ANTI-ARMENIAN INFORMATION POLICY OF AZERBAIJAN
Anna Zhamakochyan
Noravank" Foundation
09 November 2009
It is necessary to study the types of the anti-Armenian information
attacks, to elaborate the research methodology and to inform the
society about the results in order to provide the informational
security of the Armenian society. The formation of the ideas of
Azerbaijani information attacks, which have gained abruptly growing
tendency recently, is especially important and we shall try to present
it in our article.
Without touching upon the dynamics of the development of the
anti-Armenian mood let us observe what main approaches have been used
by the architects of the anti-Armenian mood in the neigbouring country.
We find it reasonable to study the Azerbaijani anti-Armenian moods
within two analytical planes:
I. within general infopolitical system II. within definite
informational actions
I. Anti-Armenian moods in the plane of Azerbaijani information policy
Within the first plane we can see that anti-Armenian information
policy of Azerbaijan is the integral part of their state policy and is
directed to the comprehensive discredit of the Armenian subjects (RA,
NKR and Armeniancy), in order to influence various target groups. At
the same time such a policy is accompanied by the formation of the
auspicious image of their own country and people and dissemination
of the Azerbaijani comments and approaches to the matters of argument.
Those two parallel processes have merged at such an extent that the
contraposition to the Armenia and Armeniancy has become the component
of the contemporary self-presentation of Azerbaijan which is also one
of the crucial factors inculcated in the new identity of Azerbaijani
society. Thus, today anti-Armenian information policy is one of the
important directions in political strategy of Azerbaijan, and the
main principles of that policy are:
The full-fledged gathering of the information about Armenia and
Armeniancy, the orientation in the domestic problems of the RA,
the study of the social and psychological and cultural image of
the Armenian.
Targeting and elaboration of anti-Armenian information policy based
on the experience of other countries (mainly Turkey) Maintenance of
the anti-Armenian policy by the formation of the positive image of
their country and the dissemination of the Azerbaijani point of view
on the matters of argument.
Multi-vector attacking stance in anti-Armenian policy, opposition to
the pro-Armenian information flows in operational and strategic planes.
The dissemination of the anti-Armenian information among the
differential and target groups (Azerbaijani public, Armenian public,
Muslim world, Russian and CIS public, Western and international public
choosing as a target, particularly the youth and even children, as
well as those who take decisions in the countries significant from
geopolitical point of view and international structures).
The usage of special approaches and discourse in regard to any audience
depending on its peculiarities, Integration of the anti-Armenian
policy into all the spheres of state policy and its comprehensive
system usage.
And the following components stand out as the constituent parts of the
information policy system and interconnected platforms of Azerbaijani
information actions:
Historical and cultural component with the help of which, in order
to prove that the Azerbaijanis are autochthons and Armenians are
newcomers, the historical events are falsified and rearranged, the
Armenian cultural traces are obliterated.
Legal component, with the help of which domestic and international
positions are consolidated and the rational basis is formed in order
to promote the pro-Azerbaijani solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
The public diplomacy component with the help of which, on the one hand,
the potential of Azerbaijani NGOs is used for the propaganda in the
societies of the third countries and on the other hand, the works are
carried out for the formation, organizing and usage of the Azerbaijani
"diaspora".
Lobby component with the help of which through not only diplomatic
structures but also through the community structures formed abroad
the decision making by the actors of the third countries is influenced.
Domestic policy component with the help of which the hatred towards
Armenians and revanchist atmosphere is formed Media component with
the help of which the authorities not only can manage domestic
media-resources of Azerbaijan but also attain the leverages for mass
media of the third countries.
Technological component with the help of which the Internet,
satellite communication and other technological capacities serve for
dissemination of anti-Armenian moods and loyalty to Azerbaijan.
