Interview with Yegana Salman, head of Israel's Azerbaijani Cultural Centre and a member of the board of the Israel-Azerbaijan Association.
Q: Azerbaijan is promoting an image worldwide as a model Islamic country, where representatives of many nations and religions coexist peacefully. What is behind the disgusting reaction from Russian journalist Vladimir Solovev to the refusal to allow a Russian company employee of Armenian descent, S. Gurjian, to board a plane to Baku, especially against the backdrop of positive Azerbaijani-Russian relations?
A: In my opinion, this incident took place according to a scenario in the style of contemporary journalism: a character, in this case, of a certain nationality, provoked a scandal in order not to be allowed onto the Moscow-Baku flight and to give journalist Solovyev something to talk about in his program, allowing the latter to "fulfill" his objective according to a pre-planned scenario.
Nowadays the key objective of journalists, forgive my frankness, is to increase the ratings of the program and the company they work for. As bitter as it may sound, people are more interested in scandal. And if this is about a well-known issue like the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, there is no need to be very wise in this regard because fertile ground has been created for anti-Azerbaijani propaganda since Soviet times.
The word "Azerbaijani" almost acquired the meaning "a bad man", "a nationalist", "a religious fanatic", or "pan-Turkist", although, in fact, we know that all these definitions are not true about the vast majority of Azerbaijanis. On the contrary, these are features that can be found in people of your nationality least of all. But, as the saying goes, “a lie has short legs”. The truth will triumph one day and all the hype about Gurjian was fabricated in order to attract audiences and carry out the “order”.
And the outcome is that everyone began to talk about this radio station which no one talked about before. And the journalist is already famous. You know, there's a saying, I don't remember whose, "When the good fight evil, the audience often wins." This is exactly what the “customer” of this “show” needed.
Q: How did Israeli nationals, who are natives of Azerbaijan, take Solovev’s remarks?
A: People from Azerbaijan understood this whole situation easily from the very beginning. Everyone remembers that "rumours ran ahead of the events themselves" in the 1990s and anti-Azerbaijani propaganda and sentiments were clearly pre-planned.
Therefore, it was clear for former residents of various ethnicities from Azerbaijan that it is impossible to believe any anti-Azerbaijani remarks. It is clear to everyone that it was one of the stages in an information war waged solely to harm the good name of the Azerbaijani people.
Q: Should state agencies interfere in similar incidents to prevent this happening again in future? Or is the response of public figures and journalists to such anti-Azerbaijani remarks satisfactory?
A: I don’t think there are mechanisms able to influence such incidents. Similarly, I don’t think it is possible to go back to the times when there was a censor and each publication in the press was monitored by the state. I believe journalists and public organizations and even individuals who may have their say in defence of a person or an entire nation should make efforts in this regard. People should simply understand that everyone can make their own input into the defence of justice. I do not believe that the good should win with their fists, but they should certainly not be passive.
Q: Armenians and their sympathizers still dominate in the Russian media, especially on TV. Can it be said that the information war waged by Armenia against Azerbaijan is not as bad as it was in the first years of the Karabakh conflict?
A: Of course, the situation is not as bad as you described it. But the Azerbaijani people need to work hard to continue to disseminate facts about the history and roots of the conflict, write books and articles on the history of the Karabakh conflict based on documentary evidence, to create literary and artistic works on this subject, to participate in international festivals and competitions held on all continents. They need to use all means to promote a good image of the country and people across the world.
Unfortunately, it is no secret that propaganda is ahead of history, but people say that rumour runs ahead of a man and it takes great effort to win a good name back.
Azerbaijani people believe in good and that truth will win finally. But the fact is that the Azerbaijani people should not give up the information war until justice prevails.
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