1. The President of Azerbaijan continues to generate hatred towards the entire Armenian people with his public speeches, to make threats against the entire population of Armenia, to make insulting and hateful expressions.
2. In particular, during the military event held in Baku on December 10, 2020, the President of Azerbaijan delivered a public speech full of open threats of genocide addressed to the entire people of Armenia, as well as systemic hatred. During the same event, the President of Turkey had a public speech with more open threats addressed to lives of the entire people of Armenia praising the organizers and perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.
The Human Rights Defender of Armenia has already presented the very dangerous consequences of these two speeches not only for the people of Armenia, but also for the international human rights system in his public statement of the same day.
3. It is especially condemnable that after those speeches, the President of Azerbaijan made similar statements during the December 12, 2020 meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group France and the US Co-Chairs, i.e. not for the domestic, but for the international audience in presence of international figures.
4. The speech of the President of Azerbaijan of December 12, 2020 is full of expressions inciting hatred and animosity towards Armenians, open threats of mass violence against Armenians.
In particular, he mentioned in the part of that speech concerning Armenia. “(…) if Armenian fascism once again raises its head, we will crush its head with an iron fist.” Moreover, this was done with special reference to the speech of the President of Azerbaijan during the military event held on December 10 in the capital of Azerbaijan.
The President of Azerbaijan also stated. “We gave such a response that destroyed the Armenian army and we can even say the Armenian state (…). “We dispelled the dreams of the so-called “Artsakh” of the Armenian nationalists.”.
5. The same speech used profound expressions of ethnicity towards Armenians, including those that generated hatred on religious grounds.
6. Afterwards, the President of Azerbaijan in his same speech of December 12, 2020 stated that open threats of his speech addressed to the entire people of Armenia should be conveyed to Armenians by the international community. And this was made in the presence of international figures and by a public speech.
7. The rhetorics sowing hatred and animosity are clear continuation of the previous public statements and speeches of the President of Azerbaijan. For example, in one case he stated that “Armenia is a country of no value. It is actually a colony, an outpost run from abroad”. In another case, Armenians were called wild beasts and predators. At the same time, speeches of the Azerbaijanի President on Armenia and the Armenian people constantly contain words of “Armenian fascism” and it is done to insult the Armenian people and incite hatred towards Armenians among the people of Azerbaijan.
8. Studies of Armenia’s Human Rights Defender’s Office, collected evidence confirm that after such speeches of the President of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani mass media and social networks are filled with similar expressions of hatred and animosity not only towards the people of Armenia, but towards all Armenians in general.
9. According to the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, these are the exact speeches that have been made over the years in Azerbaijan and by this an institutional system of propaganda of hatred and animosity towards Armenians on the basis of ethnicity, open promotion of impunity and state supported hatred at the highest level has been established.
State encouragement for killing Armenians in Azerbaijan has reached such a level that even the country’s Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) has publicly stated that Ramil Safarov, who brutally killed an Armenian solider with ax during a night in a European Union member state, must become an example of patriotism for youth of Azerbaijan.
10. Such speeches are a direct reasons for the war crimes and the crimes against humanity committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces in September-November 2020 that do not even fit into the human imagination.
11. The expert examinations of videos of atrocities by the experts of the Human Rights Defender’s Office of Armenia have confirmed that Azerbaijani soldiers use the same expressions of the President of Azerbaijan as inspiration when torturing or killing Armenian soldiers or civilians, cutting off the parts of bodies of killed Armenians.
All above mentioned is confirmed by real and concrete evidence obtained by the Human Rights Defender of Armenia.
12. Therefore, the mentioned speeches of the President of Azerbaijan directly confirm the war crimes and atrocities committed by the Azerbaijani military forces during the wars of April 2016, September 2020-November and in other periods and still continue.
These speeches also confirm that the described actions envisaged by international criminal law are results of an organized state policy of Azerbaijan, which clearly proves the Azerbaijani policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide through terroristic methods in Artsakh.
13. It is of particular concern for the Human Rights Defender of Armenia that the President of Azerbaijan delivered his speech full of insults and animosity towards the Armenian people in the presence of international figures on December 12, 2020, and surprisingly he has not been condemned by any of these figures or even their disagreement.
14. The Human Rights Defender of Armenia is convinced that such indifference of the international community in response to the hatred and animosity propaganda is one of the main preconditions that has led to systematic and widespread torture and cruelties of Armenians by the Azerbaijani military in Artsakh.
15. Such extremely dangerous phenomena must be strongly condemned by the international community.
It must be borne in mind that all the above mentioned violates basic principles of international law and undermines the entire international system of human rights and humanitarian protection.
16. Impunity creates new atrocities and torture.
17. The international community and particularly international organizations with mandates to protect human rights must prove that they are dedicated to their titles and missions that they still adhere to the international rules they have established.
18. The reason for this statement of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia on the mentioned extremely dangerous phenomena for human rights is related to the necessity to document, analyze and to submit to the international community the gross violations of right to life, property and other rights of Armenians grossly violated by the Azerbaijani armed forces.
This is due to the fact that these violations have long-term or lifelong negative consequences for their victims (lifelong disability, physical and mental suffering of victims of torture and their families, etc.).
Arman Tatoyan
The Human Rights Defender of Armenia
