From the first years of Azerbaijan's independence, that is, from the beginning of the 90s of the last century, Tehran started destructive activities against the Republic of Azerbaijan at the Iranian state level. This included complex activities of the Persian-mullah regime's special services, diplomats, clergy, mass media, media experts and other such persons against Azerbaijan. Information about the media of the Fars-mullah regime was given in the first part of our research, this time we will talk about media experts and troll networks.
Ehsan Movahhedian
He is presented as an "expert" and "analyst" in Iran's second-tier media outlets. However, there was no serious information about the existence of such a person until September 2020. That is, it is difficult to find biographical information about this person in the information resources of academic centers of Tehran. Only on the "Magiran" website it is mentioned that Movahhedian studied at Allama Medical University at the doctoral level in the specialty of international relations. His writings are rarely found in Tehran media.
Recently, several articles he has written about American, European, economic and social issues, have not been scientific, but contain his personal thoughts, and because these thoughts are formed by shallow scientific knowledge, he has not been able to gather a wide scientific audience. Due to such unsuccessful activity, it seems that during the past years, serious academic circles and think tanks did not accept him as an educated expert, a person with fundamental knowledge, and his activity in such centers was not observed.
However, in the face of the new geopolitical realities that emerged in the region after the Patriotic War in 2020, Iran's "aggression" has also created an arena for people like Ehsan Movahhedian, who is based on the "Persian nationalism" ideology, to engage in populism and achieve career advancement. For example, if you look at the "Iranian Diplomacy" website, you can see that Movahhedian's articles based on strong Persian nationalism and pro-Armenianism, completely far from reality and without any scientific basis, filled with shallow sentences are published.
The interview he received from Ruben Vardanyan in February of this year and published on the website of Iran's "Sharq" newspaper, but deleted after a few hours, should also be evaluated from this aspect.
Looking at his accounts on the social platform, it can be seen that his followers varied between 500-750 people. But it should be noted that the majority of Armenians and fake profiles managed to get this small audience as a result of their populist speeches after the Patriotic War. Currently, he is busy with serious work, apart from reaching a state of ecstasy from the "likes" and "hearts" he receives from Armenians by publishing anti-Azerbaijani information on the Telegram channel "Caucasian Storm", which he created and manages together with Armenian like-minded people, the number of followers of which barely exceeds 1,000 people. In a word, almost no one in Iran takes this person who has no serious achievements seriously. Also, if a psychological portrait is drawn based on the results of his writings, it gives reason to think that this person has serious psychological problems. Therefore, certain circles in Iran are currently using this person for certain periodic interests, of course, after a while, he will be sent to a place suitable for his shallow level.
One of the notorious faces of the anti-Azerbaijani network in Iran for many years is a person named Salar Seyfaddini.
This person, who is said to be close to Iran's Ministry of National Security, has been one of the main players in the dirty campaigns against Azerbaijan carried out by those circles for many years. He stands out for not shying away from insulting Azerbaijani statehood and the Azerbaijani nation through the "Azeriha" website he founded, displaying a hostile position and sympathizing with Armenians. Although Salar Seyfaddini was born in Tabriz in 1984, it is difficult to give an accurate opinion about his nationality. Considering his pan-Iranian, pro-Armenian and anti-Azerbaijani outlook, as well as the fact that he does not speak the Azerbaijani language, it can be assumed that he is one of the few Armenians living in Tabriz. For many years, Seyfaddini has been attracting attention by falsifying the national identity, history, culture and statehood traditions of the Azerbaijani people, by using these values in the name of Persians or Armenians.
Answer to the Iranian journalist with historical sources: Shusha or "Shushi"?
This person worked for a long time as an expert at the Center for Strategic Studies under the Presidential Office of Iran.
"Arsakh", "Shushi", "Armenian genocide" and other irritating expressions are often found in his writings. In November 2017, Seyfaddini is remembered for interviewing Masis Mailyan, who presented himself as the "foreign minister" of the terrorist regime in Karabakh. In that interview, Seyfaddini disrespected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan and noted that it was "important" for Iran to recognize that so-called regime.
Currently, Seyfaddini remains one of the main figures operating in the anti-Azerbaijan segment in Iran.
In the anti-Azerbaijani, pro-Armenian and pan-Iranist segment after the Patriotic War, we can also mention a social network profile named Rza Abbasi, who is presented as a "media activist" on Telegram channels belonging to "SEPAH" (IRGC). Our investigations around Abbasi, who mentions that he is a "freelance journalist" on his Twitter account, gave us the reason to conclude that his account is fake.
