Armenophobia in Azerbaijan

Involvement of foreigners to give weight to their position

“Armenia is a cancerous tumor on the body of the Southern Caucasus and must be removed”, stated the historian Guram Marhuliya (decorated with Tereggi medal and bestowed an honorable doctorate from the History Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan of his merit in developing scientific ties between Georgia and Azerbaijan) who had been dismissed from the Sukhumi State University on charges of armenophobia, in an interview to the Azerbaijani Vesti.Az information agency.

Publications in foreign press containing abusive headings or insulting epithets

The authors of such articles are mainly representatives of the diplomatic corps of Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijanis who live there. As a rule, xenophobic articles are purported to represent the opinion of the editorial staff, the journalist or the public at large.

A Mexican newspaper published an article entitled Armenian Duplicity: The Mexican Milenio newspaper published an article entitled Armenian Duplicity by Ilgar Mukhtarov, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the country.

The Azerbaijani website 1news.соm.tr: The Azerbaijani popular song Sari Gelin passed for an Armenian song and performed in the presence of the Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Davutoglu raised uproar in the Azerbaijani mass media.

The Azerbaijani website Anspress: The artistic director of the ATV (Azad Azərbaycan) channel and a famous anchorperson Elchin Alibeyli has been dismissed from the TV channel. E. Alibeyli has been removed from office after performing the song Sari Gelin in Armenian. <…> Getting his spirits high at a party, Elchin Alibeyli started singing in Armenian a part from Sari Gelin. Many representatives of the show business and mass media attending the party became witnesses to this “gift” of the famous anchorperson. <…> According to the sources of Lent.az at the channel, Elchin was dismissed from his office starting from yesterday precisely for performing the Azerbaijani popular song Sari Gelin in Armenian.

The Russian Informational Agency Regnum: On his Facebook page, Elsever Salmanov, the staff member of the Azerbaijani embassy in Ankara, voiced strident criticism against the Turkish newspaper Radikal. The cause for resentment was the fact that the newspaper in its highlight of a musical festival in Ankara, mentioned the Armenian song Sari Gelin. In this connection, the Azerbaijani diplomat said that either the Turkish newspaper had Armenians in its staff who had betrayed their editorial principles and were guided by national feelings, or the journalists served Armenians at the call of their hearts.

Incidentally, he exhorted all like-minded persons to raise their voice of protest against Radikal and Armenians, respectively. This brought a sharp reaction from the editorial staff. <…> “Yeni Musavat newspaper observes that Rаdikаl has been previously noted for its “anti-Azerbaijani position”, while the website Teref.infо considers that indicating Sari Gelin as an Armenian song became a result of a conflict and lack of coordination between the newspaper and Azerbaijan’s diplomatic mission in Ankara.

It must be noted that the song Sari Gelin is one of the bitter pills in virtually unclouded relationships between brotherly Turkey and Azerbaijan. In Armenia and Turkey, this song is considered Armenian. In particular, G. Karanfil, a Turkish scholar, considers that the song Sari Gelin has its roots in a nameless Armenian song that has become a part of the Turkish culture over the centuries.

This opinion is shared by many Turkish scholars and musicians, which ignites a firestorm in official and cultural milieu of Azerbaijan claiming the authorship of the song as its own. Any publication containing a mention of the word Armenian with reference to this song provokes a huge social and diplomatic uproar in Azerbaijan. The matter may go as far as to cause the country’s diplomatic missions to step in.

All these activities are meaningful and significant for those who live in Azerbaijan. This creates a false perception of the omnipotence and infallibility of Azerbaijan’s positions in their unequal fight in the face of the enemy personified by Armenians. Frequently, the citizens of the country permeated with armenophobia find themselves outside its boundaries to face a different and unknown reality: It turns out that there are Armenians there, and they coexist perfectly well with Azerbaijanis who “flout honor and faith” by interacting, having common business, falling in love, marrying or even spending their leisure with Armenians.

Such discovery can cause a psychological trauma to any person for whom “patriotism” and armenophobia are synonymous.

We came to a famous restaurant named Lights of the Orient. It was an Azerbaijani restaurant, and once I set foot in the place, I felt the scent of my motherland. All the personnel and waiters were Azerbaijanis. We took a table with my friends and after taking a few bits, I turned my attention to the singer. Somehow he didn’t look like one of us.

Oh Allah… it couldn’t be true! The singer was Armenian. I almost choked on my food and couldn’t swallow, so I took out the bit and put it on my plate. Of course, my friends knew about my patriotism; therefore, they quickly figured out everything and started appeasing me. By that time, I was struck speechless. <…> I sensed that Intigam was ashamed of something and felt uneasy. I inquired about the singer’s nationality and was given the answer: Armenian. I felt as if my head were scalded with boiling water. <…> Let Armenians come to our restaurant, get a poisoning and return to where they came from.

