As always, the first article in the 42nd issue of our journal is “Facts And Comments”. This article covers Turkey-Armenia relations as well as domestic and international developments of Armenia in the period of August to December of 2020. The period has brought about disastrous developments for Armenia, starting with an inapt handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, a sharp downturn in the economy, and disappointing failures of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government in fulfilling its promises and carrying out reforms. To divert attention away from its failures, the government has played the radical nationalism card and has adopted a bellicose rhetoric that has led to a war with Azerbaijan, resulting in a humiliating defeat for Armenia. Turkey, having firmly expressed its support for Azerbaijan, was officially declared by Armenia to be the enemy, leading to an all-time low in bilateral relations between the two sides.
In their article titled “The Propaganda In Armenia Of The Five-Year Development Plans Implemented In The Soviet Union”, Tuğba Baytimur, Caner Çakı, and Ferit Arda Arıca analyze several propaganda posters prepared by the Soviet Union to convince the people of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic that the five-year development plans of Soviet Union would be beneficial for Armenia and its people and also the Soviet Union as a whole. Using Karl Bühler’s Organon Model, the authors interpret the “expressiveness”, “representation”, and “appeal” functions of the propaganda posters, thereby revealing the messages that Soviet authorities were trying to give to the masses. The authors argue that the propaganda posters that did not seek to glorify Communist ideology or leadership cults, but rather emphasized the importance of work and labor.
In her article titled “Implementation Of The EU’s Normative Power In Armenia: Transformation Or Toleration?”, Tutku Dilaver evaluates the effectiveness of the European Union as a “normative power” in Armenia. To achieve this, she first delves into the literature of normative power and the EU’s overall stance concerning this form of power. She also comprehensively narrates the history and framework of the relations between the EU and Armenia, highlighting what the EU seeks to achieve in Armenia and how Armenia approaches the EU. Dilaver’s study reveals that the EU cannot use its normative power in Armenia effectively, both because of EU’s inconsistent and lax approach towards Armenia in the implementation reforms and Armenia’s unwillingness to carry out reforms due to the subversive influence of Russia in the country. As such, the EU is demonstrated to be only a limited normative power in Armenia.
In her article titled “Attempts By Armenia And Related Actors To Disrupt Azerbaijan-Georgia Relations”, Samira Habibbayli examines the activities of Armenia (and actors related to this country through kinship or interest) carried out to negatively influence the bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia. Habibbayli begins by outlining the positions of Azerbaijan and Georgia on the one hand, and Armenia on the other hand in the South Caucasus. Feeling left out of the regional cooperation between Azerbaijan and Georgia and neighboring countries such as Turkey and threatened by the successes of its rival Azerbaijan, Armenia seeks ways to sabotage the relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia. For this, Armenia utilizes a multitude of actors, including government officials, NGOs, religious functionaries, and foreign politicians. Habibbayli argues that Armenia does manage to cause provocations and tensions in Azerbaijani-Georgia relations, but that Azerbaijani-Georgia relations enjoy a strong foundation that must nevertheless be strengthened to better resist attempts at sabotage.
In her article titled “The Events In Zangezur From 1918 To 1921 And The Transfer Of Zangezur To Armenia”, Ceyda Acicbe narrates the chain of events that resulted in the transfer of the Azerbaijani land of Zangezur to Armenia in a fait accompli manner. Acicbe explains to the reader the importance of Zangezur for the Caucasus region and how the various powers viewed this strategically important piece of land. Despite historically being an Azerbaijani land, the political situation began to turn against Azerbaijanis favor in terms of Zangezur with the excursions of Tsarist Russia into the South Caucasus in the 19th century and the mass arrival of Armenians to region with the encouragement of the Russians. Through the mass violence perpetrated by radical-nationalist Armenian groups and the political machinations in the Soviet Union geared towards cutting off Azerbaijan’s ties with Turkey and the wider Turkish world, Zangezur became a part of Armenia.
