Unfortunately, from the first years of Azerbaijan's independence, even at a time when the world did not know what strategic communication was, we saw that strategic communication, misinformation, and false news were against our country, Hikmat Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan - Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration said at the opening ceremony of the International Strategic Communications Summit - Stratcom 21 in Istanbul.
According to him, Azerbaijan has faced information, hybrid and psychological wars from the first day:
"Especially during the Karabakh war, Armenia's policy of aggression against Azerbaijan was observed on these grounds, psychological and hybrid conflicts. When the world has not yet fully understood misinformation, Azerbaijan has encountered them. We were not ready for this war then - in the early 1990s. That is why Armenia has been occupying Azerbaijani lands day by day. Although this occupation was marked by terror, aggressive separatism, and discrimination, the world condemned Azerbaijan. Despite the killing of our people by the Armenian Armed Forces, it was alleged that Azerbaijanis killed Armenians. As a result, propaganda was carried out in the world under the name of the Armenian genocide. Against the background of all this, Azerbaijan was waging a just war and conveying the truth to the world."
He noted that this policy pursued by the Armenian lobby against Azerbaijan around the world could be prevented only by implementing a coordinated approach at the strategic level, combining our military, diplomatic, and information policies:
"These processes took place at a time when the world was silent, did not see or hear what was happening. Against the background of these problems, we have embarked on a long journey. We began to implement this during the thirty-year occupation by forming strategic communication. Our main goal was to convey the policy pursued by Azerbaijan to the world in a unified way. Despite the difficulties, we managed to bring the truth to the world. This was confirmed during the Patriotic War."