II. Anti-Armenian mood in the plane of information actions Analyzing
Azerbaijani attacks in the plane of concrete information actions and
taking into consideration their communicative character let us take
a look at the structural elements of those attacks:
social context source of information means of communication message
audience main purpose >>From the methodological point of view separate
characteristics of those elements, as well as their synthesis, are
extremely important in regard to the success and their influence. Thus,
let us see how the elements of communication system are used and what
kind of mechanisms and methods of anti-Armenian information actions
could be seen in each of them.
1. Social context. To wide extent, it is the spatial and chronological
environments where the communication or information action take place.
Azerbaijani party, taking into consideration the importance of
anti-Armenian information actions, tries to take the advantage the
favourable situations and to balance the unfavourable factors or to
neutralize it on operative and tactical or strategic levels. Thus,
the opening of the Azerbaijani embassy in Hungary in August 2004 was
conditioned by the tactical and strategic intention to balance or
neutralize the unfavourable factors of social context. Its purpose
was the coordination of the information and other actions connected
with the trial of Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov1.
It is remarkable that the information actions directed to the
strengthening of the position of Azerbaijan in Hungry continue till
now. In November 2008 the 3rd International scientific conference
"Hungary – Azerbaijan: Cultural Dialogue", which has already become
traditional, was arranged and its discussions, among other topics,
were devoted to the issues of Azerbaijan’s history in contemporary
Hungarian historiography2.
The unfavourable factors are also balanced by the operative
informational actions. Thus, if the president of neigbouring Georgia
M. Saakashvili visited the Memorial of the Genocide Victims then in
Azerbaijani informational space the interview with 1 or 2 Georgian
historians who deny Armenian Genocide, deprecate Armenian-Georgian
relations, label and blame Armeniancy will surely appear3.
>>From the point of view of usage of the favourable factors of social
context by Azerbaijan the speculations about the political situation
in Armenia after the March 1, 2008 events in legal, foreign policy and
other planes is remarkable. In this very context Azerbaijan succeeded
to introduce the "Situation on occupied Azerbaijani territories"
resolution to the agenda of the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly
and to obtain its recognition while only 39 countries of 192 UN member
countries voted "for" that resolution.
Thus, the monitoring of the social context and the elaborating of any
new factors both on the international and Armenian scales promote
the aspirations and efficient implementation of the Azerbaijani
information actions.
But Azerbaijani party is not content with the objectively created
conditions of the social context and it is implementing through
the attacking actions artificial factors (e.g. the declaring of the
mourning days when Armenians massacred Azerbaijanis) and tries to
carry out the subjective formation of the social context. This allows
transforming the logic of the communication and putting Armenian party
into defensive position. The social context formed with the help of
such methods becomes definite stable environment where Azerbaijani
propaganda is carried out with the implementation of the prearranged
templates. Those templates are also used in case of calendar dates
(such as April 24 – the memorial day of the victims of the Armenian
Genocide) and other predictable situations.
2. Source of information. The trust, authoritativeness, diversity
and "legitimacy" are the main characteristics of the source of
information. That is why in the issue of the spreading anti-Armenian
information Azerbaijani party uses the prearranged approaches. First of
all, it tries to attain authoritativeness to Azerbaijani propaganda
sources, to form their positive image and to provide confidence
in them. E.g. the analyst of the official Azerbaijani informational
agency "Azertadj" Vugar Seidov is presented as a "well-known political
scientist" who signs his material from Budapest or Berlin and makes
an impression of the international expert. On the similar principle
all the anti-Armenian propagandist figures are stated "celebrated
scientists and figures".
The other methodological tactics is the creation of the illusion of
diversification of the sources of information through involving into
anti-Armenian actions not only local but also foreign researchers
and journalists. And the involving of the pseudo-neutral foreigners
(as, for example, Erich Figle and Yuri Pompeev) is used as a means
to legitimization of the anti-Armenian information activities. The
important part is assigned to the pro-Azerbaijani statements of
foreign diplomats and political figures which are presented as an
objective opinion of the international community.
