During the third meeting of the Supplemental Human Dimension, taking place under the auspices of the OSCE and dedicated to human rights, non-discrimination, tolerance, and inclusion, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Armenia refrained from condemning or mentioning Azerbaijan for its 2023 genocidal aggression in Nagorno-Karabakh, unlike representatives of Armenian NGO’s.
Representatives of Azerbaijani NGO’s, on the other hand, parroted the lines of Azerbaijani state propaganda, claiming that no one forced Armenians to flee Artsakh, and the Armenians detained in Baku were not arrested with the motives of ethnic hatred. They voiced other well-worn theses as well.
Ahmad Shahidov, for instance, blamed the Armenian NGO’s for spreading hate speech against Azerbaijanis. He emphasized Baku’s ‘peaceful’ aspirations and stressed the need to prevent Armenian ‘revanchism.’
“If you are seeking a new war, then I suggest you go to Armenia and enlist in the Armenian army. But let me warn you again– in the next war, Armenia might lose its sovereignty completely because the Azerbaijani army might be drinking Turkish tea in Yerevan, praying and performing namaz at the Blue Mosque in Yerevan,” the Azerbaijani ‘human rights advocate’ stated.
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In response, the moderator requested that Shahidov speak respectfully.
The president of the For Equal Rights NGO, Gayane Abrahamyan, qualified Ahmad Shahidov’s statement as ‘absolutely unacceptable.’
“We are now hearing open threats against Armenian sovereign territory,” Abrahamyan stated, calling on the organizers of the meeting to create a mechanism to interrupt such hostile statements.
“The representative of the Azerbaijani delegation is directly threatening a sovereign state– Armenia– with the use of force, echoing the rhetoric of their authoritarian leader– the dictator Aliyev,” Abrahamyan emphasized.
Earlier, Shahidov assumed the task of defending Pakistan from what he termed Indian illegalities, despite the fact that the India-Pakistan conflict is outside the OSCE space.
Shahidov attempted to disguise his Armenophobic and bellicose implications through the occasional use of polite phrases such as ‘dear friends,’ which he employed several times while addressing Armenian NGO representatives.
In a patronizing tone, he reaffirmed the Baku propaganda claims, according to which, ‘there is no Nagorno-Karabakh, there is the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. There is no Stepanakert, there is Khankendi. There is no Shushi, there is Shusha.’
Shahidov invited Armenians to visit Artsakh under Azerbaijani control.
Arsen AIVAZIAN
