Just try to arrive at Baku airport with an Armenian surname and you will witness the whole beauty of racism. Ioannisyan

On June 2, 2025, speaking at the OSCE/ODIHR Supplementary Human Dimension Meetings in Vienna, Daniel Ioannisyan, Programs Coordinator at the Union of Informed Citizens NGO, addressed the policies of racism, Armenophobia, and discrimination pursued by Azerbaijan.

Presenting numerous undeniable facts about Armenophobia in Azerbaijan, Ioannisyan invited those present to also participate in a side event on June 3 on the topic of Armenophobia in Azerbaijan, organized through the efforts of the Union of Informed Citizens and “For Equal Rights” NGO.

The text of Daniel Ioannisyan’s speech can be found below.

“Thank you, Mr. 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 no Armenians remained there now. And that was a final act of Azerbaijan’s decades-long state policy.

According to official data of the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, out of half a million Armenians that lived in Azerbaijan 40 years ago, only 200 are remaining there now. Not 200.000, but just 200 people.

That started by the massacre of Armenians in 1988, in Sumgait, followed by Kirovabad, Baku, Maragha and other cities of Azerbaijan.

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.

Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev fully supports this armenophobia. Let me bring some examples.

In 2012, Aliyev pardoned and rewarded Ramil Safarov, who had killed a sleeping Armenian soldier in Budapest during a 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 – something that is now very popular among the Azerbaijani military.

In his nationwide address a couple of years ago, president Aliev stated: “We are driving them (Armenians) away like dogs! Azerbaijani soldiers are driving them away like dogs.”

Azerbaijani MP is talking about “reintegration” of Armenians. That is to some extent funny. Do they want “reintegration” of Armenians or dogs? According to their president, Armenians are dogs.

The Armenophobic state policy of Azerbaijan has been recorded by a number of prominent 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.

While in Armenia, ethnic Azerbaijanis can sing their songs in the central square of our capital without facing any problems, just as it happened during the New Year celebrations this year.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would also like to use this opportunity to invite you all to a side event on the topic of armenophobia in Azerbaijan, which will take place tomorrow at 1:15pm in Hall 531.

Thank you.”