The special services of Armenia and other countries are trying to make the most of the temporary tension between Iran and Azerbaijan, aggravate the situation, and influence the masses' psychology with a large flow of misinformation. In recent days, the edited videos shared on social media, the news spread by the Russian yellow press that military operations are conducted on the Azerbaijan - Iran border, and there are even losses on the other side. Of course, it is evident that there is a force (or forces) behind the large flow of misinformation that plays a provocative role.
Let's give an example.
Recently, a video has been released showing one of Iran's most prominent mujtahids, Ayatollah Mujtahid Tehrani, speaking out against the Turkish language during a sermon. In the video, Ayatollah Mujtahid quotes narrations saying that the language of the people of Hell is Turkish and the language of the people of Jannah (paradise) is Persian.
The video's title on the YouTube channel Azoh Guney Azerbaycan, where it was shared, is "Ayatollah Ahmad Mojtahedi Tehrani: The language of the people of hell is Turkish." The text is as follows:
"The release of a short audio file once again exposed aspects of the oppression of the Turkish nation in Iran. According to Azouh, in this short audio file, Ayatollah Ahmad Mojtahedi refers to the situation of the people of Hell in his Tehran sermons and calls their language Turkish. He repeats it many times and recurrently insults the Turks. He claims that there is a legend that the language of the people of Hell is Turkish and that the one who goes to Hell will speak Turkish. He says a few Turkish sentences, pointing out that he learned Turkish by working in the market: 'If the Arabs and Persians go to Hell, they will go from there!'"
The exact time of Mojtahedi Tehrani's speech is unknown. Mojtahedi, a student of Ayatollah Khomeini, was suffering from respiratory and heart problems in the last years of his life. He died on December 14, 2007, at the age of 85, in Bazarganan Hospital in Tehran.
The same video was shared on another channel under the title "Persian religious morality teacher: the language of Hell is Turkish" (published on May 14, 2015), and another channel shared it with the title "Turkish is the language of Hell (Ayatollah)" on January 8, 2020. There are many such posts.
What the Iranian mujtahid said is not a subject of debate, because scientists, linguists, historians and theologians have repeatedly given a decent answer to him in the Azerbaijani media.
A completely different point attracted our attention, and for this reason, we did research.
Let's listen carefully to the voice of the lady in the video.
Then, let's listen to the woman who voiced this video shared by the Azerbaijani language service of the Armenian Public Radio.
They sound the same, don't they?
At this point, we would like to remind our readers that there were widespread discussions on the social network about the launch of the Azerbaijani language website of the Public Radio of Armenia in 2017. Azerbaijani social network users said that the service broadcasted its news on Facebook, and it was already being followed in Azerbaijan.
But who is the fluent Azerbaijani-speaking specialist at the Public Radio of Armenia?
It is known that Talyshistan TV and Talyshistan Radio, created by the Armenian special services in late 2014, are broadcast from Yerevan. The initiator of this "organization" is Alikram Humbatov, who wanted to establish a "Talysh-Mugan Republic" in Azerbaijan, then got arrested for separatism. Now he lives in the Netherlands, does not hide his hatred for Azerbaijan, and has very close ties with Armenian special services. According to media reports, TV and radio promoting separatism were headed by Levon Malik-Shahnazaryan, chairman of the Voskanapat Foundation in Yerevan and former head of the Armenian National Security Service.
Those who watch the programs of this "channel" know that the lady among the presenters. Zabil Maharramov introduces this woman, who wears a hijab, tries to look like a decent and modest believer in front of the camera, and says that she is "pious", as "hajjah Ilhama Jafarzadeh".
However, an Azerbaijani who used to work at the Yerevan State Drama Theater said on Facebook that she was not only a pilgrim, but also an Azerbaijani, a believer and a Muslim. This woman in hijab, fluent in Azerbaijani, is actually an Armenian Marietta Vartanian.
Who is this Marietta Vartanyan?
She is Karimova Marieta Maharram gizi, born in 1952 in the Gazakh district of Azerbaijan. Her father was a Muslim Kurd and her mother an Armenian. When her parents divorced, Marietta moved to Yerevan with her mother. According to some reports, Marietta, who was beautiful in her youth, worked as an actress in less important roles in the Yerevan Theater. At this time, she met Vrej Vartanyan, the administrator of the Yerevan Theater and a Dashnak supporter, and claiming that she was pregnant with him (and, according to some reports, threatening him with her ties to the Armenian SSR KGB), made the naive Vrej marry her and became Vartanian herself. Her son Armen, who was conceived before her marriage and born after she got married, was drafted into the Armenian National Security Service when he grew up and is currently serving there. Apparently, neither Marietta nor her husband are Talysh.
