• Geopolicy
• National Security
• Issues of Armeniancy
• Economy

08.02.2010

PROPAGANDA MACHINERY OF AZERBAIJAN: NEW TENDENCIES

   

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:

1. Armenia is on the verge of economic collapse, the population is famishing and ready to make any concessions to save from the starvation death.
2. Armenian army is demoralizing; soldiers desert to Azerbaijan, corruption grew, the moral and fighting spirit are at a very low level.
3. 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.
4. The population of Karabakh is ready to be a part of Azerbaijan and do not want to bind their future to poor Armenia.
5. 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:

1. Despite the global economic crisis, the economy of Azerbaijan continued to grow in 2009.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. In case of the solution of the Karabakh issue Azerbaijan is ready to invest more in the restoration of Nagorno-Karabakh.
5. 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.

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