100 % of the surveyed answered ‘Yes’ to the question of whether the airline companies operating on the territory of Azerbaijan and selling tickets for their flights through companies belonging in whole or in part to Armenians must be punished in some way.203
The success of such campaigns is achieved through their impact on an essential component of all human needs – the need to be a part of the community. The notions of patriotism, affiliation with an ethnic or social group (you are not Azerbaijani) are exploited, and people are intimidated with scary stories from remote and not so remote past (“all Armenians donated money to Krunk; they ripped open pregnant women; a nurse in the maternity hospital squeezed the testicles of new-born Azerbaijani boys” etc.)
Here, the help of people who are highly reputed and respected in a given community is enlisted, so as they showcase by their own personal example the righteous line of conduct from the perspective of the dominating ideology. The fear of being ostracized and castigated, along with the existence of an external devious foe, firmly cements the self-awareness and bears fruit.
The positive reference ban can be conventionally divided into three types:
The first type of the ban on positive reference to Armenians consists in excising all depictions (films, literary works or TV programs) that contain a reference to Armenians in the positive sense or which portray Armenia’s achievements; this ban also extends to engaging in joint projects with Armenians.
After the motion picture In a Southern Town, another film by Azerbaijan’s people’s artist, director Eldar Guliyev went under ban. We refer to the motion picture Hostage in which an Armenian is portrayed as a positive character. According to the film’s plot, an Azerbaijani named Karim becomes a prisoner of Armenia during the Karabakh war. To swap him for another prisoner, the villagers decide to give Karim’s wife an Armenian hostage. Over time, she comes to discover the positive traits of the Armenian man.204
After the information on the involvement of Azerbaijanis from Georgia in the shooting of an Armenian film entitled “Open Door” surfaced on the web, the information agency of Azerbaijan turned for commentary to Zumrud Gurbanli who is one of the leaders of Gheyrat movement for Georgia-based Azerbaijanis and who stated that “no Azerbaijani living in Georgia would ever agree to appear in a film shot by Armenians”.205
The second type of bans consists in stripping the culprit of any chance to pursue a professional activity and firing the person routinely by own wish or on the demands of the staff (the people). The charges of superfluous feelings of sympathy towards Armenians become a sufficient ground to spell doom for the accused.
The journalist Asef Guliyev was fired for his participation in an international conference on Freedom of Information in Caucasus held in Armenia on July 11–14, 2010. Immediately upon his return from Yerevan, the journalist was offered to quit of his own accord. However, he refused to do so. In addition, Guliyev emphasized that he did not represent public television at the conference, but took the trip while he was on vacation.206
On the initiative of the PACE rapporteur on the South Caucasus, Leo Platvoet, and the Chairperson of the delegation of the European Parliament to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, Marie Anne Isler Béguin, a concert by the Caucasian chamber orchestra was given on PACE premises in 2007. The orchestra was directed by conductor Uwe Berkemer (Germany). The organizers’ artistic intent for the concert was that musicians from three countries of the Southern Caucasus showed the harmony needed by the nations of the region. However, the authorities of Azerbaijan forbade Azerbaijani musicians to participate in the concert. Then, the musicians from Armenia and Georgia also played the works of Azerbaijani composers to support their fellow musicians.207
Rovshan Nasirli: On August 12, I was summoned to the Ministry of National Security and questioned why I had voted for the representatives of Armenia. I was accused of not being patriotic because Armenia occupied territory belonging to Azerbaijan. <…> The representatives of special services had the names and telephone numbers of 43 persons who had voted for the Armenian duo whose song ‘Jan Jan’ had ranked tenth in final of the Eurovision song contest held in Moscow in May of this year. <…> If it’s about a war, why then the officials of Azerbaijan, for example, Polad Bülbüloğlu, the ambassador to Russia, as well as members of the parliament visit Armenia?208
The third type of bans concerns in the first place reputed and influential persons taking the form of obstruction, defamation and public vilification in the press and may go as far as to include an entry ban or even threats of arrest.
In 2012, a group of staff members from the Azerbaijan Theater of Young Spectators filed a request with the Ministry of Culture to fire the “mercenary” artistic director Jannat Salimova on the ground that she was a “Zionist and armenophile”.
A. Idrisoglu: “J. Salimova must be released from her position”. <…> “She only engages in staging classical works without giving us a chance to stage the topical works of modern authors”. <…> “In her performances, she discredits the people of Azerbaijan”.209
N. Kyazimov: With her mixed Jewish and Lezgin ethnicity, she treats us, the staff of the theater, as a stepmother. Moreover, in a dispute with a staff member of the theater, she declared: “I love the Jewish people and I want that everybody knows that I have utmost love for the great Armenian people and I bow my head before them”. Though she renounces these words, but facts remain. I think that she must be dismissed, as a person like her has no right to work with our children.210
The case of Rustam Ibragimbekov, in whom the existing system discerned a threat, is quite emblematic. Here, a familiar arsenal of epithets is at play, such as: “Armenian servant”, “armenophile” and other similar abuse.
Yeni Azerbaijan: Rustam Ibragimbekov is ill-mannered, immoral and armenophile. <…> His invitation of the film director Roman Balayan and a certain Rudik Ovanesov who worked in one of Azerbaijan’s Ministries in the soviet times to take part in the Serq-Qerb (East-West) festival in Baku at the expense of the organizers is quoted as evidence of his sympathies towards Armenians.
Niyameddin Ordukhanli, Deputy Chairman of the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party for political matters: Ibragimbekov directly serves the interests of Armenia and Russia.
Ibragimbekov was not allowed to enter Baku. At Heydar Aliyev Airport of Baku, after an hour-long detention by the border service, one of the border guards said to the dramatist as he returned him his passport: “We don’t recognize you just as you don’t recognize our supreme commander-in-chief (i.e. the President of Azerbaijan)”. To this, Ibragimbekov replied: “I have never said that I do not recognize him. I said that if he did not recognize me, then I would not recognize him”. Ibragimbekov also pointed out to the border guard: “If you do not recognize me, then I will not recognize you”.211
Ali Ahmedov, executive secretary of the ruling party Yeni Azerbaijan (YAP): Every citizen of Azerbaijan must loathe the approach, thinking and ideology of Rustam Ibragimbekov”, said the deputy chairman in his statement to the journalists on Wednesday. – “Rustam Ibragimbekov, who considers himself an Azerbaijani intellectual, doubts that Karabakh is an Azerbaijani land. I believe that this inflicts a severe damage to the national interests of Azerbaijan.212