T he general meeting of "Azerbaijan Refugees Society" NGO was held on August 3, 2022. The NGO was reorganized and de jure renamed under the name “West Azerbaijan Community”. The fake place name “West Azerbaijan” targeting the current sovereign territory of Armenia is just the beginning of the great layer of propaganda that was placed at the core of this NGO’s formation.

It is worth noting not only the fact that in the ideological justifications of the “West Azerbaijan Community” NGO’s formation, almost the entire territory of present-day Armenia is considered and presented as “historical Azerbaijani land”, where “the Azerbaijani people, who always prevailed quantitatively should return to their ancestral lands”, but also the rhetoric of the head of the NGO to the Armenian people, full of elements of hate speech. The chairman of the NGO is the parliamentarian and the member of the New Azerbaijan ruling party Aziz Yusif Alakbarli, who as presented, was born in the Soviet Armenia in 1960 and moved to Baku in autumn in 1988.  

Unlike similar organizations and initiatives created and operating in Azerbaijan (such as the Republic of West Azerbaijan (Irevan) in Exile, The Republic of Gyoycha-Zangezur and Western Azerbaijan Return Union, etc.) it is noticeable that this NGO also has a state patronage. Apart from the attention given to it by Azerbaijani state and pro-government media, this is also evidenced by the fact that 24 members of Azerbaijani Parliament are members of it.

It can be argued that an attempt is being made to build the path of the “West Azerbaijan Community” NGO following the example of “Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh” NGO operating in 2006-2021 and declaring itself as an organization representing interests of Azerbaijanis living in Nagorno-Karabakh before the conflict. The NGO operating under the chairmanship of Tural Gyanjaliyev since 2018, that after the 44-day Artsakh war was renamed into “Return to Karabakh” on April 30, 2021, became a serious propaganda and pressure tool against Artsakh and Armenia in the hands of the Azerbaijani authority before the war.

The formation and goals of the “West Azerbaijan Community” NGO

T he observations about the need to clarify the existing territorial and other claims to the Republic of Armenia besides the Republic of Artsakh, to put them on an institutional basis, the convenient historical moment and the favorable geopolitical atmosphere to present them to Armenia, allusions and emphasis made even at the level of the President of Azerbaijan activated shortly after the 44-day war. Meanwhile, their implementation trends are becoming even more pronounced and noticeable these days. 

It is in this context, that the performance of the “West Azerbaijan Community” NGO and the goals set for it should be considered, such as:

• “To restore the rights of Azerbaijanis and their heirs at the international level, who were deported en masse from the territory of Armenia due to their ethnicity at different times”.
• “To study, promote and prevent the complete destruction of the rich historical and cultural heritage created by the Azerbaijani people on the territory of Armenia”.
• “To ensure the right of those people to return to their ancestral lands and achieve coexistence”.  

In this regard, the following highlights should be noted: if until now the “Azerbaijani Refugee Community” NGO, operating 33 years since 1989, was engaged in social and resettlement issues of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia from 1988-1991, then according to Aziz Alakbarli, the “West Azerbaijan Community” NGO will raise the voice about “the rights of the Azerbaijanis and their heirs deported, subjected to genocide and ethnic cleansing by Armenians and their patrons in the historical lands of Azerbaijan for the past 220 years”. Besides 1988-1991, it is particularly mentioned about the need for material and moral compensation of those “expelled” in the years between 1948-1953 and 1918-1920, and their heirs who are now more than 5 million today. Another false thesis, no less worth of attention is the fabricated claim about the “historical and cultural heritage of Azerbaijanis who have lived in the territory of the Republic of Armenia for thousands of years”. Although this claim isn’t new at all and has always been circulated in Baku, it has especially been coordinated and spread through various means in recent months. One of the clear examples of this is the research carried out by Azerbaijani historian Sabuhi Huseynov and the book written on its results about the alleged Azerbaijaniness of Kond district in Yerevan. His “work” presented to the public with propaganda in July, is entitled: “The fate of Tepebashi quarter, the last remnant of Azerbaijan's national-cultural and historical heritage in Irevan city: the destruction of the heritage of the Azerbaijani people in Armenia and the erasure of historical traces”. The propaganda to achieve coexistence with Armenians is even more interesting than the stated goal of “returning” Azerbaijanis to Armenia, when even the chairman of the NGO considers it practically impossible. In this regard, we should quote an emphasis from Aziz Alakbarli words, made during the interview with the Azerbaijani APA news agency: “…Peaceful coexistence with Armenians is practically impossible. Since the historical experience shows that this psychologically sick society, the Armenians, are never able to live peacefully with their neighbors”.  

The statements of the head of the “West Azerbaijan Community” NGO and its members  are also important, which not only question the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia, but are also clear examples of the threat of force usage towards Armenia and the Armenian people. Thus, besides the fact that they call the territory of the Republic of Armenia as “Western Azerbaijan”, and give Azerbaijani names to the regions, towns and villages of Armenia, such as Irevan, Gyoycha, Zangibasar, etc., the chairman of the NGO Alakbarli also states:

• “This struggle will continue until our people return to their native lands. It will be good for Armenians if this issue is resolved peacefully, otherwise we may have to look for other ways to return to our homes” (1).
• “We do not forget about the safety of those people[those returning to Armenia]. For this, first of all, all the Azerbaijani settlements in Zangezur, Darelayaz and Goycha, where Armenians have been resettled in the last 34 years, should be vacated and returned to their owners” (1).
• “Western Zangezur, Darelayaz district and a part of Gyoyche were torn from Azerbaijan without any legal basis during the Soviet rule and given to Armenia. As the Republic of Azerbaijan is the successor of the Azerbaijan People's Republic, the Republic of Armenia is the successor of the then Republic of Ararat. At that time, the territory of our Republic was 114 thousand square kilometers, and the territory of the Republic of Ararat was only 9 thousand square kilometers. Therefore, Armenia should withdraw to those 9 thousand square kilometers” (1). 

Estimates given to the formation of the “West Azerbaijan Community” NGO in Baku

T he political, expert and media estimates about the formation of the “West Azerbaijan Community” NGO can be observed in two layers: the first is the justification for the need to form the NGO with the repetition of the theses about “the entire territory of Armenia historically belonging to Azerbaijanis”. The second is the potential targets that Baku thinks would be good to achieve in the short and long-term using the NGO or the ideas behind it. When summarizing and briefly presenting these targets, it will turn out:

• “Moral and psychological problems must continuously be created for Armenia through the “West Azerbaijani Community” NGO, to turn Armenia into a country that only responds to the demands of Azerbaijan” (1,2).
• “The presence of the West Azerbaijani community at the negotiating table with Armenia should be made a reality” (1).
• “The resettlement of Azerbaijanis in the territory of Armenia should be put forward as an active political goal, and finally achieve it. Azerbaijanis resettled in Armenia should be given a clear status” (1,2,3,4,5).

At the same time, it should be noted, that the creation of the “West Azerbaijan Community” is qualified as “the first stage of practically forming territorial claims against Armenia”.

Thus, we can state that after the 44-day Artsakh war, a new process already started in Azerbaijan in the direction of creating a toolkit for exerting pressure on the Republic of Armenia or just updating the toolkit prepared long ago.