On October 13, during the OSCE\/ODIHR Human Dimension Conference held in Warsaw, Daniel Ioannisyan, Program Coordinator of the \u201cUnion of Informed Citizens\u201d NGO, stated that Azerbaijan is attempting to use history and humanitarian issues as tools to advance its territorial claims against Armenia.<\/p>\n
In his speech, Ioannisyan also compared the state policies toward ethnic Azerbaijanis in Armenia and ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan, pointing out that Armenia maintains a democratic environment where discrimination and violence are excluded, whereas in Azerbaijan, a state-backed policy of hatred is being promoted.<\/p>\n
The text of Daniel Ioannisyan\u2019s speech is provided below:<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, Mr. moderator,<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the heatreat towards representatives of certain nations still exists in some OSCE member states. 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.<\/p>\n
That is the result of the massacre of Armenians in 1988, in Sumgait, followed by Kirovabad, Baku, Maragha and other cities of Azerbaijan as well as ethnic cleansing organized by Azerbaijan in 2023. Nothing similar has ever happened to Azerbaijanis in Armenia who left 35 years ago. I don\u2019t really want to go into history. That\u2019s a dead end road.<\/p>\n
But it is very clear that Azerbaijan is trying to use history to weaponize humanitarian issues to advance territorial claims against Armenia. Last week, in this hall, at a side event organized by Azerbaijani state agency speaker called the Meghri region of Armenia part of Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n
This is a clear example of state-backed weaponization of humanitarian issues to advance territorial claims against Armenia; all the speakers on that state-organized event refused to accept the internationally recognized borders of Armenia.<\/p>\n