Day.az, Azerbaijan
Oct 13 2007

Azeri society fails to respond to US vote on "genocide"

An Azerbaijani journalist has strongly condemned a US congressional
committee’s decision to advise the House of Representatives to
recognize the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Turks in 1915-17 and
lamented the lack of response by various classes of society in
Azerbaijan to this decision. In an article posted on an Azeri
website, Akper Hasanov said this was now the time to realize that
Turkey is Azerbaijan’s true ally in its struggle for the return of
Nagornyy Karabakh and that the Armenians would now try to take this
question to other international organizations in order to stake
claims against other countries as well as Turkey and Azerbaijan. He
condemned the "cowardly" stance of the opposition in Azerbaijan who,
he said, were afraid of upsetting the Americans, He ridiculed
Azerbaijan’s young people who, in his view, were only interested in
fast cars, drinking and prostitution. Finally, he blamed Azeri
television which, he said, should be showing patriotic, anti-Armenian
material instead of "dumming down" with frivolous forms of
entertainment. The following is the text of Akper Hasanov’s article
entitled "Take your last breath, society, or thinking aloud about the
reaction of Azerbaijanis to the American congressmen’s decision" and
published on the Day.Az web site on 13 October; subheadings inserted
editorially:

"Take your last breath, society!" These words from the French
playwright Emile Augier’s play Les Effrontes [The Shameless Ones]
seem very apposite today as silently and calmly, sometimes to the
accompaniment of music on the TV channels, we suffer another defeat
in the war against the Armenian community worldwide. And even though
no more territory has been lost as a result of this defeat, this is
still a defeat. For there are some wars which in the beginning are
waged on ideology and propaganda, and it is only several years later
that the results of these wars are transformed into victories or
defeats, the return or loss of a Motherland with the people acquiring
the status of a hero and a victor, or the stigma of a loser incapable
of defending their own home, their family, their Motherland. Our
society has now come too close to the point beyond which lies the
long road to dishonour and future defeats. Like a sacrificial lamb,
it silently awaits its fate. And sacrificial lambs have a sad ending.

"Armenian genocide" resolution

There is no denying that these are momentous times for Azerbaijan.
One only has to be reminded that the co-chairmen of the Minsk Group
(MG) of the OSCE are the US, whose congressmen have recognized the
"genocide of the Armenians", France, the Lower House of whose Senate
has also recognized the "genocide of the Armenians", and its Armenian
lobby is a strong one that takes the cake – and Russia, which openly
describes Armenia as its outpost in the Caucasus. My friends, surely
there can be nobody even now who hopes that this Minsk Group will be
looking to get a just solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict
over Nagornyy Karabakh?! Is it really difficult to understand that
the Armenian community, which was able to openly defy such a huge and
powerful country as Turkey, can easily and simply dispute the
occupied territories of our country? Can we really be so deaf that we
cannot hear the claims of the Armenian community to Naxcivan? Why do
we keep making the same mistake in not taking seriously the claims of
the Armenians, although this has already led to the loss of Nagornyy
Karabakh?

It is time we realized that Turkey is our only true ally in the
struggle for the return of the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
Because Turkey and Azerbaijan both have one historical enemy the
Armenian community worldwide. Incidentally, as far as the Armenians
are concerned both the Azerbaijanis and the Turks are "Turkes". That
means their challenge to Turkey should be perceived as a challenge to
Azerbaijan. It is easy to predict that, having achieved recognition
of the "genocide of the Armenians" in the US, the world’s Armenian
community will try to take this question to international
organizations, as if now the representatives of these organizations
have not waved aside such a prospect. And then, having achieved the
official status of a people subjected to "genocide", they will start
to make material and territorial claims against Turkey and
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine. And the world community,
having been taken in by the tears of a "suffering people", will dig a
pit for itself. Because there is no limit to the Armenians’ claims,
they are insatiable, and the insidiousness and servility of their
attempts to achieve their goals have been celebrated by the poets.
And that is precisely why it is vital that we realize how significant
these times are, because there could be many more heavy losses to
come.

Lack of protest in Baku

While conscious of this, to be honest, I thought that after the
reports that the US Congress Foreign Affairs Committee had approved a
resolution recognizing the fact of the "genocide" of the Armenian
people by Ottoman Turkey, a huge crowd of people would come out onto
the streets of Baku, angry at such a shabby, biased and unjust
decision of the American congressmen. I was certain that the people
would be robust in expressing their displeasure in front of the US
embassy in Azerbaijan. I was certain that marching at the head of
this crowd to demand from the Americans justice and impartiality in
passing sentence on a whole country – and that is precisely how the
decision of the American congressmen could have been interpreted in
Turkey would be representatives of the country’s opposition, who had
long since lost the last vestiges of respect among the people, and
having every chance to rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of
society, openly expressing their just position on this question. I
had hoped that representatives of the country’s intelligentsia would
raise their voice in defence of historic justice. I wanted to see
among the participants in these protest actions the country’s
political analysts and human rights activists. I thought that young
Azerbaijanis, angered by the audacity of the world Armenian community
and the stupidity of the American congressmen, would come out onto
the streets of Baku. I very much wanted to believe that the country’s
TV channels would instantly be showing documentary films about the
atrocities of the Armenians, about the terrorist acts committed by
them against the Turks and the Azerbaijanis, and about the genocide
in Xocali [in 1992].

