I, like many young Azerbaijanis, began hating the Armenians under the influence of the Azerbaijani media and teachers, an independent Azerbaijani journalist Sahla Sultanova told to an article to the British Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).

Sahla grew up in South Azerbaijan in an Avar family and was far away from the Karabakh war. But the propaganda influenced her too. To the fact that she is going to study with an Armenian girl from Nagorno-Karabakh the Azerbaijani girl did not respond with much enthusiasm.

“Don’t await any tolerance from me,” she responded.

But according to the Azerbaijani journalist, Lilit Asryan turned out to be a great person and not just an Armenian.

“Lilit became my best friend at college. We never discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh well understanding that it would lead to nothing. But along with other Armenian students who were studying in our class, she erased all my prejudices against her nation,” Sahla told.

Returning to Azerbaijan, she faced problems when trying to collect material for a joint article entitled ‘History lessons in Armenia and Azerbaijan’.

“When I asked a pupil if it were right that Armenians were called fascists and bandits in textbooks the teacher got angry at me. She accused me of giving ‘wrong’ questions and ‘brainwashing’ the pupils. According to the teacher, it was right to describe the Armenians in that way.

When I asked the author of a text book whether if it was necessary to call the Armenians ‘fascists’ he accused me of acting against the interests of Azerbaijan,” she told.