The leaked documents reveal that Azerbaijan has financed the “Western Azerbaijan” propaganda campaign.

OC Media has revealed leaked documents which show how the Office of the President of Azerbaijan coordinated and financed the international dissemination of the “Western Azerbaijan” narrative. According to OC Media’s publication, in recent years Azerbaijan has launched a campaign centered around the concept of “Western Azerbaijan,” a term that refers not to its own territory but to part or all of the territory of the Republic of Armenia. The campaign is presented as a humanitarian effort aimed at supporting the “safe and dignified return” of Azerbaijanis displaced from Armenia during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Over time, however, the “Western Azerbaijan” narrative has evolved into a state-directed communication strategy. The initiative is now sometimes used as a rhetorical tool in the ongoing conflict between Baku and Yerevan.

Leaked documents from the Azerbaijani government obtained by OC Media show that this discourse is closely coordinated and supported by the Office of the President of Azerbaijan, despite being presented as led by the “Western Azerbaijan community.” The documents reveal that the President’s Office directly financed and oversaw the campaign, organizing conferences, hiring communications consultants, and preparing messages. The names, dates, and contracts mentioned in the documents correspond to publicly available records.

As part of the campaign, a high-level international conference was held in Baku on December 5–6, 2023, titled “Ensuring the Safe and Dignified Return of Azerbaijanis Expelled from Armenia: Global Context and a Just Solution.” More than 109,000 manats ($65,000) allocated from Azerbaijani state media covered expenses for hotel accommodation, audiovisual production, branding, and the dissemination of “return-supporting” content. At least 34 foreign participants from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East were hosted. Among the guests were scholars from universities in Italy and Greece, analysts from Russian institutions, as well as a representative and a former adviser of Russian President Vladimir Putin from Donetsk. Some participants were from Baku, including foreign scholars affiliated with the state-run ADA University.

Despite these efforts, further analysis by OC Media has revealed no tangible impact. After returning home, few participants publicly mentioned the conference or its topics, and international coverage was minimal. Nevertheless, Azerbaijani state media in Baku cited the majority of participants, portraying them as supporters of the message. The organizers considered the event successful and planned to hold a similar conference next year.

Just a few weeks after the blockade of the Lachin corridor in Nagorno-Karabakh, at the end of 2022, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev referred to Armenia as “historically Azerbaijani land” and linked the September 2022 Armenian-Azerbaijani clashes to the newly asserted significance of “historically Azerbaijani cities.”

At the beginning of October, ADA University financed the publication of a book about “Western Azerbaijan,” and during an OSCE conference in Warsaw, Azerbaijan organized an additional event dedicated to the topic. At the end of the same month, the community held an event in cooperation with Germany’s state diaspora on the same subject, aimed at raising awareness about “Western Azerbaijan.” A similar event was held the following day in Brussels. Azerbaijani state media claimed that the number of participants exceeded 120. On October 26, Aziz Alekberli, president of the “Western Azerbaijan Community” and a Member of Parliament from Azerbaijan’s ruling party, stated that “Armenia has no alternative but to reckon with Azerbaijan and its president,” warning that otherwise it could “endanger the existence of the Armenian state.” He concluded by saying that, to prevent this, Armenia must accept all of Azerbaijan’s conditions, including “ensuring the return of the Western Azerbaijan community.”

Neither the community nor the Office of the President of Azerbaijan responded to OC Media’s requests for comment.