Alas, today I saw nothing of the kind. It was as quiet as usual in
front of the US embassy. People were quietly going about their
day-to-day business, buying and selling, meeting and parting. The
country’s opposition made do with declarative statements, without
calling on their supporters to protest against the American
congressmen’s decision. In this situation thoughts came to mind
either that the authorities had the opposition in their pockets by
banning them from showing any active displeasure, or that the
opposition lacked any kind of electoral base, which could have been
brought out on to the streets at any moment, or they were politically
short-sighted, or finally they were cowardly and reluctant to upset
the Americans, on whom they place such great, especially financial
hopes, in the context of their future existence.

"Impotent intellectuals"

The country’s intellectuals, too, have once again demonstrated their
impotence. Yet again we have become convinced of their servility and
their inability to stand up for themselves without having to apply
for permission "from above". Recent history has shown that our
intellectuals show their anger only when one of them fails to get
into parliament, so they can shine their backsides in comfortable
armchairs, get a big salary and have the courage to admit their own
weakness.

Oh, and then there are our human rights activists. I recognize them
from the poses they adopt when the question concerns those who help
them to get grants to ensure a life of ease. They will not be sawing
off the bough on which they are sitting or killing the chicken that
lays their "golden eggs"!

And then there are our political analysts! Not all of them, of
course, but a large percentage of them who day and night hang around
the US embassy, feeding off the grants issued by the Americans! That
is why they stay silent, courteous, pretending to be busy or simply
reluctant to speak out about the American congressmen’s decision.
That is why none of them can be seen taking part in rallies
protesting at this decision!

And what about our young people? Yes, where are you? Answer silence.
Our young people are too busy making money! And what about their
civic position? How much are they paying for this? At the moment
nothing, but in future we are the ones who will have to pay, and very
dearly with the next piece of the Motherland occupied by the enemy.
You don’t believe me? Then study this piece of information closely:
"Over 90 per cent of young Armenians are against the return of
Nagornyy Karabakh to Azerbaijan." And what are they doing, our
esteemed Azerbaijani youth?! They are racing around the streets of
Baku, living it up in bars, spending nights with prostitutes and
loaded down with the wages they get from Western companies. But
meanwhile, the status of the serviceman the defender of the
Motherland remains extremely low. It is far lower than that of a
customs officer, a tax official, a computer operator, anyone working
for a western company. And this is a demonstration of the first
symptoms of future defeats.

Television blamed

But who is to blame for such a perverted scale of values of the
citizens of a country, 20 per cent of whose territory is occupied by
the enemy? In many ways, it is the country’s television service. It
is precisely television that often is called the most powerful
ideological, psychological and whatever else weapon. And this is
perfectly true. Television is capable not only of shaping the civil
position of viewers, but also of uniting or dividing them,
enlightening or dumming them down, educating or trivializing. Alas,
in our country it often trivializes rather than educates a patriotic
spirit. One only has to look at the network of television programmes
to see how few military-patriotic programmes there are, and what a
huge number of programmes there are about the banal and private lives
of our "showbiz stars".

The TV screens of a country which lost Susa [last Azeri town in
Karabakh to fall to Armenians in 1992] should have been filled with
films about the war, about the atrocities of the Armenians, songs
about the Motherland, about the role of the soldier, shots from the
front, reports on the lives of the martyrs’ families and today’s
defenders of the Motherland, cycles of broadcasts about how to wage
war and the right way to use a rifle. But now it is vital that we
increase the number of broadcasts about the need to consolidate
Azeri-Turkish friendship, and what the consequences will be of
silently watching the expansion of the Armenian community. And I
repeat, all this must be done on a regular basis.

But what is really happening? More wedding parties and helpings of
"Cal-Cagir" [popular music programme]. But can we really be so stupid
to believe that we will reconquer our lands captured by the enemy
with a microphone in the hands of the latest participant in the
"Ulduzno-Star Show" [popular contest of young talents]? Why can’t we
learn from our quite recent past? There are so many "whys". And there
are so many reasons as we look at how things really are and see the
awful prevailing silence, repeating the words of the French
playwright, for us to cry: "Take your last breath, society!"