Leaked internal documents have exposed how Azerbaijan’s Presidential Administration has orchestrated and financed a global propaganda campaign under the guise of “Western Azerbaijan,” revealing a coordinated effort to legitimize future claims on Armenian territory through state-backed conferences, media manipulation, and pseudo-academic initiatives. Reviewed by OC Media, the documents show that the Presidential Administration directly coordinated and funded the international promotion of the so-called “Western Azerbaijan” narrative — a campaign publicly framed as humanitarian but which analysts warn could lay the groundwork for irredentist territorial claims against Armenia.
According to OC Media, Azerbaijani officials have long used the term “Western Azerbaijan” to refer to parts of Armenia’s sovereign territory — a claim repeatedly rejected by Yerevan. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has dismissed the narrative as entirely baseless, emphasizing that no such entity has ever existed or can exist within Armenia’s borders.
In recent years, Baku has centered much of its foreign messaging around the concept of “Western Azerbaijan” — a term that refers not to its own territory, but to parts, or all, of the Republic of Armenia. What began as a supposed humanitarian initiative has evolved into a state-directed communication strategy, now regularly deployed as a rhetorical and political instrument in Azerbaijan’s ongoing confrontation with Yerevan.
The leaked files reveal that although the initiative is publicly fronted by the Western Azerbaijan Community (WAC), it is in fact closely coordinated and supported by the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan, which has directly financed and supervised the campaign — organizing conferences, hiring communications consultants, and producing messaging materials. The names, dates, and contracts cited in the leaks align with publicly available records, leaving little doubt about the government’s central role in shaping the campaign.
While originally registered as a refugee association in the late 1980s, the WAC remained largely dormant until 2022, when the Azerbaijani government reactivated it and rebranded it with updated charters and a new mission aligned with Aliyev’s post-war political messaging. That same year, Azerbaijan’s parliament created a working group focused on policies of “return” to so-called Western Azerbaijan.
Independent experts describe the campaign as part of a larger state strategy to mobilize nationalism, distract from domestic discontent, and apply psychological pressure on Armenia.
“The Azerbaijani government seeks to keep nationalist fervor constantly alive,” said Altay Goyushov, a visiting scholar at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. “It serves as a tool to mobilize public opinion and distract people from social issues and their deprived rights. Moreover, it acts as a kind of Damocles’ sword to intimidate Armenia.”
Vafa Naghiyeva, a researcher at the University of Leipzig, told OC Media that beyond its geopolitical use, the discourse serves as “a symbolic extension of the post-war state narrative,” transforming displacement into “a form of moral legitimacy and collective identity” to maintain a sense of unfinished justice among the Azerbaijani public.
At the center of this campaign was a high-profile international conference held in Baku from 5–6 December 2023, titled “Ensuring the Safe and Dignified Return of Azerbaijanis Expelled from Armenia: Global Context and Just Solution.” Azerbaijani state funds exceeding ?109,000 (around $65,000) covered hotel accommodations, audiovisual production, branding, and the creation of a digital platform to circulate pro-return content.
The event hosted at least 34 foreign participants from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East — including academics from Italian and Greek universities, analysts from Russian institutions, and a representative and former advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin from Donetsk, a Russian-occupied region in Ukraine. Some participants were already based in Baku, including foreign scholars from the state-run ADA University, which also funded a book promoting the “Western Azerbaijan” narrative in October 2023.
Just days before the conference, the Strategic Communications Centre, a government-funded public union, was contracted to upload narrative content to the Virtual Western Azerbaijan portal, ensuring the conference’s messaging reached international media.
Despite these efforts, OC Media’s post-event review found limited international traction. Few participants publicly mentioned the conference after returning home, and global coverage was minimal. Within Azerbaijan, however, state media heavily quoted foreign guests endorsing the government’s messaging — a domestic propaganda success that led organizers to hold another similar event the following year. Many of the same attendees returned, joined by new participants from Western universities and media outlets, where several were presented with “memberships of gratitude” for promoting the “Western Azerbaijan” concept.
Throughout 2024, Baku expanded the campaign’s international reach, organizing additional “Western Azerbaijan” events in Germany and Brussels. Azerbaijani state media claimed over 120 participants attended the Brussels event, while the German event was co-hosted with state-linked diaspora groups. In October 2024, ruling party MP and WAC chair Aziz Alakbarli warned that Armenia must “reckon with Azerbaijan and its President” or risk “its existence as a state,” adding that Yerevan must accept all Azerbaijani conditions, including ensuring the “return” of the Western Azerbaijan Community.
It is within this context that President Ilham Aliyev’s recent speech at the 80th anniversary of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences gains new significance. In his address, Aliyev urged Azerbaijani scholars to “study and promote” the country’s history and accused Armenians of “distorting it for decades.” Most notably, he declared that Azerbaijanis “will live again in their historical lands,” clearly referring to territories inside Armenia — rhetoric directly echoing the “Western Azerbaijan” narrative revealed by the leaked documents.
By invoking these “historical lands” and calling for the creation of maps, studies, and exhibitions, Aliyev’s remarks appear to affirm and legitimize the state-coordinated campaign, blending nationalist ideology, academic propaganda, and territorial ambition.
“Azerbaijanis have never fallen victim to the disease of separatism,” Aliyev stated. “Our people have contributed to the statehood of the countries they live in, and today, in no country do Azerbaijanis create or will create problems for any state or any other people. Therefore, the return of Azerbaijanis to present-day Armenia should not frighten the Armenian people and state.”
Aliyev also referenced early 20th-century maps published by Tsarist Russia, claiming they showed that most place names in modern Armenia were of Azerbaijani origin. He pointed to Lake Sevan, which he again referred to as “Lake Goycha,” as evidence of this supposed historical reality. “These maps are based on pure historical truth. Therefore, we must promote and study this,” Aliyev stated.
In a January 2025 interview with Azerbaijani state media, Aliyev escalated his rhetoric, labeling Armenia a “fascist state” for rejecting the return of Azerbaijani refugees. “We live as neighbors to such a fascist state, and the threat of fascism persists,” he said. “Therefore, fascism must be eradicated. Either the Armenian leadership will destroy it, or we will.” The interviewer noted that Aliyev had added a new strategic goal to his previous two — the return of the Western Azerbaijan Community to Armenia — alongside the “liberation” and “reconstruction” of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
Following the U.S.-brokered August 8, 2025 summit in Washington, where Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders initialed but did not sign a draft peace treaty including clauses rejecting territorial claims and legal action in international courts, Aliyev’s rhetoric briefly softened. Analysts, however, warn that the “Western Azerbaijan” narrative remains an active political tool used to apply pressure during negotiations.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani officials and researchers continue to insist that their stance on “Western Azerbaijan” does not constitute a territorial claim.
Murad Muradov, founder of the Topchubashov Center and Azerbaijan’s delegate at the 108th Rose-Roth Seminar of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan, claimed that Azerbaijan holds no territorial ambitions under its constitution.
When pressed on whether the “Western Azerbaijan” initiative itself represents a territorial claim, Muradov replied: “Absolutely not. By saying ‘Western Azerbaijan,’ Azerbaijanis mean that they preserve and respect each other’s regional integrity. It is more of an NGO that serves the interests of the Azerbaijani people and focuses on cultural heritage, since Azerbaijanis have lived in these territories for many years and wish to visit the graves of their relatives, among other things.”
Neither the Western Azerbaijan Community nor the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan responded to OC Media’s requests for comment.
