PROPAGANDA MACHINERY OF AZERBAIJAN: NEW TENDENCIES
Samvel Martirosyan

"Noravank" Foundation
08 February 2010

Azerbaijani propaganda actively continues to use the elaborated theses
which have been used against Armenia and Armeniancy in general over
the whole conflict period. At the same time in the recent period
several main trends, which became definitely prior, are elaborated
actively. And today a definite tradition has been established:
the main theses, the instructive directions for media, analytics,
"information front fighters" working on the Internet are programmed
through the addresses of Ilham Aliyev.

If we trace the recent addresses of the president of Azerbaijan then
the direct correlations between the underlined in them theses of
anti-Armenian character and further massive discharge to the press
and other Azerbaijani sources can be found.

In November-December 2009 president of Azerbaijan made a number
of statements in which he circled the main framework within which
Azerbaijani propagandists would act in the near future.

The main anti-Armenian theses of 2009 were:

Armenia is on the verge of economic collapse, the population
is famishing and ready to make any concessions to save from the
starvation death.

Armenian army is demoralizing; soldiers desert to Azerbaijan,
corruption grew, the moral and fighting spirit are at a very low level.

Armenia is not only ready to leave the freed territories, but also
initiated the arrangements on the withdrawal of the troops, building
of the new security lines alongside the borders of the NKAD.

The population of Karabakh is ready to be a part of Azerbaijan and
do not want to bind their future to poor Armenia.

Armenia is suffering a demographic decline which negative aftereffects
are growing every year.

Alongside with these theses the anti-theses are used which are
directed to the strengthening of the positive image of Azerbaijan
both for domestic and foreign consumers. Thus, alongside with
the anti-Armenian theses, in order to intensify their effect, the
followings are elaborated:

Despite the global economic crisis, the economy of Azerbaijan continued
to grow in 2009.

Azerbaijani army is getting stronger every year; the financing of
the army is increasing and it can be compared to the whole annual
budget of Armenia. The defence industry of Azerbaijan is developing,
new offensive arms are bought.

Azerbaijan cannot wait and negotiate always. If in the near time
Armenia does not make concessions, Azerbaijani party will have to
initiate military action which will lead to the fast freeing of
Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian occupation.

In case of the solution of the Karabakh issue Azerbaijan is ready to
invest more in the restoration of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan is developing intensively in all the directions. The
population, which number at the beginning of 2010 exceeded 9 million
people, is also growing.

In order to substantiate the aforementioned theses all the
available means are used. The economic statistics is falsified:
thus, to prove the positive growth of the GDP the inflation rate is
lowered artificially1. The proven falsifying methods are also used in
demographic statistics: thus, the population of Nagorno-Karabakh was
included in the population of Azerbaijan and according to the state
statistics committee 730 thousand Azerbaijanis live there2.

Tracing the reactions on the publication in Azerbaijani press in the
forums and blogs allows concluding that the Azerbaijani propaganda
exert rather serious influence on Azerbaijanis. Today most of the
Internet users in Azerbaijan fully trust propaganda and are sure
that Armenia is starving, is on the verge of collapse and soon the
Armenians will be ready to make maximum concessions on Karabakh issue.

In general, today, the aggressive psychological pressure is imposed
on the Armenians, in order to induce apprehension of Azerbaijan among
us3. The whole propaganda machinery is working in this direction. At
the same time in Baku to all appearance they underestimate the factor
of the reducing of the citation index of the Azerbaijani mass media
during the last year.

Weak points of Azerbaijani propaganda Azerbaijani propaganda machinery
is not deprived of other shortcomings either. Thus, the synchronism
of the discharge of the anti-Armenian themes, alongside with the
psychological cumulative effect has its rather negative aftermaths
for the Azerbaijani party as periodically the media field is deformed
radically. "Plan model" of the propaganda machinery has the same
shortcomings as the Soviet economy: it is extremely slow, awkward
and needs constant accountability to the top.

The quality of the work of the Azerbaijani propagandists on the level
of more or less long-term projects (film or big analytical article)
drops abruptly because money for that programmes are allotted from the
state foundations (mainly Foundation for State Support of Mass Media
of Azerbaijan under the president administration and Gayedar Aliyev
Foundation, headed by the first lady Mehriban Aliyeva) which demand
for the fast realization and accountability. Looking at the level of
the implementation of a number of the recent projects, one can make
conclusions about the extent of the corruption and the waste of the
finances allotted to the anti-Armenian propaganda purposes. E.g. for
Justice for Khojaly web-site a little changed posters of one of the
candidates to the presidents of Armenia were used (!).

Besides, due to the fact that the psychological attack on Armenia is
going on at a stepped-up pace the propaganda machinery glitch from
time to time, very often the falsified facts are used. Periodically,
in order to achieve the necessary result demanded by the authorities,
Azerbaijani press uses undisguised senseless materials allowing
to report back for the work done. E.g., in order to support the
idea that most of the population of Armenia is famishing, 1news.az
agency issues the material about the invasion of the mice from the
territory of the NKR summarizing the article in the following way:
"The situation in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh reached such an awful
level that people run away from Armenia and mice run away from the
empty occupied territories" 4.

1uËÏÎÏÍEËÁ aÚÅÒÂÁÊÄOÁ ÎÁ. eÔÏCE 2009 CÏÄÁ.

/2010/01/18/azerbaijan-economy/

2aÅÍ&#x CF;CÒÁÆEÑ – ÍEÆEÞÅÓËEÊ <<ÒÅÓÕÒÓ>&g t; aÚÅÒÂÁÊÄOÁ ÎÁ.

2009/12/09/azerbaijan-demography/

3"Today Armenia lives in the atmosphere of fear. Their life in fear
brings to the fact that country cannot provide its security. Because
it is afraid". From the speech of Ilham Aliyev within the framework
of his visit to Geranboy district during the opening of the new
settlement for the displaced persons.

4cÏÌÏÄÎÙÅ ÍÙÛE, ÂÅCÕÝEÅ Ó ÏËËÕÐEÒÏ×& #xC1;ÎÎÙÈ ÔÅÒÒEÔÏÒEÊ , ÕÎEÞÔÏOÁÀÔ ÐÏÓÅ×Ù
× æEÚÕÌEÎÓËÏ Í ÒÁÊÏÎÅ.

Ot her issues of author

INFORMATIONAL CONTEXT OF THE POSSIBLE OPENING OF THE TURKSIH BORDER
[21.12.2009] CONTEMPORARY INFOGENIOUS CHALLENGES [18.05.2009]
INFORMATION SUPPORT TO THE SOUTH OSSETIAN WAR [13.09.2008] ISSUES OF
ARMENIA’S CYBER SECURITY [10.07.2008] THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ISSUE AS
ISRAEL INSTRUMENT OF PRESSURE [15.05.2008] KOSOVO AS THE INSTRUMENT
OF GLOBAL INFLUENCE [11.04.2008] SOME INFORMATION ASPECTS OF THE
ELECTIONS IN GEORGIA [12.02.2008]