In order to legitimate its own disinformation Azerbaijani party tries
to make a reference to Armenian or seemingly Armenian sources. With
this purpose, sometimes under the propagandistic text the not existing
persons with Armenian surnames sign, the fictitious sentences are
ascribed to the well-known Armenian figures or their thoughts are
presented out of context with the changes in their sense. The following
is a typical example of ascribing fictitious ideas to the Armenian
figures: on June 2, 2006 the director of "Bank of information" centre
brought "quotations" from Zori Balayan’s "Resurrection" book about
"the atrocities of the Armenians in regard to the Azerbaijanis". It
is also mentioned that the book was published in 1996 in Vanadzor,
meanwhile, neither Z. Balayan nor any other author have ever published
such a book4. It is remarkable that during the summer session of
the Council of Europe in 2009 the deputy of the Meli Majlis Ganira
Pashaeva (sister of Mehriban Alieva) in her address "cited" from
that mythical book again (this time it was called "The Resurrection
of Our Sprit"), thus refreshing that anti-Armenian disinformation
before the international community5.
The Azerbaijani sites which were registered in ".am" domain space
and presented as Armenian sites (xronika.am, versiya.am) also
served for the legitimization. One of them (versiya.am) existed
for comparatively short time and was exposed after the first false
pro-Armenian information. The site was scrutinized by the Armenian
Internet community6 and blocked by the efforts of the Office of
public relations and mass media of the RA president staff. Xronika.am
which had existed for comparatively long period tried to influence
Armenian-Georgian relations spreading in August 2008 anti-Georgian
disinformation about the conflict in South Ossetia on behalf of
"Patriots of Javakhq"7. Latter on the contract of that domain was
not prolonged by the understandable reason.
It is remarkable that Azerbaijani anti-Armenian informational actions
are directed not only to the rising of the confidence to their sources,
their diversification and legitimization but also to the discrediting
and delegitimization of pro-Armenian or Armenian sources.
To this purpose not only the Armenian sources, which are labeled as
"propagandist", "disinformational", "criminal" or even sometimes
"terrorist", are discredited but also those foreign sources which
views run counter to the anti-Armenian propaganda aims. In this issue
Azerbaijanis follow the Turkish methodology which striking example is
depreciation of Franz Werfel’s famous "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh"
historical novel. With this purpose Turks in 1989, on the threshold
of 75th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide created infologeme
according to which Werfel in the last years of his life "found out
that his work has no historical background", And the Turkish party,
taking into consideration the Jewish decent of Werfel and, therefore,
the meaning of his work to the Jews, in order to balance reliability
of the primary source by the source of spreading of the infologeme,
chose American rabbi Albert Emethew (this mythological figure is also
presented under the names of Abraham Sabar, Abraham Son Sever).
Emethew who emigrated from Turkey to the US in the early age made that
"discovery" when he was 101 years old, in 50 years after the death
of Franz Werfel8. The classical anti-Armenian Erich Figle and other
anti-Armenian propagandists referred to that source later.
3. Means of communication. The quantity and the variety of the
means are very important parameters due to which the information
dissemination and the creation of the illusion of trustworthiness are
provided. The variety of the means of communication is provided by the
implementation of all the possible formal (state bodies, mass media,
diplomatic means, NGOs) and non-formal (movable informants, internet
resources, social networks) routes and communication networks with the
purpose to cover the wider possible audience to which the information
is addressed thus making that information as accessible as possible.
Azerbaijani party widely uses the mechanism of mutual references9
when the same information is disseminated through many sources
which refer to each other. This mechanism not only multiplies
the means of communication thus providing maximum availability to
various audiences but it also promotes the creation of the quantity
effect. When the same information is disseminated with the help of
various means of communication (personal contacts, mass media, books,
and video films) the impression of quantitative multiplication of
the means of communication is created and this creates the illusion
of trustworthiness.
