In a Fb publish, Altay Goyusov, a historian from Azerbaijan, wrote: “I’m not excited by Zangezur or Yerevan.” His reference to the Armenian capital and part of Armenian territory the place Azerbaijan seeks a transport hall to achieve its exclave of Naxcivan was sufficient for him to be focused and tagged on Fb as a traitor.
Goyusov will not be alone. After the current army clashes on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border, Azerbaijani opponents of the federal government’s army marketing campaign are being focused on Fb and Twitter in what opposition activists declare is an orchestrated marketing campaign.
Starting on September 13, the 2 nations, which have been locked in a battle over Azerbaijan’s breakaway area of Nagorno-Karabakh for years, traded artillery and mortar hearth, and Azerbaijani forces focused websites throughout the borders of Armenia itself. Azerbaijan introduced the deaths of 79 of its servicemen, whereas Armenia stated greater than 200 of its troops have died.
The Armenian aspect has accused the Azerbaijani aspect of an invasion and requested for the instant withdrawal of Azerbaijani armed forces from Armenian territory. The Azerbaijani aspect stated that “Azerbaijan will not be excited by destabilization” and burdened Baku’s efforts to rebuild and resettle territory formally below the management of Armenia.
The hashtag #Khainitaniaq — an Azerbaijani phrase which means to “know who’s a traitor” — has been used to focus on these talking out towards the battle.
Tural Sadiqli, an Azerbaijani journalist dwelling in Germany, acquired comparable remedy. He had stated on social media that “the Azerbaijani Military crossed the Armenian border” and that “Zangezur is internationally acknowledged territory of Armenia.” For that, he, too, was branded a traitor.
One other goal of the social media marketing campaign, Tofiq Yaqublu, a number one member of the opposition Musavat get together, stated that he’s not frightened about being known as a traitor for voicing what he considers to be the right opinion.
“Those that converse the reality are thought of traitors. The truth is, it’s a harmful pattern. It is the twenty first century, however the ambiance of repression of the Thirties is coming,” Yaqublu informed RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service.
“Traitors are discovered solely in dictatorial states…. I believe that the ft of Azerbaijani troopers mustn’t have touched Armenian soil. What enterprise do we now have being in Zangezur or Goycha?”
Yaqublu added that no marketing campaign towards him will distract him from talking what he believes to be the reality. In December 2021, Yaqublu was detained after an unsanctioned opposition rally within the capital, Baku. He emerged from custody with extreme bruising on his face and physique, the end result, the authorities stated, of him punching himself.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has dominated the oil-producing former Soviet republic with an iron fist since shortly earlier than his father, Heydar Aliyev, died in 2003 after a decade in energy. The president repeatedly refers back to the opposition as “enemies.”
Azerbaijan has been repeatedly criticized by rights teams, worldwide watchdogs, and Western governments for jailing dissidents on trumped-up prices and abusing energy to stifle dissent. Dozens of journalists and members of the political opposition are nonetheless in jail on politically motivated prices. Others are hit with journey bans or fixed harassment from the authorities.
Giorgi Gogia, an knowledgeable on human rights points in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia on the New York-based Human Rights Watch, believes that such a marketing campaign, no matter who began it, is a menace to freedom of expression.
“In response to worldwide regulation, Azerbaijan and different nations have an obligation to watch freedom of expression. Worldwide regulation considers freedom of expression a elementary human proper important for democracy,” Gogia informed RFE/RL.
“The European Court docket of Human Rights has repeatedly acknowledged that Azerbaijan has a global obligation to permit the expression of every kind of opinions, together with important and surprising ones.”
It is not clear who’s accountable for beginning the #Khainitaniaq marketing campaign, though many in Azerbaijan, particularly among the many opposition, blame the federal government.
![Azerbaijani lawmaker Fazil Mustafa: "To say that 'Azerbaijan entered and occupied the territory of Armenia' is to repeat what [Nancy] Pelosi said. It is an opinion aired to get a grant from foreign intelligence."](https://gdb.rferl.org/1D08DC98-6478-475F-8CA1-4B9FD6F41744_w250_r0_s.jpg)
A professional-government deputy, Fazil Mustafa, who’s a member of the human rights committee in Azerbaijan’s largely rubber-stamp parliament, shared a “know who the traitors are” video on his Fb web page.
Chatting with RFE/RL, he stated all opinions must be handled the identical — up to some extent — and denied that the marketing campaign is carried out by the state.
In response to Mehman Aliyev, a media knowledgeable and head of the unbiased Turan information company, the favored temper is totally different now to the way it was within the aftermath of the 2020 battle.
“There may be somebody who thinks, ‘I would like peace, I condemn either side, I don’t need any preventing’ — that is an opinion and it must be handled usually. However to say that ‘Azerbaijan entered and occupied the territory of Armenia’ is to repeat what [U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy] Pelosi stated. It’s an opinion aired to get a grant from overseas intelligence,” Mustafa stated.
Throughout a go to to Armenia on September 18, Pelosi strongly condemned and blamed Azerbaijan for the newest assaults.
“We have now 1,000,000 refugees in Azerbaijan, and so they have the sensation of being a citizen,” Mustafa added. “It is a marketing campaign carried out by an Azerbaijani citizen. It’s a public course of, so it isn’t proper to hyperlink it with the title of the state.”
Armenian-backed separatists seized the primarily Armenian-populated area of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan throughout a battle within the early Nineties that killed some 30,000 folks. Diplomatic efforts to settle the battle introduced little progress over time, and the 2 sides fought one other battle in 2020 that lasted six weeks earlier than a Russia-brokered cease-fire was agreed.
Beneath the cease-fire, elements of the breakaway area and 7 adjoining districts have been returned to Azerbaijani management. An estimated 2,000 Russian troops have been deployed to maintain the peace. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally acknowledged as a part of Azerbaijan.
Aside from just a few activists calling for peace, many Azerbaijanis, together with members of the nation’s opposition, have been euphoric and supportive of the 2020 battle, seeing it as a righting of historic wrongs.
In response to Mehman Aliyev, a media knowledgeable and head of the unbiased Turan information company, the favored temper is totally different now to the way it was within the aftermath of the 2020 battle as a result of society’s expectations from the federal government after the battle haven’t materialized, folks’s livelihoods haven’t improved, and there are perceptions that veterans of the battle haven’t been taken care of by the state.
“If this [campaign] is going on, then it’s organized by somebody, and within the current case it have to be organized by the federal government,” Aliyev stated.
