On the evening of 30 January, a Facebook post by the Independent Centre for Strategic Studies sparked outrage in Armenia. The post featured a 29-second video showing a group of men singing a 1972 Azerbaijani song with the chorus, Jan Karabakh, in Yerevan’s Republic Square. Though a song has been performed in the Armenian language with the same phrase actually in Karabakh, this short recent public rendition triggered a wave of anger on social media in the country.
The text posted with the video made derogatory remarks about the Armenian government and also criticised the population for remaining indifferent about what it termed “these traitorous authorities.” "Yerevan has been taken,” one user commented, alluding to fears that an Armenia-Azerbaijan war will next time break out on home soil. It seemed likely that the men filmed singing the song were ethnic Azerbaijanis from Iran. It is well-known that Iranians of Azerbaijani descent regularly visit Armenia without causing issues or finding themselves in such contentious situations.
“Can you imagine what would happen to a group of similar young Armenians if they sang a song, even a non-patriotic one, in Armenian in Baku?” the social media post read. “The corrupt scumbags in power have degraded our country in such a way that Azeris behave so brazenly and impudently in the centre of Yerevan.”
Azerbaijani citizens are barred from entering Armenia without preliminary approval from the Armenian National Security Service (NSS). However, ethnic Azerbaijanis travelling from other countries can, partly because their names and surnames do not necessarily reveal their ethnic background. However, in early December, a Georgian activist of Azerbaijani descent claimed she was prevented from entering the country after her flight was diverted from Tbilisi to Yerevan due to weather conditions. The Armenian National Security Service denies the incident.
In Azerbaijan, the restrictions are tighter. Not only are Armenian citizens banned from entering without prior permission, but anyone with an Armenian surname, regardless of nationality, is also prohibited. This has included Turkish citizens of Armenian descent in the past, as well as some Georgians with surnames that can at times resemble Armenian. These cases serve as a stark reminder of how the conflict between the two sides has persisted for decades.
When the National Security Service (NSS) released more details about the men who had sung the song, confirming they were Iranian nationals, their ethnic origin wasn't disclosed. Nonetheless, many social media users called for immediate action, and police launched an investigation that revealed the men had already left the country. There was, however, at least one unconfirmed report that one might have been detained. This remains unclear, however.
Regardless, when the police did spring into action, it wasn't as anticipated. Late on the evening of 1 February, 70-year-old Gharib Babayan was detained and brought before a judge with a request to be held in custody. Babayan, who led the non-governmental organisation in question, was a Karabakh Armenian professor. Initially, some believed he would be charged with hate speech targeting an ethnic group, but he was instead accused of attempting to "incite hatred, intolerance, and hostility towards the authorities and police officers of Armenia.”
The opposition, led by Levon Kocharyan, son of the former president and a parliamentary deputy for his father's opposition Hayastan faction, along with revanchist cleric Bagrat Galstyan, protested late into the night. The judge rejected the request to keep Babayan in custody, instead placing him under “administrative surveillance.” Other opposition figures and former de facto Karabakh officials also publicly supported Babayan and criticised the government.
It didn't take long before conspiracy theories began to circulate. Some accused Azerbaijan and Turkey of attempting to destabilise the country while others pointed the finger at Russia. Still, others opined that the government had orchestrated the arrest as a signal to Karabakh Armenians to stay out of domestic politics ahead of upcoming elections due by mid-2026. Last month, the country's Foreign Intelligence Service had already warned of attempts to destabilise the country in 2025. It remains unclear who filmed the video.
Nonetheless, it underscored a broader issue. Though it is unlikely that Armenians and Azerbaijanis will be able to freely visit each other’s country in the foreseeable future, insufficient media coverage of daily life in both, coupled with the lack of meaningful people-to-people contact, as well as ignorance about an often overlapping albeit disputed culture, made matters worse. Azerbaijan’s Intellectual Property Agency has even taken up the case of Jan Karabakh in the past.
Ironically, it is possible most passersby didn’t even notice the song as Jan, meaning sweet or dear, is a term used in Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Farsi, while Karabakh is omnipresent. Even so, it would be beneficial for the media to begin publishing more conciliatory stories about each other rather than negatively react. Even better would be to facilitate people-to-people contact, perhaps starting with interaction between Tavush-Gazakh border communities even if at first facilitating them in Georgia.
As an aside, in 2010, a cross-border project was implemented in which cars posing as taxis picked up customers in both Yerevan and Baku while playing recorded music from the other side in order to record the reaction of passengers. It might not have been wholly successful in changing attitudes, but it was at least an attempt.