There is not even a single sentence of information about this person in his Twitter account opened in May 2021, who mainly engages in anti-Azerbaijan propaganda and circulates information in favor of Russia, China, Armenia and other such "allies" besides Iran. This suggests that his fake profile is created by Iran's special services to deliver messages and spread disinformation.
These were SEPAH experts. Now let’s talk about Ali Akbar Raefipour, the main ideologue of the big troll network operating against Azerbaijan.
Ali Akbar Raefipour is a university teacher in Iran, one of the main conspiracy theorists and figures who run various hashtag campaigns on social networks. Raefipour, who has come to the fore with his anti-Western, anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish speeches, is the head of the organization called "The Organization Against Zionism and Freemasonry", which he founded in 2010. Abbreviation of the organization's name - that is, "Masaf" means "battlefield" in Persian language. He claims to have a bachelor's degree in accounting. He presents himself as a researcher in the fields of "doomsday" and "Zionism", as well as a press representative and a university teacher. Raefipour is given the opportunity by the government to give hundreds of hours of lectures at universities every year. The Farsi-speaking branch of Azadliq Radio, as well as representatives of the Iranian opposition operating in foreign countries, call him a person connected to Iran's ruling circles and Sepah.
Raefipour was born on April 28, 1984 in Tehran. According to his claim, he is a South Azerbaijani and some of his speeches in the Azerbaijani language are available on social networks.
Raefipour has the privilege of lecturing hundreds of hours at universities each year. In his speeches and lectures, he expresses mythical ideas about "Satanism", "Masonism", "Zionism", "Mahdaviyyah" (belief in the appearance of Imam Mahdi in the Shia sect, ed.) and other similar topics, and he has enough supporters among those interested in this issue. source
Critics and experts point out that his claims, theories and predictions are not based on any scientific evidence, they are put forward on the basis of rumors, as well as that his claims about international issues are created by connecting unrelated news in the press in different ways. There are also few people who criticize him because he uses aggressive, unpleasant and insulting expressions towards his critics. It is said that he put forward his political forecasts by stealing from other people's opinions on the same topic; source
Raefipour's views and speeches mainly cause wide discussions on social networks. He is considered to be the main figure behind the formation of "fake" news and conspiracy among the so-called "Hezbollah youth" groups, who are affiliated with the Iranian regime and its theocratic ideology, and who ensure that this information is disseminated among the masses on social networks.
There is conflicting information about this person in the Iranian press. While one group of news and articles published his views, another group criticized his personal views; (source)
His supporters call him "master", and Iran's official ISNA agency calls him "the living Iranian Nostradamus". It is interesting that the members of the radical Islamist group of Azerbaijani citizens who call themselves "Huseynchilar" also call him "master" and sympathize with Raefipour. Raefipour's tweet about Taleh Bagirzade's hunger strike was also received with special enthusiasm by the members of "Huseiniyyun".
In the campaign against the Republic of Azerbaijan, it is noticeable that Raefipour passed on some theses to the members of "Huseiniyyun" on certain issues. Thus, it is noticeable that the "Huseiniyyun" terrorist group, created by the killed commander of the "Quds Forces" of the "Sepah", Qasim Soleimani, was given the "curation" of Raefipour in the field of mass media and social networks, and it acted as a troll group. source1 source2 source3 source4
Even the conducted analyzes have shown that the "Azerbaijan Research Center", which "Huseiniyyun" claims to have founded, and whose head is presented as Orkhan Mammadov, operates in Persian, managed and curated by Raefipour and his "Masaf" team, and Raefipour's group also acknowledges this fact;
There are several branches of the "Institution for Combating Zionism and Freemasonry" which he heads. They mainly operate in the economic, political and cultural spheres. However, on "Quds Day" of 2018 (the last Friday of Ramadan - ed.), Raefipour's presentation of an automatic weapon called "Zulfuqar" designed and produced by the "Masaf" organization caused serious discussions. It has been suggested that the "Masaf" organization, which claims to operate in the civilian areas listed above, operates as a department of some state or military body. At that time, experts said that this weapon was copied from the Belgian-made SCAR-H automatic weapon.
In 2020, Raefipur reported that "Masaf" was producing a radar system for combating small drones and presented it. At the same time, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of Iran announced in a statement that this radar caused problems in the GPS system of passenger planes and created a risk of accidents; In general, the production of both automatic weapons and radar increases the probability that Raefipour and the organization he leads are connected to some military or special service agency of Iran, mainly "Sepah";
Raefipour and his organization are trending on social networks with various hashtags. In April 2020, they launched an extensive campaign against Israel with the hashtag "#Covid1948". For this reason, Raefipour's Twitter account was deleted. But then a new Twitter account was opened in the name of Raefipour.
(to be continued)
