Abstract
In war and conflict situations, both on the front and on the political plane, the parties resort to political discourses for persuasion and propaganda in order to justify and legitimize their actions, to manage the flow of information by spreading their point of view. In this context, the study aims to reveal how the persuasive rhetorical tools in political discourse are used in relation to an important issue such as war, in the example of the President of Azerbaijan İlham Aliyev’s address to the nation during the Second Karabakh War. In this direction, 6 speeches of Aliyev between October 4, 2020 and November 10, 2020 were analyzed within the framework of Ponton’s political discourse analysis method. It was seen that Aliyev effectively used ethos to renew the self-confidence of the Azerbaijani people, and pathos effectively to reveal her emotional state, especially in his speeches to the nation. Aliyev supports the justification of Azerbaijan by using logical arguments and historical evidence in all his speeches. In this context, it was concluded that Aliyev supported his discourses with body language by using persuasion and rhetorical tools effectively and appropriately, thus reinforcing the effect of his speeches.