<…> We are a very hospitable people, which is the reason of all our woes and tribulations that plagued us. However, the fact that an Armenian singer worked in our restaurant was unbearable. However, the most unbearable was yet to come!

<…> The Armenians started singing, and the folks at the next table – elderly women, young girls and children – stood up and started dancing. There were about 10 of them, and they dominated the place. It turned out that the dancing people too were Armenians. I was dumbfounded with shock and indignation. I felt as though somebody were publicly throwing the vilest abuse and obscenities at me. <…> “Be damned, Armenian”, cursed I in my mind and asked him to sing Tut Agaci. <…> Oh, Allah, to this day, I have never been more humiliated and insulted. It seemed that up to that moment, I hadn’t known my true character. I never knew that I was so inpatient, sensible and patriotic.

<…> As a true Turk and a son of Turk, I made up my mind to cry in solitude. My soul was ablaze, a firestorm was raging inside, but my crying was not that of helplessness and defeat. No, these were tears that allowed me to vent my hatred and cold determination that I was seizing with. <…> Indeed, those who in one way or another work with Armenians and deal with them for business don’t even deserve to be called ‘traitors of their country”.

Those who realize that there is a divergent reality inside and outside Azerbaijan and break the taboo by opting for a closer contact with Armenians are targeted for attacks by the authorities. The ultimate destiny of these people and their family members is unenviable.

The daughter of a high-ranking official in the Azerbaijani government who pursues her studies in London became romantically involved with an Armenian; in official circles of Azerbaijan, the news was received with shock. Learning of this affair, other Azerbaijanis who studied in London raised a wave of outcry under the leadership of Tale Heydarov, chairman of the European Azerbaijan Society and the son of Kamaladdin Heydarov, the Minister of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan. They demanded from the authorities to make the girl’s father take measures and “put an end to that disgrace”. The country’s leadership demanded to return the girl to Azerbaijan without delay.

The double defeat of Teimour Radjabov by Levon Aronyan on the chess tournament held in London was pegged as ‘shameful’ in Azerbaijan as the tournament was sponsored by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) which spent 2 million euros on its organization.<…> Radjabov already became impudent back at the time of Heydar Aliyev. <…> It appears that after his marriage or more precisely after he started leading a lavish lifestyle, Radjabov has lost his form”. “On a tournament financed by Azerbaijan, a representative of our country has lost to an Armenian. The point is that no Azerbaijani chess player has a potential to win at this tournament. Spending millions of dollars to finance a tournament in London with participation of an Armenian in full awareness of this fact is a disgrace. How are our officials any different from the Arab sheikhs, who have a reputation of prodigal spenders, if they squander away over 2 million euros for Radjabov’s participation in the London tournament?”.

14. Destruction of the cultural and historic Armenian heritage

The destruction of monuments of Armenian culture and history on the territory of Azerbaijan fulfills an important psychological task: the obliteration of historical symbols sacred for the enemy delivers a blow to the most vulnerable spot of the community. Arlene Audergon in her book entitled The War Hotel: Psychological Dynamics in Violent Conflict notes that the destruction of culture has always been and continues to be one of the main terror tactics purporting to strip the victim of any memories linking him/her to the community.

Here, the collective spirit as a whole is at stake. One way to erase human memory and retouch the history comes down to destroying monuments, statues and temples. The war on the historical legacy of Armenians waged on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan employs precisely this approach. A renowned orientalist and academician N. Y. Marr particularly noted with reference to Armenian khachkars: “this monument reflects each step of development of national architecture, and often combines both currents of the Armenian architecture: the spiritual and the secular. Khachkar truly represents the “memory of the land of our fathers” communicating with an extraordinary force and precision the spirit of the Armenian art”.

The sad fate of the Armenian memorial cemetery of Jugha, pearl of the world culture on the territory of the Armenian Nakhijevan, which was destroyed by order of the Azerbaijani authorities, must be viewed in this context.

“Nakhijevan of the ancient Armenians, Naxuana of classic writers, an uyezd city of the Erivan Governorate perched at an altitude of around 3,000 feet above sea level on the foothills of the Karabakh upland. According to legend, it was founded by Noah whose tomb is shown by local Armenians. Some Persian and Armenian historians date its foundation to 1539 B.C.

A well-known orientalist Heinrich Hübschmann wrote that the toponym “Nakhijevan” originates from the Armenian prefix “nakh-” and the root “avan” meaning “the place of the first landing”.

The region was known by ancient Greek authors by its name of either “Nakhijevan” or “Naxuana”. A Jewish historian Flavius Josephus calls the place “Apobatherion” – literal translation of the Armenian toponym. He wrote: “And then, when the ark stopped atop a mountain in Armenia, and Noah observed this, the latter opened it and seeing a patch of land near the ark hoped for the best and was reassured <…>. This place is referred by Armenians as “the site of the landing” and to this day they show there the remains preserved from the ark”.

