Does the Azerbaijani leadership want to build peace? Ioannisyan at the OSCE

On October 13, during the OSCE/ODIHR Human Dimension Conference held in Warsaw, Daniel Ioannisyan, Program Coordinator of the “Union of Informed Citizens” NGO, stated that Azerbaijan is attempting to use history and humanitarian issues as tools to advance its territorial claims against Armenia.

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.

The text of Daniel Ioannisyan’s speech is provided below:

“Thank you, Mr. moderator,

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.

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’t really want to go into history. That’s a dead end road.

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.

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.

At the same time it is important to notice, Armenia and Azerbaijan have reached significant progress: like agreements that were reached through facilitation of the US president Donald Trump or the fact that no one was killed on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border for 1 year and 8 months.

But does Azerbaijani leadership want to build peace, or, as any other dictatorship, it needs foreign enemy. And of course, Armenians are the “best” foreign enemy. For decades state supported propaganda was applauding to any one who would kill an sleeping or unarmed Armenian.

President Ilham Aliyev, in his nationwide address a couple of years ago, has called all Armenians “dogs”. So do not get surprised by the fact that there are no Armenians left in Azerbaijan.

Let me compare the state policy towards ethnic Azerbaijanis in Armenia and ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan. Last new year, a group of ethnic Azerbaijanis, just tourists, were singing their national song on the central square in Yerevan, just next to PMs office and police officers. Did they face any problem – of course not. Evenmore, a criminal prosecution has been started against those persons, who made racistic statements in social media about those ethnic Azerbaijanis.

While in Azerbaijan, you wouldn’t be even able to enter the country if you are ethnic Armenian, if you have an Armenian surname. What is that if not a discrimination based on ethnic belonging?

And that is because we have a comparably democratic regime in Armenia which follows the public demand for peace. Unlike Azerbaijan, where dictatorship needs enemies”.