Aliyev Considers Armenians as Dogs and Jackals, While Our Organization Remains Silent - Naira Zohrabyan at PACE

Today marks the beginning of the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), where the preservation of cultural and religious values is on the agenda. Naira Zohrabyan, a member of the Prosperous Armenia faction in the National Assembly, addressed the issue of Azerbaijani vandalism in Armenian settlements that came under Azerbaijani control following the capitulation agreement of November 10.

She emphasized that in the 21st century, fascist Azerbaijan is defiling and destroying Armenian cultural monuments, and that Aliyev and his wife personally order the erasure of all traces of Armenian heritage from churches.

Zohrabyan urged the Assembly to send a monitoring mission to the Armenian settlements under Azerbaijani control and to halt the cultural vandalism of the 21st century.

During her speech, she presented the anti-Armenian statements made by Aliyev, noting that the Assembly should silence the leader who considers Armenians to be dogs and jackals. Zohrabyan stated, "Dear colleagues, Madam Kovach, you have prepared an excellent report on the importance of protecting the identity, culture, and religion of national minorities in Europe. Yes, you are right. Today, the preservation of national minority identity is a crucial issue. However, it is equally important to protect human rights, cultural and religious values in unrecognized states. Today I will speak about Artsakh, a significant part of which came under Azerbaijani control following the November 10 agreement.

I am sounding the alarm about the destruction and vandalism of ancient Armenian cultural monuments—churches, khachkars, and monasteries in Artsakh, and I appeal to our Assembly to organize a monitoring mission to visit Armenian settlements under Azerbaijani control and see the state of our cultural heritage.

Immediately after the signing of the November 10 agreement, Azerbaijani soldiers desecrated the memorial to the victims of the Armenian Genocide in Shushi, defiled the "Green Church" in Shushi, and during the war, the Ghazanchetsots Church was bombed twice with special targeting. Just a few days ago, the BBC published a report where a journalist investigated the disappearance of the Holy Zoravor Church in the settlement of Mekhakavan (Jabrail). We all saw how Aliyev and his wife instructed on camera to erase Armenian inscriptions from Armenian churches. And all this is happening in the 21st century.

Dear colleagues, this report also addresses incitement of ethnic hatred, and I will present to you the racist and anti-Armenian statements made by the President of Azerbaijan in just the last few months, which have not been assessed until now. "We will continue to expel those liars, the Armenians. For 30 years, Artsakh has been in the hands of wild monsters, wild beasts, jackals. We have achieved the isolation of Armenia from all international and regional projects." These are Aliyev's words.

On March 5, at the New Azerbaijan Party convention, Aliyev stated, "The younger generation has grown up with hatred towards the enemy, and the results of this war are a consequence of that upbringing." Another example are Aliyev's famous words: "We will expel the Armenians like dogs," calling their new drones "it’s a praise to the drone."

Dear colleagues, the Armenian cultural heritage, which is part of global culture, is endangered in Armenian settlements under Azerbaijani control—hundreds of churches, monasteries, shrines, and khachkars. The generation raised with hatred towards Armenians is joyfully defiling these monuments and spreading videos on social media. This vandalism must be stopped. Otherwise, it will be too late, as it was too late in the case of the destruction of medieval khachkars in Jugha, Nakhchivan, when while we were pondering what to do, Azerbaijanis flattened those unique monuments of world culture to the ground.