Throughout the 20th century, especially after the transfer of Armenian Nakhijevan “under the patronage” of the Soviet Azerbaijan, a program of de-Armenizing the region was launched, including a complete obliteration of ancient Armenian material culture. Incidentally, the Muslim population in Nakhijevan was so scant that even in the early nineteenth century there were only six mosques in the area. Meanwhile, the region had over 200 Armenian monasteries, churches and chapels.

The khachkars of Jugha, the well-known cross-stones

predominantly dating to the XIII–XVIII centuries, are marvelous monuments and distinctive specimens of Christian memorial architecture.

The French traveler Alexandre de Rhodes (1591–1660), who visited the area in 1648, wrote: “Beyond the walls of that city (Julfa), which is now only desert, I saw a beautiful monument to the ancient piety of Armenians. This is an extensive territory in which there are at least ten thousands of marble tombstones, all amazingly well engraved. A large white marble slab twelve feet height and eight feet wide can be seen at each grave with many beautiful shapes engraved around a large cross. It is very pleasing to see such a large number of marble slabs”.

In 1603, one of the first British travelers to Persia and Armenia John Newbery, left the following entries in his memoirs:

Four days journey from Merenta [Maranda] and a day journey from Julfa, there is a wooden pontoon bridge; there was once a stone bridge, but it disintegrated. And Aras – this is the name the river – flows in front of the city, and the city itself lies at the foot of mountains. This city has three thousands houses and seven churches…

It is widely known that in Middle Ages Jugha was a thriving Armenian city. However, in 1604, the Persian shah Abbas forcibly resettled its inhabitants to Isfahan, which to this day has an Armenian quarter known as New Jugha. Many travelers visited the ruins of the destroyed city and its cemetery over the years.

The British orientalist Sir William Ausley, who visited the city in 1812 and found the city fallen into a state of decay, wrote about the following: the largeness of its former population is evidenced by a rich and full cemetery placed on a sloping riverbank and covered with multiple rows of vertical tombstones, which, if looked not from afar, remind a gathering of people or even a regiment set in a close formation.

The first steps in the scheme for obliteration of the Armenian monuments were taken in November 1998, when it was observed from the Iranian side of the border that some khachkars had been taken off their bases and smashed to pieces. Shortly after, they were all toppled.

According to International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the Azerbaijani government eliminated 800 khachkars in 1998. Although the destruction was halted after protests from UNESCO, it, nevertheless, resumed four years later. By January 2003, a “1500-year-old cemetery was completely razed to the ground”. The President of ICOMOS Michael Petzet notes: “Now that all traces of this highly important historic site seem to have been extinguished all we can do is mourn the loss and protest against this totally senseless destruction”.

In 1999, the president Heydar Aliyev in his speech pronounced “at a grand rally to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Soviet Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan” declared Nakhijevan as “one of the most ancient lands of Azerbaijan” with its history dating back 3,500 years and urged to “analyze, explore and write” the history of the region.

It is after this statement that the final stage of obliterating the traces of Armenian presence in Nakhijevan was officially launched.

To this end, a special archaeological expedition was mounted to compile the list of the Armenian monuments to be obliterated. Later, Najaf Museyibli, deputy scientific director of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, noted: “The expedition was created at the direct behest of Heydar Aliyev and worked until 2003”.

He also notes that “there is not even the slightest trace of Armenians in the Southern Caucasus. In the Caucasus, since ancient times and to the present day, mass graves of a different anthropological type were found representing the ancestors of the Azerbaijani people. This land has never had any Armenian root whatsoever”.

It should be specifically underscored that the operation of ultimately obliterating the traces of the Armenian ethnic and cultural presence was carried out by the units of the Azerbaijani army.

In December 2005, the Azerbaijani regular troops smashed to pieces the khachkars of Jugha and loaded what remained of them into dump trucks. The trucks drove up to the riverbank and dumped the debris into the river. In a very short time, the medieval cemetery was flattened, and a military firing range was constructed in its place.

In 2006, the European Parliament formally exhorted Azerbaijan to halt the destruction in violation of the UNESCO Convention on the World Heritage;

however, in the spring of the same year Baku debarred the commission of the European parliament from inspecting the site of the former cemetery.

Charles Tannock, British spokesman in the European parliament, gave the following commentary of the events: “This is very similar to the Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban. They have concreted the area over and turned it into a military camp. If they have nothing to hide then we should be allowed to inspect the terrain”.

Nevertheless, the international community has long demonstrated а remarkable indifference to the obliteration of khachkars, while Yerevan’s appeal for sending a mission of observers to the site of destruction was barred.

In 2006, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) published a report Azerbaijan: Famous Medieval Cemetery Vanishes,

in which it confirmed that nothing had been left of the famous stone-crosses of Jugha.