Gabriel Hambaryan: 'The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has issued a hysterical statement'

Political analyst Gabriel Hambaryan wrote on his Facebook page: “The monument to freedom fighter Mikayel Avagyan has become a cause of hysteria in Baku. On January 20, a ceremony was held in the village of Bughashen, in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia, marking the unveiling of a monument to the freedom fighter Mikayel Avagyan, who fell in the Artsakh war. Family members of the fallen soldier, numerous villagers, and Samvel Petrosyan, a member of the Akhalkalaki Sakrebulo, participated in the event.

Today, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has issued a hysterical statement, and the Georgian ambassador to Azerbaijan, Zurab Pataradze, has been summoned to Baku, where the Turkish-Azeris demanded immediate measures to be taken to remove the monument. They expressed discontent that the monument to Mikayel Avagyan would interfere with Georgian-Azerbaijani relations.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry also informed that a note of protest has been sent to the Georgian Foreign Ministry regarding the same issue by the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Georgia, Dursun Hasanov. This is neither the first nor the last instance where Azerbaijan openly interferes in the internal affairs of neighboring Georgia and dictates to official Tbilisi what kind of internal and foreign policy it should pursue.

Interestingly, the Armenian authorities have never expressed dissatisfaction to the Georgians regarding the opening of a monument to the former Azerbaijani dictator Heydar Aliyev, who caused numerous damages to the Armenian nation, nor have they protested against a park named after him in Tbilisi.

The hysterical demands from official Baku to Tbilisi to dismantle the monument of Mikayel Avagyan in Bughashen, one of the Armenian-populated villages in Georgia, could cause significant problems and exacerbate the situation in Georgia. Pro-Azerbaijani criticism has already been voiced by some opposition figures in Georgia. For instance, Paata Zakareishvili, the former minister for reconciliation and civic equality, criticized the Georgian authorities for allowing Avagyan's monument to be installed in Bughashen, as well as the participation of certain officials in the unveiling ceremony. Meanwhile, official Tbilisi remains silent...