Individual incidents of paranoia are easily diagnosed, as the paranoid person is surrounded by people with healthy perception of the reality.
Collective paranoia is quite a different matter. Even the clear-headed, if any, must feign to share the collective delusion. In rare cases, they attempt to stand up for their cognizance of the reality and become targets to persecution and ostracism from those around them.
Apart from this, Azerbaijan relentlessly bans any positive mention or depiction of Armenians, with domestic information space bursting with pieces of information which, as we have seen above, are not only far from the reality, but are both fantastic and inconceivable. Any negative occurrence – from natural phenomena to socio-economic problems – are attributed to the insidious hand of Armenians or envious evil-wishers sponsored by Armenians.
Frequently, such paranoia takes preposterous forms. In this sense, any goods made in Armenia or by ethnic Armenians get a special treatment and are prohibited. A huge hullabaloo is raised over any commodity accidentally landing on the shelves of Azerbaijani shops.
At the outset of this strife, before the alleged reasons and motives became attuned to the ideology and logic, the most absurd reasons were brought up to justify the ban and destruction of any such merchandise. For example, this was the case with the Armenian brandy and coffee which were seized and destroyed.
The Azerbaijani website Azeritоdаy.соm: The State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan, in the framework of its No Smuggling campaign, discovered in the distribution network of Baku expired coffee and brandy produced in Armenia. The goods so discovered were destroyed in the presence of journalists. As reported by Aziz Majidov, Sector Head of State Customs Committee, the expert appraisal declared the destroyed merchandise unfit for use.364
Later, after bringing the set of categories into alignment with the official propaganda to furnish more or less logical rationale, the presence of the Armenian merchandise came to be portrayed as a manifestation of terrorism deliberately targeting the population of Azerbaijan. It must be noted that frequently, such information is either not true or intentionally distorted to further aggravate the situation.
The Azerbaijani website Bia.az: “In Azerbaijan, law enforcement authorities started a verification procedure in respect of a pediatrician who had advised his patients to use Nutrilаc infant formula365 produced by the Russian company Nitritek; the doctor faces a sentence of up to 8 years for advertising these products, since the company belonged to Armenians. Unquestionably, the purity of the foodstuffs for our children produced by Armenians cannot but be doubted. A serious expert appraisal is needed”, writes the website.366
All merchandise doubtful or harmful for the consumer is scrutinized in the first place to establish the “ethnic composition of supplier’s management”. The range of wares was further extended to include any mention of similarity or suspected Armenian origin of the goods, going as far as to cover the regional language labeling.
The Azerbaijani website Gunxeber.соm: In Baku, ladies’ knitted jackets of Turkish production and of colors reminiscent of the Armenian flag have been withdrawn from sale. “In the beginning, sellers did not understand what the problem was, but were shocked as they did and realized the blunder they had committed. The sellers took away all jackets and promised to send them back to wholesalers who had imported the wares from Turkey,” writes Gunxeber.соm website.367
The Azerbaijani website Bizim Yol: The second floor of the newly constructed Bina shopping center in Baku, houses a ladies’ wear shop where all clothing is of Armenian brand “Artsakh”368. Eyyub Huseynov, Chairman of the Free Consumers Union of Azerbaijan, stated in an interview to the newspaper that although the State Service for Consumer Market Control under the Ministry of Economic Development had previously identified and removed from the market Armenian mineral water, cigarettes and coffee, today, this service does not control the market for unknown reasons.369
The Azerbaijani website Haqqin.az published a photograph of a menu in Traveler’s Coffee, a fashionable restaurant in Baku. The photo showed Armenian lavash indicated as an ingredient of one of the dishes. Siraj Piriyev, Traveler’s Coffee corporate lawyer, found the author of the photograph, social journalist Azer Aydemir, and addressed to him several strident letters with threats of litigation and trouble. “In so doing, the lawyer S. Piriyev acknowledged the presence of the Armenian lavash in the restaurant and hurried to point out for some reason that the owners of Traveler’s Coffee have already corrected this small (?!) mistake by replacing the word “Armenian” with “Azerbaijani,” reports the website.370
The Azerbaijani newspaper Yeni Musavat: The Deniz supermarket of Baku sells Indian tea that has some labeling in Armenian. The production and packaging of the tea is commissioned by a Russian company Dialogtorg and takes place in Sri Lanka. The press secretary of State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patents of Azerbaijan, Fazil Talibli reported that the sale of merchandise with labeling in the Armenian language is prohibited in Azerbaijan. “Recently, dried fruits labeled Sevan in Armenian were discovered on sale in the Masally District. The shop was fined by the Committee, and the wares were seized and withdrawn from sale”, said Talibli and noted that goods featuring a label in Armenian and the Armenian flag are prohibited in Azerbaijan.371
The Azerbaijani website Gundelik-bаku.соm writes that the colors of the Armenian flag can recently be seen in the appearance of food and trade outlets on the streets of Baku and regions of Azerbaijan. Thus, the website gives the example of the gas station located on the square near the former bus station in the 3rd residential community of Baku that was painted after renovation in colors of the Armenian flag. “Before, the gas station was only painted in dark blue, but now orange colors have been added”, reports the website indignantly. In addition, the website discerned a link to Armenia in the name of the gas station H-Petrol by noting that there are gas stations in Armenia with this name deciphered as “Hаyаstаn-Petrоl”372.373
The Azerbaijani website Ара. az: Import of spirits and tobacco goods prevented to Azerbaijan Brandy, vodka, cigarettes and coffee were discovered to contain substances harmful for the human body <…>. The import of Armenia-produced brandy, vodka, cigarettes and coffee was prevented to Azerbaijan. This report was received by APA from the State Customs Committee. Laboratory research carried out with modern equipment at the Central Customs Examination Department of the State Customs Committee revealed that the products were made with breaches of manufacturing techniques and were unfit for use. Harmful substances were identified in these products. The State Customs Committee reiterates its warning that the import of such commodities is inadmissible and will be vigorously deterred.374
The tendency of barring entry for any literature published in Armenia, irrespective of its content, holds a special place.
Azerbaijani customs officers seized from the director of the regional representative office of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, journalist Shahin Rzayev a book by an Armenian author Tatul Hakobyan entitled “Karabakh Diary: Green and Black”.
<…> “This occurred yesterday at the customs checkpoint of Boyuk-Kesik as Rzayev returned from Georgia, from an Internews event where he had purchased the book. The customs officials seized the book under the pretext that it “was published in Armenia” and made an entry to this effect in their report.