Azerbaijani Authorities Continue Open Propaganda of Hatred and Hostility Towards Armenians: Human Rights Defender

The Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Arman Tatoyan, has issued a statement emphasizing that the highest authorities of Azerbaijan continue to propagate open hatred and hostility towards Armenians.

“The highest authorities of Azerbaijan are continuing their open propaganda of hatred and hostility towards Armenians. The President of Azerbaijan continues to generate hatred against the entire Armenian people through public speeches, issuing threats towards the entire population of Armenia, and making offensive and hate-inciting statements. In particular, during a military event held in Baku on December 10, 2020, the President of Azerbaijan delivered a public speech filled with systemic hatred towards the whole of the Armenian nation and overt threats of genocide.”

“Moreover, during the same event, the President of Turkey delivered a speech glorifying the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide and making even more explicit threats against the life of the Armenian people.”

The Human Rights Defender of Armenia noted in his statement that the dangerous consequences of these two speeches have already been brought to the attention not only of the Armenian people but also to the international human rights protection system. It is especially condemnable that after these speeches, the President of Azerbaijan made similar statements in front of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group from France and the USA, meaning that it was directed not only towards a domestic audience but also for international actors during a meeting on December 12, 2020.

The President of Azerbaijan’s speech on December 12, 2020, is filled with expressions that incite hatred and hostility, as well as overt threats of mass violence against Armenians. Notably, in reference to Armenia, he stated: “(...) if Armenian fascism raises its head again, we will crush it with an iron fist.” This was done with a direct reference to the speech given by the President of Azerbaijan at the military event in Baku on December 10.

Furthermore, the President declared, “We responded in such a way that we destroyed the Armenian army and, one might say, the Armenian state (...) We shattered the so-called ‘dreams of Armenian nationalists’ related to Artsakh.” In that very speech, he used expressions that generate hatred against Armenians based on ethnic affiliation, including those with religious underpinnings. The President of Azerbaijan subsequently reiterated in his speech that the international community needs to convey his overt threats aimed at the entirety of the Armenian people. He did all this in the presence of international figures and through a public address.

The expressions that propagate hatred and hostility are a clear continuation of the previous public speeches and statements made by the President of Azerbaijan. For example, in one instance, he claimed that “Armenia is a country of no value. It is a colony, a territory led from abroad.” In another, he referred to Armenians as wild beasts and predators. In statements regarding Armenia and the Armenian people, the notion of “Armenian fascism” is constantly mentioned, with the intent to deliver overt insults to the Armenian people and incite hatred towards Armenians among the Azerbaijani population.

Investigations conducted by the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, along with gathered evidence, confirm that after similar speeches by the President of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani media and social networks are flooded with expressions of hatred and hostility not only towards Armenia but also towards the entire Armenian nation.

According to the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, this is how such speeches have formed an institutional system of propaganda of hatred and hostility based on ethnic affiliation towards Armenians in Azerbaijan, with evident encouragement of impunity and support for such actions at the highest levels of the state.

The state-level glorification of acts of anti-Armenian violence has reached such an extent that even the Ombudsman of Azerbaijan publicly stated regarding Ramil Safarov, who brutally murdered an Armenian soldier with an axe at night in a country that is a member of the European Union in 2004, that he should become an example of patriotism for the youth of Azerbaijan.

These speeches are a direct cause of the severity of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces during the wars of September to November in 2020, which are too brutal to be comprehended by human imagination.

Professional investigations of footage documenting these heinous crimes by experts from the Human Rights Defender's Office confirm that Azerbaijan’s military personnel, when torturing Armenian soldiers or civilians, or when dismembering the bodies of the deceased, use expressions identical to those of the President of Azerbaijan as a source of inspiration.

All of this is documented with real and concrete evidence obtained by the Human Rights Defender of Armenia. Therefore, the speeches made by the President of Azerbaijan directly affirm the war crimes and inhumanities committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces during the wars in April 2016, September to November 2020, and at other times, which continue even today.

These speeches also affirm that such acts defined by international criminal law are the result of Azerbaijan's organized state policy, which clearly proves the genocidal policy of Azerbaijan against Armenians using ethnic cleansing and terrorist methods.

It is particularly concerning for the Human Rights Defender of Armenia that the President of Azerbaijan delivered a speech filled with insults and calls for hostility against the Armenian people in the presence of international figures on December 12, 2020, and astonishingly, he has not faced any condemnation from any of those figures.

According to the Human Rights Defender, the international community’s reprehensible indifference to the propaganda of hatred and hostility is one of the main preconditions that has led to systematic and large-scale torture and brutalities against Armenians by Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh. Such extremely dangerous phenomena must be met with firm condemnation by the international community.

It should be noted that all of this violates the fundamental principles of international law and undermines the entire international system for the protection of human rights and humanitarian protection. Impunity breeds new brutalities and tortures. The international community and especially international organizations mandated with human rights protection must prove that they are faithful to their calling and mission, and that they continue to adhere to the same international rules they have set.

This statement from the Human Rights Defender of Armenia addresses these extremely dangerous phenomena for human rights due to the gross violations of the life, property, and other rights of Armenians by the Azerbaijani armed forces, documenting, analyzing, and presenting to the international community the real causes and contributing factors of the tortures and brutalities against captured soldiers and civilians. It is also prompted by the fact that these violations have long-term or lifelong negative consequences for their victims (permanent disability, physical and psychological suffering, lasting impacts on torture victims and their families, etc.).