Aliyev Joined Hitler and Saddam Hussein: Edmon Marukyan's Speech at PACE

Edmon Marukyan, a member of the Armenian National Assembly, has published his speech delivered at the PACE on his Facebook page.

On April 12, 2021, a one-hour report broadcasted by Azerbaijani state television showcased a museum opened in Baku dedicated to the 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh. In this terrorist exhibition, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev appeared in military uniform, pridefully walking around and displaying captured Armenian military equipment and life-sized wax mannequins mocking Armenian soldiers.

The central part of the so-called 'Strategist Park' featured a long walkway made from the helmets of fallen and captured Armenian soldiers. This all took place not in an unknown state, but in one of the member states of the Council of Europe - Azerbaijan. I would like to remind you that Azerbaijan is the country that continues to illegally detain more than 200 Armenian prisoners of war and captured civilians.

I ask you to take a moment and look at the photographs I have in my hands. These are not photos from the past, but images taken in our days when a modern dictator considers it normal to chain people and present degrading treatment and torture as a standard approach to prisoners of war.

In one of the photographs, an Azerbaijani child is playing with a racist mannequin of an Armenian soldier who has likely been tortured in an Azerbaijani prison. These images highlight that in Azerbaijan, there is systemic racial hatred against Armenians and toward Armenia.

Queues are forming to visit this park, which is disgusting and simply unacceptable. Through this act, Aliyev has joined the list of dictators such as Hitler and Saddam Hussein.

Moreover, what is happening in Azerbaijan today reminds me of Iraq in the late 1980s when another dictator used the helmets of five thousand slain Iranian soldiers gathered from the battlefield to complete a monument he called the 'Arch of Victory.' That man was Saddam Hussein.

Like Hussein, Aliyev believes that this is how he can glorify an army that has adopted the tactics of the terrorist organization commonly known as the 'Islamic State.' I note yet another similarity between these two tyrants: like Hussein, Aliyev is also not returning prisoners of war.

This park clearly demonstrates the aggressive nature and the real face of the Azerbaijani authorities: they promote racial hatred, believing that cruel treatment and the display of torture is normal for the next generations and the whole world.

Dear colleagues, history has proven that if necessary measures are not taken in time to deter dictators and their aggression, it usually ceases to be a localized issue and spreads worldwide. I urge you to bring attention to these events and hope that necessary and urgent measures will be taken to condemn Azerbaijan's actions. This so-called 'Strategist Park' must be closed.