Have a nice reading and best regards,
Editor
Contributors (Yazarlar): p. 5
Editorial Note (Editörün Notu): p. 7
ARTICLES (MAKALELER): p. 9
Alev KILIÇ - “Facts and Comments” (“Olaylar ve Yorumlar”): p. 9 (Editorial / Başyazı)
Tuğba BAYTİMUR - Caner ÇAKI - Ferit Arda ARICA - “The Propaganda In Armenia Of The Five-Year Development Plans Implemented In The Soviet Union” (“Sovyetler Birliğiʼnde Uygulanan Beş Yıllık Kalkınma Planlarının Ermenistanʼdaki Propagandası”): p. 81 (Research Article / Araştırma Makalesi)
Tutku DİLAVER - “Implementation Of The EUʼs Normative Power In Armenia: Transformation Or Toleration?” (“ABʼnin Ermenistanʼdaki Normatif Güç Uygulamaları: Dönüşüm mü, Müsamaha mı?”): p. 103 (Research Article / Araştırma Makalesi)
Samira HABİBBAYLİ - “Attempts By Armenia And Related Groups To Disrupt Azerbaijan-Georgia Relations” (“Ermenistan ve Bağlantılı Aktörlerin Azerbaycan-Gürcistan İlişkilerini Bozma Çabaları”): p. 123 (Research Article / Araştırma Makalesi)
Ceyda ACİCBE - “The Events In Zangezur From 1918 To 1921 And The Transfer Of Zangezur To Armenia” (“1918-1921 Yıllarında Zengezurʼda Yaşanan Olaylar ve Zengezurʼun Ermenistanʼa Verilmesi”): p. 151 (Translation / Çeviri)
Alev KILIÇ graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences of Ankara University in 1968. The next year, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey. Kılıç served as Ambassador to F.R. of Yugoslavia between 1996 and 1998 and Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg between 1998 and 2001. In 2001-2004, he served as the Deputy Undersecretary for Economic Affairs of the Ministry. He served as Ambassador to Switzerland (2004-2009) and Ambassador to Mexican United States (2009-2011). He retired from the Ministry in 2011. Ambassador (R) Kılıç has been the Director of Center for Eurasian Studies (AVİM) since 2013.
PhD (c) Tuğba BAYTİMUR graduated from the Department of English Language and Literature of Ankara University in 1999. She worked as an English teacher in the academic year of 1999-2000, and as a lecturer at the School of Foreign Languages of İnönü University between 2000 and 2016. In 2017, she completed the Communication Sciences Master's Program jointly opened by İnönü University and Fırat University. She continues her doctorate level education at the Public Relations and Advertising Department of Maltepe University. Her academic interests include political communication, propaganda, media literacy, and semiotic analysis.
Res. Asst. Caner ÇAKI graduated from the Department of Public Relations and Advertising of Karadeniz Technical University in 2012. He completed his master’s degree in the Department of Communication Sciences at Inonu University in 2016. In the same year, he started his doctorate level education at the Department of Communication Sciences of Erciyes University. He has worked as a research assistant at Inonu University since 2015. His research areas include propaganda, political communication, social media, and public relations. He has pursued studies on the propaganda activities of different countries such as Germany under Nazi Party rule, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China. He has published studies on propaganda in many national and international journals. He is also the editor of three books titled "Propaganda and Communication", "Propaganda Music in Turkish Political Life", and "Propaganda Studies in Turkish Political Life".
Lecturer Ferit Arda ARICA graduated from the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema of Ankara University. He completed his master’s degree at the Department of Communication Sciences of Inonu University in 2017. Subsequently, he started to pursue his doctorate level education at the Department of Communication Sciences of Sakarya University. In the same year, he began serving as a lecturer at the Department of Radio and Television Programming of İstanbul Gelişim University. He has conducted studies on propaganda, political communication, and social media and has published these studies in various academic journals.
Tutku DİLAVER graduated from the Department of International Relations of Ankara University in 2015. After her graduation, she took lectures on EU-Turkey Relations, EU Law, and EU History at the master’s level in the European Union and International Economic Relations program of Ankara University’s European Communities Research and Implementation Center (ATAUM). In 2020, she completed her master’s degree in the Caucasus Studies Program under the Department of International Relations at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University’s Institute of Social Sciences. During her undergraduate studies, Dilaver participated in the Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Commerciales (AIESEC) student community as a volunteer. In 2016, she worked as the Project Assistant in a private company dealing with European Union projects. After her completion of a six-month trainee program in the Center for Eurasian Studies (AVİM) in August 2017, Dilaver joined AVIM as a Scholar in Residence. She has been working as an Analyst at AVİM since August 2019.
PhD (c) Samira HABİBBAYLİ received her undergraduate and master’s level law degrees from Nakhchivan State University in 2004 and 2007, respectively. Since 2018, she has been pursuing her doctorate level education on international relations at the Institute of Law and Human Rights of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), focusing on the subject of “Azerbaijan-Georgia relations: background, developments, and prospects”. At the same time, she serves as the Head of the Human Resources at the Institute of Caucasus Studies of ANAS. She is the author of 16 academic articles in the field of international relations.
Ceyda ACİCBE graduated from the Department of Sociology of Middle East Technical University in 2017. After completing her undergraduate degree, she began a graduate program with thesis in the Department of Sociology of the same university. During her graduate studies, she has benefited from the project-based Mevlana Exchange Programme established by the Turkish Higher Educational Council. Within the scope of the Mevlana program, she took undergraduate and graduate level courses at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv during the 2018-2019 academic year as well as taking part in two different projects as a researcher. Acicbe has been working as an Analyst at the Center for Eurasian Studies (AVİM) since September 2019.
