Statement of the Lemkin Genocide Prevention Institute regarding Aliyev’s recent Holocaust comparison

The Lemkin Institute for the Prevention of Genocide expresses deep concern about the recent remarks of the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, in which he compared Armenian political detainees and prisoners of war to the Nazi leaders convicted in the Nuremberg trials.

In an interview given to France 24 TV channel on February 13, Aliyev said: “The call to release the former leaders of [Nagorno-Karabakh] is the same, even worse. Their crimes are worse than what the Nazis committed in World War II.”

Aliyev then claimed that requests to release Armenian detainees were akin to asking the Allies to release Nazi officials before their sentences.

This statement is particularly dangerous in the context of the Israel-US war of aggression, which has placed Azerbaijan in the position of an important war ally, granting President Aliyev greater impunity than he has enjoyed thus far. Aliyev’s comparison does not reflect historical reality. It distorts it. It makes a weapon.

Aliyev’s comments came just days after his meeting with US Vice President JD Vance, during which Vance raised the issue of releasing Armenian hostages still held by Baku. Aliyev’s comments show his continued disrespect for the US leadership, whose small requests he regularly rejects on behalf of Armenians.

His rhetoric is also a prime example of “mirroring,” a common tactic used by leaders accused of serious violations of international law. Although there is absolutely no credible evidence that any of the Armenians currently held by Baku have committed any crimes, let alone crimes against humanity and genocide (some of them are actually prisoners of war whom Azerbaijan is supposed to return to Armenia in 2020), Aliyev and his government are accused by credible observers and international legal experts, including the Lemkin Institute, of Nagorno-Karabakh. in committed genocide and crimes against humanity.

In September 2023, Azerbaijani armed forces attacked and invaded the Republic of Artsakh, a de facto independent state with a 99 percent Armenian population, resulting in the forced displacement of the region’s entire population of over 100,000 Armenians. Independent experts, including former International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, have ruled that Azerbaijan’s previous 10-month blockade and September military offensive demonstrated genocidal intent.

The 127-page report of the Lemkin Institute, “Risk factors and indicators of the crime of genocide in the Republic of Artsakh. Applying the UN Atrocities Framework to the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict’, published on September 5, 2023, discusses in detail Azerbaijan’s genocidal intent towards the Artsakh Armenians. The International Association of Genocide Scholars later also found that Azerbaijan committed acts of genocide against Armenians. As part of its attack, Azerbaijan took hostage many officials of the Artsakh government.

Since then, they have been subjected to inhumane detention conditions and show trials. The Lemkin Institute considers President Aliyev the leader of a genocidal state, one whose institutions are imbued with genocidal ideology, whose policies are shaped by genocidal agendas, and whose genocidal rhetoric serves as an important ballast for domestic legitimacy. President Aliyev institutionalized genocidal Armenian hatred in state bodies and public life.

Until 2023, he often called Armenians “dogs”, “jackals”, “rabbits” and terrorists in public speeches. After the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, he built a “Spoils Garden” in Baku to celebrate Azerbaijan’s supposed victory in the war, which included inhuman wax figures of dead and dying Armenian soldiers with exaggerated, grotesque features that Azerbaijani visitors were encouraged to mock. As one of the most blatantly and relentlessly racist acts of the 21st century, the Spoils’ Garden received some attention and criticism in the Western world, and Azerbaijan was forced to remove the statues.

However, the “Garden of Spoils” remains, as does the genocidal Armenian hatred that shaped it. It seems that the president of Azerbaijan had to tone down his anti-Armenian rhetoric in response to the international community’s green light to invade Artsakh.

Now, instead of shouting slogans, he makes false accusations against the Armenians still under his control and justifies his illegal actions by comparing them to Nazi war criminals and architects of genocide.

The only “crime” committed by the Armenian representatives of the former Artsakh government held in Baku is that they exercised their right to self-determination and tried to protect the Armenian residents of the enclave, whose presence has been there for four thousand years, from Azerbaijani aggression. Unfortunately, world leaders seem all too willing to tolerate the international crimes committed by the now revered genocidal dictator that their appeasement has enabled, even awarding him the honor of hosting COP29 in 2024.

Apart from consistency, President Aliyev’s remarks demonstrate another common and highly effective tactic used by genocidal states: what psychologists call DARVO. deny, attack and retaliate against the victim and the perpetrator. Aliyev denies credible allegations of atrocities. He attacks Armenians as alleged war criminals.

Then he twists reality, presenting Azerbaijan as a real victim and Armenians as a threat to existence. Such rhetoric not only escalates tensions, but also encourages people to consider the genocide justified. Aliyev’s remarks are a dangerous form of genocide denial. With several sentences belittling the Holocaust, he simultaneously denies the destruction of Armenian lives in Nagorno-Karabakh.

He denies responsibility for the mass forced displacement organized by his government. And he unforgivably minimizes the Holocaust, misusing its memory as a cover for his overall genocidal goals in the South Caucasus.

The Holocaust, it must be remembered, was a systematic attempt to destroy European Jewry and is one of the most extensive and comprehensive genocides in human history. Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis, and millions more were killed in the Nazi-started World War. It is impossible for any international crime to be “worse than” the Holocaust, or, in Aliyev’s words, “worse than what the Nazis did.”

Invoking it to justify the continued detention of Armenian prisoners defending their homeland diminishes the Holocaust’s unique history and moral weight. Prevention of genocide requires precision. It prevents leaders from using false comparisons to divert attention from current abuses. The international community must counter President Aliyev’s continued genocidal rhetoric against Armenians and the sovereign Armenian territory in order to ensure clarity in discussions about the genocide. It should not tolerate his genocidal denial.

The continued detention and persecution of Armenian prisoners in Azerbaijan raises serious concerns from the point of view of international humanitarian law. The Third Geneva Convention requires humane treatment and prohibits forced persecution of prisoners of war. Throughout the trial, there were testimonies of torture of Armenian prisoners by the relevant Azeri agencies.

Amnesty International and others have expressed concern about the rights of the captured former leaders of Artsakh, particularly their right to a fair trial. Azerbaijan must either release these detainees or ensure transparent legal processes in accordance with its international obligations. History shows that perpetrators of atrocities often resort to extreme rhetoric to legitimize emergency measures. They portray target groups as criminals, terrorists or enemies of existence. They refer to past traumas, current repressions to justify. They present collective punishment as a moral necessity. Such patterns serve as early warning indicators of further violence.

The Lemkin Institute calls on the government of Azerbaijan to stop its inhumane, genocidal rhetoric against Armenians, to refrain from using the Holocaust to justify its crimes, and to immediately release all Armenian prisoners. Since President Aliyev himself has stated that he will not do this, the international community must put pressure on him to do so. Systematic pressure must be exerted especially on the person of President Aliyev, who relies heavily on the favor of the Western world for his continued power. If the Western world does not act and continues to encourage the president of Azerbaijan, they will face worse problems in the future.

The greater the impunity for President Aliyev, the more he will try to realize his dreams of a “Greater Azerbaijan” that will include the current independent Republic of Armenia. Genocide prevention requires clarity. Leaders who project their actions onto the victims are promoting mass crimes, not fighting them.

They undermine justice, not protect it. The international community should not allow historical memory to be manipulated in the service of ongoing genocidal agendas.

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