The absence of documents bars their access to basic civil rights: social assistance, employment, health care, pensions and the ability to leave the country.
Here is how an unnamed author describes the situation of Armenians on Day.az:
Citizens of Azerbaijan of Armenian descent often prefer to hush up the problem rather than bring up the matter on institutional level. Thus, many of our respondents cannot obtain the payment of their rightfully claimed pensions. As a rule, all their complaints run up against answers approximately termed as follows: “And you still have the cheek to ask for a pension? You must be grateful that we allow you to live here at all”!131
The ECRI report notes that as a result of the media policy and official ideology of Azerbaijan, being Armenian has become an insult, and claims of an Armenian descent can become a subject of litigation causing the person to lose his/her job. Azerbaijani news outlets teem with voices exhorting to fire not only Armenians, but also those who have Armenian lineage (i.e. have an Armenian mother, grandmother or spouse).
The Azerbaijani website Pia.az published an article entitled “A Disgraceful Fact in the System of Education” revealing that Elsa Tagieva who was the headmaster of the school № 246 in Binagadi district of Baku was Armenian by her maternal side. The article says that the Minister of Education of Azerbaijan, Misir Mardanov “entrusts the education of the rising generation of Azerbaijan to the enemies of Turkic peoples”. The author of the article wonders: “How can you entrust the education and patriotic upbringing of our children who represent our future to a half-breed Armenian?”132
Apart from copious adversities and perils of their life in Azerbaijan, ethnic Armenians become a daily target of abuse and vilification from the representatives of the authorities, intellectuals and other citizens in the press, official statements, social and political discourse as well as in the social media. In addition, the disparaging and insulting rhetoric against Armenians as ethnic group is profusely fomented by the authorities of Azerbaijan.
Columnist Chinara Vugar: The continued presence of Armenian women in Baku undermines our family life. <…> How could we sink so low? When the Armenian mother or grandmother of some official, a simple head physician or school headmaster dies, we shamelessly take part in the funeral because we depend on them, to say nothing of those who weep and shed tears at the funerals of Armenians. <…> How could we demean ourselves so much; when we send matchmakers to ask a girl in marriage or to marry off a girl, we move heaven and earth to find out from the law enforcement authorities whether or not the bride’s or groom’s pedigree has any Armenian lines. We unwittingly besmirch our honor with the blood of these dogs.133
Gyunel Mehdi: Today, as our country is going through wartime, over 30 thousand Armenians lead carefree lives here. It is not enough that they never bother to mask their origin and have their documents massively restored, many of them hold high offices. They all raise their children in a spirit of hatred towards the Azerbaijani and remind them daily that the Azerbaijani are their enemies. We scare our children with some wild beasts, while Armenians are something much worse. <…> As long as there are Armenians living in our country, we won’t be able to resolve the issue of Karabakh.
A few days ago, here in the center of Azerbaijan and its capital city of Baku, the ‘freshest’ citizens of Azerbaijan came into being. I refer to Zhanna Shahmuradyan and her daughter. Just look at how insolent they are! As if it were not enough that they freely live here in tens of thousands using cloaked identities, today, through the Migration Service and courts, they seek to obtain documents under their true Armenian names.134
Here, the reaction of the Azerbaijani community in social networks and forums presents a greater interest than the process itself. At grass roots level, many Azerbaijanis are genuinely surprised that “these insolent Armenians” dare to lay down the law, as if it were not enough that they lived in Azerbaijan. This rush of aggressive rhetoric among the regular Internet users from Azerbaijan is quite elucidating. Some demanded to have the addresses of the Armenian women to lynch them, and some others suggested “using these Armenians for propaganda”. It is of interest to examine both factions as they reveal the true attitude towards Armenians that Azerbaijan is so carefully trying to sweep under the carpet.135
It is no secret that Azerbaijan can be hardly described as a country where common European values thrive, with its increasing incidence of corruption, misrule in the military, spiraling crime rate and hard-pressed social situation. To make matters worse, the propaganda keeps shifting the responsibility for everything that happens in Azerbaijan on Armenians who live there.
“Today, Armenians are represented in virtually all power structures, social and political organizations, and they enjoy daily elevation in office. Today, they are capable of plunging us back into the events of 1993 putting our very statehood at risk. Today, numerous religious groups, movements and sects have been created and presently thrive in the city; it is Armenians who are behind and at the head of them. Day after day, they raise difficulties and throw obstacles in the way of the Azerbaijani citizens by poisoning their existence”.136
“The former Minister of Economic Development of Azerbaijan Heydar Babayev had a driver named Gharib, but the Minister himself called him by a fishy name of Garik. <…> Our investigation conducted as part of the Witch-hunt operation revealed an outrageous fact; this very Garik had Armenian lineage. <…> Just imagine that the Minister of Economic Development entrusted the Armenian to steer his vehicle who had been his driver for many years. A person who dealt with problems related to the development of our country let an Armenian into these important processes. And we are all too well aware of their unfortunate outcome. Today, our country’s economic development continues to be in the hands of aliens who have infiltrated the Ministry. <…> The former minister, instead of getting rid of his driver, had a new passport concocted for him changing the driver’s name to Gharib”.137
“A group of cadets from the Military Academy of Azerbaijan addressed a letter to the Azadliq newspaper in which they described the unbearable conditions of their training. <…> The Head of the Academy, Najaf Gambarov was a friend of the Defense Minister Safar Abiyev from his student years and was notorious for his murky dealings during the years of his work in the military enlistment office. In 1993, N. Gambarov surrendered the military unit in his command to the insurgent colonel Suret Huseynov and fled. He is also accused of having an Armenian wife”.138
For the sake of fairness, it must be noted there are opinions which accurately reflect the bewilderment of ordinary citizens about the discrepancy between the declared values and calls on the one hand and the true state of affairs on the other.
In fact, no matter how regretful it may sound to be, we must not exhort the Armenians of Karabakh to accept our conditions on the widest autonomy, on the one hand, and inter alia refuse to issue documents to Armenian citizens of Azerbaijan, on the other. We must do the contrary so as to guarantee in practice the viability and security of the Armenian community of Karabakh, should they agree to autonomy within Azerbaijan.139
With this onslaught of armenophobic policy that Azerbaijan has long sought to conceal, the surviving Armenians who had not been able to leave the country in time for various reasons found themselves virtually marginalized and excluded as low-grade citizens who stand as a constant reminder of a dented dignity and are continuously made to answer for sins they never committed.