The re-printing of the same information by the mutual references method
is also an additional means for the increase of the Internet sites’
rating and priority access to them by the search engines.
4. Message. Message is the most multi-layer component of communication
which main characteristic is the content – theme, object, discourse,
methods of textual influence, argumentation, emotional load, creation
of the image (its symbolism), the frequency of repetition, multi-genre
character.
Frequent repetition of the message, fist of all, pursues the aim to
bring it within the reach of the audience and draw attention to it.
Besides, it has more deep consequences: due to the appropriateness
of the mechanisms of perception and memorizing frequently repeated
message is fixed in the public conscious more efficiently. Even
if the message is unacceptable it receives trivial character and
becomes a part of social reality. This mechanism is also a means
to substantiate Azerbaijani propaganda; being repeated for several
times even groundless message becomes substantiated. Azerbaijani
propaganda even resorts to the multi-genre "packing" of one and the
same message (the desired information is presented not only in the
form of political texts, but also in the form of cultural, sport and
texts of other character), visual expressiveness and visualization
(peculiarly motivated "documentaries", fabricated photos, maps,
animation and etc.). Great attention is paid to the attractiveness
of text’s headlines, symbols, and emotional saturation.
Any subject which is of great value for Armeniancy and which is its
symbol, whether it is a common person, historical hero, political
history of Armenia, state, social or religious figure, becomes a
subject of discussion or even an object to attack in the Azerbaijani
information texts. Among the most frequently met anti-Armenian attacks
the following hot topics can be distinguished:
The history of Armenian statehood and Armenian people, mainly,
the political history of Artsakh, the issues of the origin of the
Armenians and their being the autochthons.
Interpretation of the formation of the Azerbaijani state, the origin
and the formation of the people and the fixing their nativity in
accordance with their own aims.
The denial of the Armenian Genocide in 1915 and the projecting of
the crime.
The accusations of carrying out in the 20th century the "genocide of
the Azerbaijanis" incriminated to the Armenian party: – The collisions
between the Baku commune and Muslims in 1918 which are presented as
a realization of the "criminal plan" of the "Azerbaijani genocide"
by the Armenians – The presenting of the Azerbaijanis killed during
the operation of the Soviet army in Baku in 1990 as the victims of
the Armenian provocations; – The presenting of the events in Khodjalu
in 1992 as the slaughters, i.e. the genocide, carried out by the
Armenian solders,
The blaming of the Armenians in the "crimes" against other peoples,
total hatred to Turks and anti-Semitism; the infologeme of the
"international Armenian threat"; The misrepresentation of the moral
and psychological image of the Armenians and the system of values of
the Armenian people Speculation round the social and economic and
political problems of the RA and NKR, ascription of the imaginary
problems to them.
Speculations round the problems of the Armenian army, the dissemination
of the discrediting infologemes.
While examining the communities in the aforementioned topical messages
we can notice that there are mainly 4 mechanisms used by Azerbaijani
propaganda machine in the anti-Armenian texts:
The mirror reflection of the successful actions initiated by the
Armenian party in the Armenian-Turkish information relations.
The mechanism of the direct projection of the weak points and negative
information regarding Turkish-Azerbaijani party.
Mechanism of using anti-Semitic schemes for anti-Armenian activity
The mechanism of implementation of "anti-racist racism".
The best example of the mirror reflection is the notion of "Western
Azerbaijan" (like Western Armenia) which has been put into circulation
recently and under which not only the territory of the NKR but also
the territory of the modern RA and a part of Georgia are understood.
Due to the mechanism of mirror reflection the contemporary
Turkish-Azerbaijani propaganda makes symmetric response to all Armenian
informational flows on the subject of the Armenian Genocide and at
the same time it projects the known Turkish and Azerbaijani problems
and tangled events to the Armenian party.
Anti-Semitic schemes are also mainly used in regard to the themes
connected with the Genocide as well as in the issues of discrediting
the system of value of the Armeniancy, moral make-up of the Armenian.
