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31.01.2008

ON THE PROBLEM OF THE INCREASING NUMBER OF AZERBAIJANI WEB-SITES IN THE INTERNET

   

Haykaram Nahapetyan

1_internet_ (medium) The number of anti-Armenian sites on Karabakh issue, which are mainly created in Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani communities settled in other countries, are increasing year by year. The sites of anti-Armenian character are focused on denying the Armenian Genocide, falsifying the Armenian history, the activity of ASALA organization are also being created by the initiative of Turkey, however, today Baku is more active than its “elder brother.”

In particular, to make sure of the big number of Azerbaijani-Turkish sites, one should only type the words “Karabagh” or “Garabagh” in the internet searching systems (www.google.com, www.yandex.ru and etc.) and the system will show up more Azerbaijani and Turkish than Armenian information on Karabakh. At the same time, if we make a search by the word “Artshakh,” the number of Armenian sites found will prevail, however, one should take into consideration that the international community is almost unfamiliar with the other name of Karabagh - Artsakh, and to get acquainted with this subject in the internet sites the foreigners will look for the names “Karabakg” and “Nagorno-Karabakh.” In this way Azerbaijan and Turkey have carried out much more propagandist work to succeed, which, to some extent has changed the state of affairs in the information war, and, per se, is not always counter-acted by the Armenian party.

www.irevan-az.com – the very site is the most obvious proof of the Azerbaijani party being more active. This is an Azerbaijani site in Armenian, where Baku places agitation materials, news and disinformation, analogical articles, historical features, audio recordings, photos and even caricatures on the subject. In the site there are sections about the Karabakh war, Khojalu events, photo-archives. There are also inserted the photos of Artsakh “safe hven,” today’s Aghdam, devastated settlements of Ghubatli. It is not quite clear how the Azerbaijani party managed to get new photos of Artsakh’s safety haven, i.e. the photos of districts which are contiguous to the militarized and front lines?

It should also be mentioned that the materials of the above mentioned site are not stated in a literate Armenian. However, these mistakes are not that much, especially if we take into account that the Armenian sites themselves are not that ideal. One should suppose that the site is made by some Azerbaijanis who occurred to live in Armenia in the past and know the language. A more “pessimistic” version of recruiting Armenian specialist is less possible but theoretically is not excluded. However, the site is made by the Azerbaijani “state order.”

The Armenian party hasn’t got any propagandistic site in Azerbaijani language. As it is known, there are a few Turkish versions – the Turkish section of the “Azg” newspaper and the Turkish language site www.ermeni.org.

One should mention that the Armenian site may pursuit no serious propagandistic objectives, as Baku has minimum chances to influence on the Armenian reader to reconsider his position. Here it is more important the fact that the Azerbaijanis embrace such a “broad front” creating sites not only in Russian, English and French languages but also in Armenian. Such a site has not only propagandistic effect, but also the effect of “physiological attack.” The enemy has been evidently carrying out active work.

In December was created the Russian version of the site.

The site www.iravan.com represents “data” that the territory of the present Armenia is historically Azerbaijani. Here are separately cited all the Armenian toponyms which have Azerbaijani-Turkish origin and have been made Armenian: Amamlu (Spitak), Chomburuk (Chambarak), Aghbulagh (Lusaghbyur), Nor Bayazet (Gavar), Jalaloghli (Stepanavan), etc. Here are also brought encyclopedic data about the settlement of these towns and localities, rise in the number of population, dates the toponyms changed. In the site is placed the picture of Ararat Mountain as the symbol of “nostalgia” of Azerbaijanis for Eastern Armenia.

www.karabakh.gen.az is concentrated on the subjects “genocides of Azerbaijanis” in Khojalu, “Armenian terrorism” and the Karabakh war. In his voluminous publication inserted in the site the professor Ismail Veliev condemns the activity and political line of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Party. Adil Badirov mentions that the information on the strength of army in Karabakh is false and that it is being spread by journalists bribed by Armenians and at the same time remembers about the film on the Russian HTB channel about the NKR defense army. In the very site, together with other falsified information, is supplied information about “destruction of Azerbaijani monuments in Armenia and especially in Zangezur and in the safe haven.”

The site www.karabakh.co.uk has been made by the “Azerbaijani community in London,” in particular, by the members of this structure - Tale and Nijad Heydarovs. This site as well has sections of historical feature, photos, audio records, integrity of information and disinformation. Here are mentioned the names of the well known Azerbaijani military and cultural men. The list of Azerbaijani military men of Karabakg origin is limited by 5 names, 3 of which lived in the Middle Age, and the other two were known in the period of Soviet rule – Colonel Aslan Vezirov and General Khalil Mamedov. In this regard the list of only Armenian marshals surpasses the one of all the Azerbaijani high-ranking military men taken together.

The site www.human.az has been made by the state commission engaged in the issues of the missing prisoners of war. From the technical standpoint the site has quite a high level: besides the information section, it has a section of video spots in multimedia format, music and clips. From the standpoint of contents, it reflects all the sites mentioned above. There is a section on “Armenian terrorism,” it also presents the UN decisions on Karabakh issue, the decree of H. Aliyev to celebrate the 31st of March as the “day of Azerbaijani genocide,” etc.

Besides the sections mentioned above the site http://www.khocaly.s5.com turns to the personality of Ramil Safarov, presenting him in a positive light. Here are separately presented pre-war photos of territories controlled by NKR at present, “history of Azerbaijani genocide perpetrated by Armenians in 1918-20.” “20% of the Azerbaijani Republic is still occupied by Armenians. Nothing and no one is forgotten. This land is calling for its only patriotic generation – us,” – is mentioned in the site.

The subject of Khojalu “genocide” is also being touched in the site www.khojaly.net. Here are inserted photos, documents and data. The site http://azerigenocide.org again touches upon the subject of “genocide in Khojalu” and “other perpetrations of genocide against the Azerbaijani nation.”

The site http://aliyevheritage.org is an online library, where one can find information about the activity of H. Aliyev, his speeches and announcements. The site was created on May10, 2004 and has sections in 26 languages (!). In the “electronic kitabkhana” are presented the speechs of H. Aliyeb on Karabakh issue in chronological order – from 1993 to 2002.

On the site www.youtube.com are inserted two video spots on NK subject, in one of which one can hear Azerbaijani music and in the second one are presented allegedly Russian hirelings fighting in the NK on the side of Armenians.

The list of Azerbaijani sites of anti-Armenian character is not limited by the ones mentioned above. The sites http://karabakh-doc.azerall.info, http://www.tallarmeniantale.com, http://www.war-culture.az, http://conflict.aznet.org, http://www.azerbaijanfoundation.org, http://www.human.gov.az, http://www.azeri.ws, http://www.axtar.az, http://www.azeribook.com, http://shusha.aznet.org are not all the ones engaged in Azerbaijani propagandistic attacks. In this aspect is seems to be expedient to make the strategy of the RA information security more clear and work out mechanisms of corresponding “counter attacks.”


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