Author: Emil Lazarian

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.

—

Eduard Sharmazanov writes on his Facebook page. “What do you have to do with Mesrop Mashtots? he founded a school in Amaras, you fired people to name Artsakh.

Once again, Nikol excelled at distorting historical facts and announced that Hayatan is at the same crossroads in both 405 and 2026.

Nikol Pashinyan, 405 there was neither a Turk nor an Azerbaijani at this intersection.

This does not bring unsuccessful examples from history…

A person wants to put aside the literature with diploma, PhD, and professional volumes read.

O omniscient, what does 405 have to do with it? The geopolitical environment of Armenia with the “Turkish intersection” you brought.

405 Armenia’s neighbors were the Eastern Roman Empire /Byzantium/ and Persia.

There was neither a Turk nor an Azerbaijani at our intersection. Are you turning the state into a “Turkish Corridor” and talking about Mesrop Mashtots?

Mesrop Mashtots founded a school in the Amaras monastery of Artsakh, which you handed over to the Azerbaijanis.

Also, you fired the head of the museum for donating a book about Artsakh.

That of Artsakh, where Saint Mesrop Mashtots founded schools.

That Artsakh, which you used to proclaim as “Armenia, and that’s it.”

—

on July 10, 2023 “Following Pashinyan’s search for the gunner of the war. Before and after the war” We published an analysis in the article, where according to the chronology and political moment, we presented what Nikol Pashinyan considered the trigger of the war. Of course, during this period, the number of reasons for war already voiced by Pashinyan has increased.

And now he considers His Holiness and the Armenian Apostolic Church to be war mongers because they dare to say during the liturgy that they bless the Republic of Artsakh and speak about the rights of Artsakh Armenians.

And it is nothing that the former presidents or the opposition forces state that today they cannot imagine the return to Artsakh in any way, it is not realistic, and that a number of issues must be resolved for this, which may not be possible in the coming years. In other words, there is political manipulation in Pashinyan’s speech here as well.

On the other hand, it is possible, isn’t it, to ensure that the Armenian graves are not destroyed, the Armenian traces are not destroyed by Baku, so that the people of Artsakh can either visit the graves of their children, husbands, parents, or carry out the exhumation and bring the bodies of their relatives to Armenia. Is this an act of war or an international human right?

Another thing: when, for example, Pashinyan’s opponents say that the Artsakh page should not be closed, they mean that, first of all, not to forget the victory of the first Artsakh war, those who gave their lives for the sake of a centimeter of land for 30 years, their biographies, and deal with what I said about.

Can the mentions of the soldiers, officers, commanders who died in the same 44-day war in the form of articles, or the presence of the Artsakh flag near the graves in Yerablur be considered a trigger of war tomorrow? First of all, this is called not closing the Artsakh page, and this cannot be a trigger for war, as Nikol Pashinyan claims, and what is the question: does Aliyev demand it?

By the way, during the days of the 44-day war, on October 16, 2020, while sending off the reservists who were leaving Yerevan for the Artsakh war, he said:

“You go there to protect your bedrooms, to protect your bedroom entrances, to protect your porches, to protect your buildings, to protect your yards.”

In other words, the outcome of the 44-day war was directly related to the security of Armenia, but not in the context that many people like to say, but in terms of the geographical position, which was a certain geopolitical playing card in our hands. And in reality, the Republic of Armenia has been the guarantor of Artsakh’s security for 30 years, and when it ceased to be, we lost Artsakh, yes, weakening the security of Armenia geographically.

But even in the case of the results of the 44-day war, it was possible to have as strong security as possible and not to lose territories from Armenia. This is a separate discussion topic.

In this context, let’s not forget the revolution or evolution of Pashinyan’s views on the status of Artsakh, which 168.amas well presented in detail.

Let’s go back to the topic of whether or not to provoke a war.

168.ampresented in detail after the war is pwar warnings chronology, and how Nikol Pashinyan has shown himself, having these warnings in hand, what provocative steps he has taken, from various statements to the participants of the July victory in Sardarapat reward A month before the 44-day war.

By the way, back in 2019, when Artak Davtyan was the head of the GSH, our with information During the consultations in the General Assembly, the possibility of a war was also highly assessed, it was even mentioned that the next war will be more large-scale than the April 2016 war. Moreover, Davtyan had this idea on one occasion said also during the interview given to Satik Seyranyan.

Here it is worth remembering how Pashinyan was after the change of power in 2018 refusal considers the formula “territories in exchange for peace” unacceptable, and then repeatedly states that if territories were handed over, he would be considered a traitor. And this before the war, during the war, and after it.

Let’s remember Pashinyan’s famous confession: “We could have prevented the war, which would have resulted in the same situation without the casualties.” Why was this not done, why on the 4th day of the war, the former head of the RA Armed Forces General Onik Gasparyan? the offer not accepted. Maybe it was needed.

And now, when Nikol Pashinyan considers his party the “party of peace” and the Church or the opponents as the party of war, it is ridiculous.

Why, because in the 8 years of Pashinyan’s rule, we got the 44-day war of 2020 with several thousands of victims, territorial losses and the document of November 9, by which the territories held by the army were surrendered, this was followed by the May 2021 Azerbaijani invasion of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, but during that time Nikol Pashinyan continued to promise peace in pre-election meetings. Selected.

And months after that, we had the November battles of 2021, the September battles of 2022, during which we had more than 200 casualties in a few hours, we had territorial losses, Azerbaijan entered Jermuk.

