Azernews.Az

Elnur Enveroglu

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Azerbaijan, whether it is Russia, Iran, or even Armenia, a neighbouring state that has occupied its territories for more than 30 years, has made serious efforts to maintain permanent normal relations. Diplomacy cannot be carried out over the traces left by historical events. This will grant a better chance for emotions to prevail, increasing hostility between the parties, and most importantly, for those who abuse such relations.

The AZAL plane crash near Aktau has brought Russia into the spotlight as the direct cause of the incident. Moreover, the Russian side's indifference to the incident angered Azerbaijan, which was actually expecting an apology and compensation from Moscow. However, the negative opinions about Russia that have emerged in recent days cannot be directly linked to the AZAL accident.

This behaviour of the Russian side has been not only towards Azerbaijan, but also towards other post-Soviet countries. Let's take Georgia, where, according to statistics, Russians living in the country do not even make up a single per cent (0.05%). After the war in 2008, the number of Russians in Georgia has sharply decreased. The situation is similar in Armenia, especially after the Second Garabagh War, against the background of the pro-Western attitude of the Armenian government, the anti-Russian position has further strengthened.

The Russian authorities' harsh and cynical stance towards their post-Soviet neighbours has also begun to change relations between nations. As in the saying, the state reflects the people.

For this reason, growing antipathy towards Russia began to emerge not only within Azerbaijan but also within the other two states in the South Caucasus.

But for some reason, today, relations between Russia and Azerbaijan are given more space in the media, and under various headlines, diplomatic relations between the two states are portrayed in an artificially tense manner.

The summoning of an Azerbaijani diplomatic representative to the Foreign Ministry in Russia and its reciprocal repetition in Azerbaijan was interpreted as a phenomenal event. Interestingly, there were many in the Russian media who described the summoning of ambassadors to the foreign ministries as if it were the beginning of a war between the two countries.

As for the information spread about the Russian House in Baku, a regular reportage was so exaggerated that it seemed as if not Russia had shot down the AZAL plane, but Baku the Kremlin with a Pantsir missile. Raising a simple and investigative report to a diplomatic level cannot be considered anything other than sowing seeds of interstate discord. It seems that the job of some media tycoons in Russia is to harass the Azerbaijani media and, by presenting the events in an exaggerated form, attract readers with news headlines.

We remind everyone once again that Azerbaijan signed a partnership agreement with Russia in 2022 to develop bilateral relations. Both independent states respect each other's territorial integrity and successfully continue cooperation in the political and economic spheres. As for the downing of the plane, this is an issue that will be resolved at the level of the heads of state, not at the level of discussion of the yellow press in Russia. Therefore, it is unnecessary to resort to various methods and publish all kinds of fake information to confuse the situation. At a time when social networks are currently actively operating, spreading false information among the public simply means discrediting oneself. The Azerbaijani media does not express a position on the Russian government. The news and video reportages prepared are intended to indicate shortcomings in the work of organisations operating in the country. No organisation, regardless of the country it represents, is perfect. As an independent state, Azerbaijan has the right to receive reports on the activities, positions, and even work of such organisations operating on its territory. If the Russian House operating in Baku acts in a way that is contrary to Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani side has the authority to take strict measures against it. This should not be considered either an insult to the official Kremlin or an anti-Russian activity.