– Citizens, predominantly comprised of the young people or rural residents who are fed up with the lawlessness and demand enjoyment of their rights
The young activists who initiated protest actions in Baku in March 2011 had their Armenian origin “unearthed”. Groups tagged March 11 were opened in social networks containing appeals for public rallies and boycott of the authorities.232
Abel Maharramov, Rector of the Baku State University: “Many of those who exhort people to a protest action over Facebook social network are of Armenian origin”. <…> The Rector added that an investigation was in progress to find out if there were any students of the Baku State University among them. We have checked; many of them have Armenian origin, and they intend to sow unrest in the country. This gives rise to a question: is it not enough that you have occupied our lands, so you are now sparking unrest to top it off? Why are they doing this? This happens because today Armenia is in a very tough situation. The teaching staff and the students of the university spurned these calls and have no intention to take part in any action whatsoever. There are isolated cases of students, mostly with poor academic record who have failed their exams. They think of other, negative things. You can find such people everywhere, especially in Armenia. We have conferred with these students, and they have realized that they ought not to walk this path”, said the rector.233
Representative of the ruling party: I want to clearly state that the young people of Azerbaijan do not support these ideas. There are many Armenians among those who come up with such appeals. Undoubtedly, these appeals by Armenians who have grabbed Azerbaijani lands are aimed against our country, because Armenians never support ideas that benefit Azerbaijan. I suggest that these young people make appeals for the liberation of Azerbaijani lands. I address all young people: you cannot stand together with those who circulate appeals supported by Armenians.234
– Criminal and marginalized elements whose presence seems to be viewed as a disgrace to the country
The Azerbaijani singer Mehrim accused a certain Samir Aliyev, who had hijacked her Mitsubishi brand vehicle, of having Armenian origin. “I met this person at the presentation of the music video by Javanshir Babelioglu. He told me that he could help me release a solo album. Then, it turned out that he was just a fraud who had earlier worked as a guard at a bank office. Recently, I’ve found out that this person is of Armenian origin. People like him who do nothing but harm to the society must be caged and held behind the bars”, said the singer.235
Outside Azerbaijan
– Persons held responsible by the Azerbaijani side for action or inaction to the detriment of Azerbaijan
In the run-up to the arrival of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former 6th UN Secretary General from 1992 to 1996, in Baku, the Azerbaijani news agency Vesti.az scanned the former secretary general, who advocated the acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide, for traces of any Armenian lineage. Ahmed Shirinov, head of the Center for Strategic Planning of Azerbaijan, stated in an interview with the agency that back in 1993, when Boutros-Ghali was UN Secretary General, four resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan were passed by the UN Security Council. “He did nothing for the enforcement of these resolutions. And do you know why? Because he is Armenian”, assured Shirinov with confidence.236
Ali Hasanov, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Committee for Affairs of Refugees and IDPs stated that Armenians could capture Shushi and Lachin with the help of Russia’s former Defense Minister Pavel Grachev. “It is no secret that P. Grachev’s mother was Armenian”, stated the Deputy Prime Minister with confidence.237
“Not only was Mr. Solovyov completely unaware of the subject of the discussion, but he lacked basic journalistic ethics and misplaced his personal attitude to a nation stemming from his partial views and marital status (it is known that Solovyov’s wife is Armenian238)”.
Mubariz Ahmadoglu, Head of the Center for Political Innovations and Technologies: During his recent airtime, Vladimir Solovyov could finally contrive a pretext to show his true attitude towards our country. He is a virulent hater of Azerbaijan and even perceives its people as animals. In fact, he serves Armenians by playing dirty tricks on our country. It is worthy of note that Solovyov’s wife is Armenian, and he has previously worked on a TV channel funded by Armenians. Therefore, in all of his programs, he seeks all possible ways to do Azerbaijan a bad turn.239
– Officials of international organizations who have “wronged” Azerbaijan in discharging their professional duties, released scathing reports about Azerbaijan’s political establishment or gave a critical commentary in respect of the country’s authorities.
Bakhtiyar Sadigov, editor-in-chief of the official newspaper Azerbaijan, in his commentary on the critical Freedom House report tagging Azerbaijan as not free stated that the organization’s criticism of Azerbaijan should be disregarded as “this organization is funded by Armenians and operates under their supervision”.240
Ogtay Asadov, the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament, in his speech at parliamentary session in May 2012, aired his dissatisfaction with the position of the European Parliament which had adopted a critical resolution on the human rights situation in Azerbaijan. According to him, the leadership of Azerbaijan put in every effort to create a climate of festivity, in response to which “the hirelings of the Armenian lobby” fabricated biased and fictitious publications in the western media. “Some forces within the orbit of the Armenian lobby are envious of the welfare and prosperity of our state”, said the parliamentarians during the discussion.241
In 2012, the website Qafqazinfo.az accused the international press publishing critical articles on Azerbaijan during the Eurovision 2012 song contest. “Hundreds of Armenian journalists from across the globe were accredited to cover the Eurovision song contest in Baku on behalf of various news outlets for a biased coverage of the situation in Azerbaijan”, writes the website and quotes the example of Margarita Antidze, Reuters Agency correspondent in Southern Caucasus who was diagnosed by the Azerbaijani media as having Armenian origin.242
Ali Aliyev, Chairman of the Citizens and Development Party (CDP), stated in his turn that a group of spies cloaked as journalists had come to Azerbaijan during the Eurovision song contest.
In order to reinforce its reasoning, justify its position and show the righteousness of its cause, the Azerbaijani propaganda quotes examples of the destructive role of Armenians or people with Armenian background from the experience of other countries (Abkhazia,243 Turkey244,245 Georgia246 and Uzbekistan247). Not infrequently, the information is either false or hypothetical (“must be of Armenian origin”, “most likely is of Armenian descent”, “quite probably of Armenian lineage”).
The examples referenced above clearly showcase the entire extent and scope of the armenophobia instilled in the minds of the people.