Instances of Psychological Operations in the Contemporary History of Iran A Case Study of the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (1945 - 1946)

This research work aims at exploring the psychological operations techniques utilized by the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan in the Azarbaijan crisis during the years 1945 – 1946. The main question is, ‘How did the Democratic Party manage to establish and consolidate a self-ruling system in the region in a short period of time (considering the supports of the former Soviet Union)?’ To answer this question, the following hypothesis was developed: To consolidate its ruling system in the Azarbaijan region, the Democratic Party conducted psychological operations against its target audience (the people of the region) using various techniques. The results suggest that the Democratic Party utilized various techniques of psychological operations at various intervals (establishment of the Democratic Party, following separatism and establishment of self-ruling government). The most important techniques they utilized were: scare-mongering, rapid feedback, symbolization, history fabrication and provision of legitimacy/acceptability for aliens which were practiced using the ordinary devices of the time including the media and leaflets. This is a descriptive-analytic study and the required data were collected from library sources and documents.