Propaganda wolves in sheep's clothing

Farkhad Akhmedov, Ex-senator, entrepreneur, philanthropist

Having begun to suffer defeat on the battlefield, Yerevan seems to be trying to recoup in information battles. One of the main topics it threw into the media space was the accusation of Azerbaijan in international terrorism. It is with this card that Armenia, apparently, is trying to trump due to a shortage of other opportunities and resources.

This is understandable, the topic of terrorism is always resonant, always goes with a bang, especially in the Western media. There society is very afraid of everything connected with terrorist acts, militants, Islamists, having experienced it the hard way in recent years what radicalism and extremism are. And therefore, any conflict, especially in the East, is viewed through the prism of the possible spread of terrorism. Russia, a country that at the turn of the century survived terrorist attacks, explosions of residential buildings, Islamic radicalism in the North Caucasus, is also sensitive to any hints of exporting extremism, of militants entering not even their territory, but in the neighborhood.

So Yerevan has chosen a very winning topic, playing on the fears and concerns of the great powers and the world community as a whole. But are the charges addressed?

As you know, the centuries-old history of the Azerbaijani people has never been associated with terrorist activities. Azerbaijanis are peaceful people, not prone to violence, and, moreover, to terrorism. No matter how much you scroll through the archives, you will not find any traces of Azerbaijani terrorism.

Also, the Azerbaijanis were not characterized by religious fanaticism. Various confessions have always coexisted peacefully on their territory - Shiites and Sunnis, Christians and Yezidis, in Baku, even before the Soviet times, a temple of fire-worshipers functioned.

Azerbaijan buys 30% of its weapons from Israel, a state that has suffered from terrorism almost more than others and is fighting it relentlessly. The authorities of this country, of course, would never turn a blind eye to the arrival of Islamic militants in Azerbaijan and the transfer of the weapons to them.

In other words, there is no fertile ground for terrorism in Azerbaijan, from the word "absolutely". The population of the republic is used to achieving their national, political and other goals in other ways.

At the same time, as the Russian proverb says, the hat is on fire on the thief, while the other adds that “catch the thief” is the loudest shouting of the thief himself. It is known from history that Armenian nationalism has long been closely associated with terrorism. The Russian and Ottoman Empires suffered from Armenian terrorism since the end of the 19th century. Then this fire spread to other countries.

Here are just a few facts. All the main parties of Armenians before the First World War - Armenakan, Hnchak and Dashnaktsutyun almost recognized terrorism as a legal means of struggle. As a result, a series of terrorist attacks swept across Turkey, the loudest of which was the seizure of the Ottoman bank in Istanbul in 1896. The brutality of the Armenian terrorists shocked Europe, and they were expelled from France, where they tried to find shelter for themselves.

In 1905, they made an attempt on the life of Sultan Abdul-Hamid. Terrorists liquidated the Turks on the territory of Russia, as, for example, in 1899 in Crimea, Gulgulian shot Hasan Milia-oglu, explaining this as revenge for his relatives. Imperial Russia provided protection to Armenia, but they paid for it with numerous terrorist attacks.

Among the Russian officials killed by the Dashnaks, it is enough to name the vice-governor of the Elizavetpol province Andreev, the head of the Surmalinsky district of Boguslavsky, the commandant of the border garrison in Olta. The terrorists were so carried away by expropriations that they even killed ethnic Armenians, as, for example, liquidated the merchant Shakhnazarov, who refused to pay tribute to them.

The Armenian terrorists continued the tradition of settling accounts with the Turks on foreign territory after the revolution. The Dashnaks killed Talaat Pasha in Berlin in 1921, and Jemal Azmi in 1922. In 1921, Said Halim Pasha was killed in Rome. In 1922, in Tiflis, they shot Dzhemal Pasha.

Terror in those years spread to Azerbaijanis as well. The Dashnaks killed Fatali Khan Khoysky in 1920 in Tiflis, and Behbud Khan Javanshir in 1921 in Istanbul.

The bloody terrorist epic of the Dashnaks and other terrorist groups such as the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), the Armenian Secret Army for Liberation (ASOA), as well as many others, stretched over a century. In the 70-80s, many Turkish diplomats died, including ambassadors to France, the Vatican, and Austria. Radical Armenians carried out terrorist attacks throughout Europe, the USA, Turkey, the Middle East, attacked airports, and took hostages.

The terrorists were especially active on the territory of France, which was distinguished by leniency towards them because of the influence of the Armenian lobby in the country. But patience ran out in 1983, when terrorist Karapetyan blew up Orly airport, killing a large number of passengers. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but seventeen years later he was pardoned, went to Armenia, where he was greeted with enthusiasm. I would not like the President of France E. Macron, who, apparently, may also be under the pressure of the Armenian diaspora, forgot these lessons.

Natives of Armenia were the only ones in the Soviet Union who resorted to terrorist activities. Yerevan terrorists, led by Stepan Zatikyan, detonated bombs in the Moscow metro and in the center of Moscow in January 1977, killing seven people and wounding several dozen.

Perestroika had barely begun when Armenian terrorism flared up with renewed vigor. In April 1991, Colonel Vladimir Blakhotin was killed in the center of Rostov-on-Don. The killers, sentenced to long terms, were soon transferred to Yerevan, where they were greeted as national heroes. And their accomplice was never extradited from Armenia - right at the Yerevan airport, she was repulsed by armed militants.

The habit of resolving issues by extreme means - murder - so entered flesh and blood in Armenia that they were widely resorted to even during disputes "between their own". For example, in 1999 in Yerevan terrorists of Hunanyan's group broke into parliament and shot Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Speaker Karen Demirchyan and a number of other deputies.

During the first Karabakh war, many international terrorists came to the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, including from the Middle East, suffice it to recall Monte Melkonyan. The memory of this terrorist is honored throughout Armenia today.

It seems that today history is repeating itself, again terrorists from all over the world come to Karabakh, and to cover them, in fact, there is a fuss about other terrorists, only imaginary.

The official Yerevan's pressure on the Russian authorities on the topic of international terrorism is simply striking in its persistence and impudence. Apparently, things at the front are not going well at all, and in Armenia, apparently, they are already ready to grasp this topic with the insistence of a drowning man grabbing at straws.

However, no encouraging signals are coming from the Kremlin. Representatives of the Russian authorities make only routine statements. So the expectations of Moscow's interference were not fulfilled.