Armenophobia in Azerbaijan

At the PACE session, Armenia had to pose as a defenseless damsel in distress;

Another base act of Armenians condoned by the organizers of the exhibition.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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.

10. Dehumanization and demonization of Armenians

The “enemy” appears as a visitant form the “antiworld”, an alien inverted space, and is portrayed as a being of “demonic” origin, knave or rogue.

Amrali Ismailov: Armenians are the only nation on earth whose conscience and body retained the traces of curses hundreds and thousands year old, branded forever with abominable traits.

Arlene Audergon in her book The War Hotel: Psychological Dynamics in Violent Conflict

gives this definition of terror tactics: “Dehumanization is a widely used tactics which consists in depicting a person or a group of persons as vermin to be destroyed”.

“Dehumanization is a language of threats and violence.

It makes the human being less sensitive and more imperturbable, apathetic and indifferent; it facilitates the killing and makes it look legitimate”.

The tactic of dehumanization subdues humanity, sensitivity, sympathy and receptivity to events.

In this setting, people may actively pour scorn upon the dehumanized group and show willingness to commit atrocities against it.

The demonization, in its turn, stokes up the society’s fear of the unknown.

Demonization of the image is an instrument of propaganda used to shape public opinion and create deeply ingrained stereotypes about a person, group, state ideology or a concept.

The political dictionary defines the concept of demonization as portrayal of the subject as a being apt by its nature for immoral and antisocial behavior possessing some supernatural and sometimes magical powers to carry out its immoral role and appearing as a source of perils and troubles for others as well as inciting them to engage in an immoral conduct.

The demonization suggests and lays down the response to one of the eternal questions: who is to blame? In a society ruled by an elite internally bound by mutual and collective responsibility and protection, the notions of demonizing and giving somebody away have become all but synonyms.

It significantly facilitates removing from the agenda the ‘What to do?’ question and makes it possible to abdicate all responsibility for the situation at hand.

It is common to view the demonization as a weapon of both political and ideological strife between opponents. However, there are many factors attesting to the fact that it is used to mask the real problem, a red herring to divert attention, and betrays an internal lack of confidence and fear, primarily in respect of the inner circle, whose ire needs to be channeled away elsewhere against an “alien” foe, so as to retain their loyalty.

Seeking to apportion blame externally is typical of vulnerable groups who are not willing to face the problem and refute their personal role in causing it to happen.

Strictly speaking, it is an instrument of creating a climate of fear where people are demonized based on a specific characteristic: ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, physical capacity, etc. Its main goal is to plant fear, breed and fuel hatred and disdain for a specific category of persons; it also seeks to convince others that those who possess a specific set of traits that embody evil must be punished.

Demonization is intentional and deliberate shaping of a negative image based on cultivation of myths with injections of ‘real’ details (personal experience, reference to a first-hand account from a third person, description of details, indication of names, etc.).

This practice was widely used in Nazi Germany for the development of the racial theory. In Azerbaijan, the shaping of the Armenian image has been analogous with the infamous notions on the Jewish people.

A German children’s book dated 1936: Devil is the father of Jews. When God created the world, he created races: Indians, Negroes, Chinese, as well as vicious creatures called the Jews.

Azerbaijani children’s book dated 2011: <…> a futureless nation with а dead morality, with a mixture of rubbish and waste flowing in their veins, a spiteful and despicable nation <…>. This restless nation, with the satanic blood running in their veins, has committed against us countless acts of terror.

The recent decades spawned a panoply of writers, public and political figures, painters and journalists whose activities serve to demonize Armenians.

Here, several reasons can be isolated for using the instrument of demonization for instilling armenophobia.

There are several genres for demonizing Armenians:

“Confessions of Armenians themselves”. These are letters, diaries and literary works by fictitious persons describing the “atrocities”, containing confessions and revealing mechanisms of “anti-Azerbaijani” deeds:

Extracts from the book by Daud Heyriyan: <…> By the time Khachatur and I entered the basement where they kept them, our soldiers had already nailed the child’s elbows to the window frame. <…> Khachatur shoved into his mouth the severed breast of his dead mother. Next, I did to the 13-year-old Turk what his ancestors had done to our children. I scalped him and flayed his chest and belly. In the evening, we did the same to another three of the Turkic spawn. <…> On the next day, we went to church and prayed for those who fell in 1915 asking to cleanse our souls from the filth that we had seen the day before.