Moreover, after the 2021 elections, Pashinyan also announced that his “Civil Pact” party received votes from Armenian citizens in the elections. A mandate to open an era of peaceful development for Artsakh.

And what? Artsakh was depopulated in 2023.

Now who is the war party, and should we believe the peace promises of such a government? By the way, the enemy can wage a war in supposedly peaceful conditions, with supposedly peaceful weapons.

And what Pashinyan says is that he decides the RA foreign policy and no one has the right to oppose it. Very well, in that case, let’s remind Pashinyan again that the 44-day war happened because the foreign policy he drew failed, secondly, the war is conducted by the state, and he is in RA martial law under the conditions assumed the authority of the supreme commander, why is he not responsible for the defeat in the war, and those who implement his foreign policy, why was he left only to the army, which was suddenly decided to be made a reserve?

Promises about peace, even unfulfilled ones, do not “water down” the responsibility for wars, their results and consequences.

—

A little while ago, information was spread that the police detained about two dozen supporters of Samvel Karapetyan from the court yard.

168.amAccording to the report, the supporters of Samvel Karapetyan were detained just for crossing the street at the traffic light.

The participants of the peaceful support action in front of the anti-corruption court building were detained for unknown reasons and, according to preliminary information, transferred to the Arabkir department of the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs.

We were also informed that the lawyers are dealing with the issue of those detained.

According to the police, however, there are 3 arrested and they are in the regional division of the MIA police because of not fulfilling the legal requirement of the police officer.

—

While the Iran-USA-Israel war continues in the Middle East, amid rumors that the war is not going according to the American plan, the US president continues to make victorious statements. During the last hours, he announced that since the Second World War, no country has been hit as hard as Iran is now.

“We have destroyed most of their missiles, we have destroyed many drones, we have destroyed many objects producing missiles and drones. We are hitting them with a force that no country has felt since World War II,” he said in an interview on the Fox News channel.

He also wrote on his page of the Truth Social social network that new attacks will be carried out against the leadership of Iran in the near future.

“Look what’s going to happen today to those crazy bastards,” Trump wrote, vowing to continue the destruction of those he called responsible for the deaths of innocent people around the world for decades.

The American leader also spoke harshly to the press, accusing the media of defeatist sentiments.

According to him, if you read the New York Times, you might mistakenly think that the US is not winning, when in fact Iran’s navy is destroyed, aviation has ceased to exist, missiles and drones are subject to widespread destruction, and “leaders have been wiped off the face of the earth.”

It is noteworthy that despite the ongoing attacks against various Iranian settlements, tens of thousands of people in many cities and villages of Iran today took to the streets to celebrate Al-Quds Day, which is celebrated on the last Friday of Ramadan, when people in Iran and other countries take to the streets as a sign of solidarity and unity in the fight against the Jewish state.

Today’s march was attended by the President of the Republic of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian, the Minister of Internal Affairs Seyed Abbas Araghchi, as well as the Secretary of the National Security Council of Iran, Ali Larijani. He walked freely through the streets and answered the questions of journalists. He said that Israel’s attacks prove its helplessness, and Trump does not understand that the people of Iran are mature, strong and determined. According to him, the greater the pressure, the stronger the will of the people. Earlier, Larijani recorded that Trump said that he expected a quick victory.

“Although starting a war is easy, it cannot be won with a few posts. We will not surrender until you repent for this miscalculation,” he wrote.

168.amin a conversation with ռուս ռազմական վերլուծաբան Ալեքսանդր Խրամչիխինն said that it is definitely not in the interests of the US to prolong this war, because it is difficult for the US to wage war in this region against a state like Iran.

According to him, the analysts noted earlier that Iran is not Iraq or Venezuela and that a crushing and quick war against Iran is not possible.

According to Alexander Khramchikhin, since the initial plan – a quick war, the option of eliminating the supreme leader of Iran and solving the issue in this way – did not work, and now the future plan is not mentioned.

“Iran’s plan is to confront, the Iranian side clearly declares that, Iran’s position, in my opinion, is hardening parallel to the military operations. And there are conflicting statements from the USA, one says that they have won, another says that the war will end soon, and they also say that new powerful rocket attacks are expected… and the reason for this is that the initial calculation that removing a few key officials would solve the issue did not work, as the system continued to resist. Time will show how effective it is, but the US and Israel are still unable to solve the problem before them.

Another issue is that Trump wants to declare victory, there is almost no possibility of negotiation or retreat between the parties, this also complicates the situation, as well as the fact that Iran declares that it will not negotiate, and there are also some preconditions,” Khramchikhin said.

According to him, the statements that the USA has eliminated all of Iran’s missile potential are not reliable, otherwise Iran would not have resisted, and the situation on the battlefield would have changed.

As for the South Caucasus, according to Alexander Khramchikhin, the South Caucasus countries, following the situation, should draw conclusions from the policies of the USA and Iran for their future foreign policy.

According to him, there is one scenario when the USA achieves its goals by defeating Iran, another scenario is when Iran resists, reaching the point where the USA announces the cessation of military operations.

“Being in the neighborhood of this war, it is impossible not to take all this into account. Iran is an important player in the South Caucasus, this war will naturally change the political perceptions of Iran and the USA, including in the South Caucasus. And I think that the careful positioning of Turkey and Azerbaijan is important, taking into account the nature of the relations between Turkey and the USA,” said Alexander Khramchikhin.

—