Visit Baku with an Armenian surname and you will witness all the “beauty” of racism: Daniel Ioannisyan’s speech at OSCE ODIHR Human Dimension Conference

Today, on October 8, Daniel Ioannisyan, Programs Coordinator at Union of Informed Citizens NGO, delivered a speech at OSCE ODIHR Human Dimension Conference held in Warsaw these days.

Ioannisyan addressed manifestations of racism in Azerbaijan and Armenophobic statements by the government of Azerbaijan.

«Thank you, madame moderator,

Unfortunately, racism is still present in some OSCE member-states. But the most racist state-organized crime in the 21st century was committed by Azerbaijan in September 2023. Back in those days Azerbaijan used its military to organize an ethnic cleansing in its territory. 

Within just one week 100.000 Armenians left Nagorno Karabakh and just less than 20 people remained there. Not 20.000 but just 20. And that was a “successful” result of Azerbaijan’s decades-long state policy.

And let me bring some examples:

In 2012, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev pardoned and rewarded Ramil Safarov, who had killed a sleeping Armenian soldier in Budapest during NATO training. In 2016, Ilham Aliyev rewarded an Azerbaijani servicemen who had decapitated the body of an Armenian soldier and proudly posted a photo with the decapitated head on social media.

There is nothing surprising about that. In his nationwide address, a couple of years ago, president Aliev stated: “We are driving them (Armenians) away like dogs! Azerbaijani soldiers drive them away like dogs.”

The Armenophobic state policy of Azerbaijan has been recorded by a number of respected international organizations. Just try to arrive at Baku airport with an Armenian surname irrespective of your citizenship, and you will witness the whole beauty of racism.

Some Azerbaijani NGOs mention ethnic Azerbajianis who left Armenia 30 years ago, but they are silent about ethnic Armenians who left Azerbaijan back in those days.

According to official data by Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee, out of half a million Armeians in Azerbaijan 35 years ago, just 200 are remaining now. Not 200.000, but just 200.

And that is the result of the massacre of Armenians living in Azerbaijan, particularly, in 1988 in Sumgait and 1990 in Baku. There are exact names and lists of victims. Nothing similar has ever happened to Azerbaijanis in Armenia who left 35 years ago without any violence.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Unfortunately, sometimes Azerbaijan abuses this format to justify its territorial claims toward Armenia. A good example of that is a side-event organized by the so-called “Western Azerbaijan community”. It is an organization that is talking about the rights of Azerbaijanis who left Armenia 35 years ago. But they call the internationally recognized territory of Armenia “Western Azerbaijan”, and their spokesperson has recently stated in her social media: “May all enemy dogs die”, “May all Armenian people die”… 

Let us be honest. That is not the wording to be used by someone who is willing to return to Armenia. That is a wording of aggression.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would also like to use this opportunity to invite you all to a side event regarding missing and forcibly displaced persons, which will take place today at 2:30 in Korolevskiy Hall.

Thank you».