov will be called to answer for all his deeds, and that day is near.