The media wrote:
The idea of filming the programs of the “Talishstan National Television” from Yerevan could have completely failed, and doing it in Russia required a large budget. Therefore, Garnik Asatryan tried another way - he found a person in Armenia who knew the Azerbaijani language well and brought her to the “Talishstan National Television” project. The only problem was that Marietta Vartanyan, an honored artist of the Azerbaijan SSR, did not look like Azerbaijanis. Armenian special services solved this problem by inventing a character named Ilhama Jafarzadeh. Actress Marietta Vartanyan began to play the role of Ilhama Jafarzadeh, the presenter of the “Talishstan National Television.” To fill in the gaps, Garnik Asatryan turned to his loyal man, Fakhraddin Abbaszadeh, and he personally prepared the legend of Marietta’s appearance in the programs in the image of a religious Muslim woman.
There is a note about the presenter named "Ilhama Jafarzadeh" in the criminal case of Fakhraddin Abbasov, accused of treason. Abbasov said that one of the hosts of the "Turkish programs" of the "Talishistan National Television" Ilhama Jafarzadeh was an Armenian actress Marietta Vartanyan.
“She wore a hijab, wore glasses and presented the program. No Talysh has never worked at that channel. It was just Zabil. Garnik Asatryan could not find a Turk for the programs. He said that there were many Armenians who knew Turkish and Azerbaijani, but he did not want them because they spoke with an Armenian accent. I told him that there were many Azerbaijani women in Yerevan with Armenian husbands. Asatryan said that there was one, but she was ugly. I advised that if she wore glasses and a hijab she would look like a Turk. I said she would look like a normal intelligent person with glasses. He introduced her as Irada,” Abbasov said.
Who is Garnik Asatryan?
According to official sources, he has been leading the Caucasus Center for Iranian Studies, funded by the Iranian government, since 1996, and is the author of numerous articles on the Talysh, Kurds and Turkey - a scientist and orientalist. In fact, this is not the case - Asatryan, born in 1955 in Tehran in the family of a functionary of the leftist party "Tude" under the auspices of the USSR KGB, spent his entire life, first in the USSR, and then in the Armenian special services. He is also known like this among Armenian scientists. During the Soviet era, Asatryan emerged as an Iranian scholar and carried out KGB missions against Iran. After the collapse of the USSR, the Armenian intelligence amended his responsibilities: from now on, he had to act against Azerbaijan. Garnik Asatryan is a personnel officer of the Armenian special services, and Fakhraddin Abbaszadeh learned it during his first visit to Armenia in 2005. However, not only did he not cut ties with him, on the contrary, he agreed to new provocations against Azerbaijan on behalf of the Talysh, and began to look for other immoral compatriots like himself who would agree to this.
Another member of the Armenian intelligence service, Colonel Arthur Aznavuryan, was particularly active in the campaigns in Armenia. However, unlike Asatryan, his cover-up was not so well organized. Therefore, the Armenian special services conveyed the order to expand the ranks of traitors to Fakhraddin Abbaszadeh through Garnik Asatryan. And he nominated Zabil Maharramov, who lived in Russia and was having financial difficulties.
Armenians made Zabil Maharramov cooperate for a small amount. He began to participate in the production of programs for the "Talysh National Television" and moved to Yerevan. As mentioned above, the curator of this project is Garnik Asatryan. (source)
Returning to the beginning of our discussion, we should note that this video was first posted in 2014, with the aim of sparking hostility by interpreting the words of the Iranian Ayatollah. It has been discussed on social media several times since then. However, this time it was put into circulation on time and was aiming a certain target against the background of incomprehensible actions of Azerbaijan’s neighbor.
Talishstan TV was established under the leadership of Levon Malik-Shahnazaryan, the former head of the Armenian National Security Service, and the main role was played by Garnik Asatryan, an employee of the Armenian special services, who introduced himself as a scientist. In the episodic roles were the main news anchors of this channel, Zabil Maharramov and Marietta Vartanyan, who was covering herself.
The inappropriate expression used by the Ayatollah during the meeting immediately attracted the attention of the Armenian special services, and for the first time they translated it into Azerbaijani and spread on social media.