On the same principle that anti-Semites blame Jewish people in the
creation of the "myth" of Holocaust, its provoking and arranging for
the achievement of their own aims, in the same way Azerbaijani and
Turkish propagandists blame Armenians in the creation of the "myth" of
massacres, their provoking and arranging. The forms of anti-Semitic
labels are also used in regard to the Armenians ("perfidious",
"traitors", "greedy", "liars").
As for the principle of "anti-racist racism" it is manifested in the
form of spreading anti-Armenian moods by blaming them in anti-Turkish
moods and anti-Semitism. By analogy to how the racism in regard to
the whites is motivated by the racism of the latter in regard to the
coloured people (which, in fact, is the same racism), in the same way
Azerbaijani and Turkish anti-Armenian moods are tried to be motivated
by the total anti-Turkism and anti-Semitism of the Armenians.
In all the aforementioned thematic messages the forms of historical,
legal, religious and cultural and everyday discourse take
considerable place. They all are united around their main purpose
– the dissemination of the anti-Armenian moods. Generally, such
methods of textual influence based on logical mistakes and semantic
manipulations can be met as:
Insisting on simple disinformation, false, inlogome; Usage of
verisimilar lie; Exaggeration or running to extremes; The presentation
of the half-truth or selective information; Anti-scientific induction –
groundless generalization of the particular; Asymmetric comparisons;
Pinning of the archetype and stereotype labels, mocking, irony,
attribution of the negative qualities; "Disclosure of the dark pages".
5. Audience. The efficiency of the information action depends on
civilizational, religious and cultural peculiarities of the audience.
In this sense Azerbaijani informationl and propaganda initiatives
clearly differentiate target audience and discourse of the messages
sent to them. Thus, the appropriate differentiated approach is shown
to every audience.
In Muslim societies Armenia is presented as a terrorist Christian
state, or a puppet in the hands of world Zionism and Christian states,
In Jewish circles – as an anti-Semite country, In Western countries –
as an anti-democratic element and a break on the regional progress,
In international structures Azerbaijan sets up its own claims as if
they meet all the international legal norms, And in their own society
for false historical and cultural groundings and revanchist reasons
the image of "enemy Armenian" is formed.
6. Main purpose. The main purposes of the Azerbaijani information
actions are:
The depreciation, "annihilation" of the spiritual, cultural and
material values regarding to Armenia and Armeniancy in contrast to
raising, attaching significance and spreading of the Azerbaijanis.
Demoralization, weakening of the Armeniancy, forming of the feeling
of defeatism in contrast to the aspiration to unite Azerbaijanis in
their revanchism and struggle with common enemy (Armenian).
The first purpose has wider orientation and is aimed to the formation
of the appropriate position in all the target audiences, including
Armeniancy, by implementing mechanisms of discrediting and blaming in
inhuman crimes. Though the efficiency of its influence on Armenian
audience is more than arguable it is aimed to the formation of the
inferiority complex in Armeniancy and it serves as a basis for the
second main purpose. The second purpose is oriented to particularly
Armenian and Azerbaijani audiences. In this case not only the
mechanism directed to the humiliation and blaming Armeniancy but
also the threats of restarting the war and blockade with the aim "to
stifle" the RA and the NKR economically as well as the mechanisms
for the splitting of the Armeniancy through introduction among
Armenians the differentiation based on the place of birth or any other
differences. What in Armenian audiences plays a role of demoralizing
factor or the factor of formation of the defeatism, in Azerbaijani
society stirs up pride and believe in "victory over Armeniancy".
1In winter 2008 the officer of the Azerbaijani army Ramil Safarov
brutally killed sleeping officer of the Armenian army Gurgen Markaryan
when they both participated in the NATO "Cooperation for piece"
programme. During the investigation he motivated his deed by the
ethnic hatred but later at the trial he retracted his testimony.