HRC 56: Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on education, Right to Reply

25 June, 2024

Delivered by Ms. Lilit Toutkhalian, Minister Extraordinary and Envoy Plenipotentiary

1st Right of Reply

President,

Armenia refutes all groundless allegations of Azerbaijan.

Yesterday a government decree was issued in Azerbaijan to extend the special quarantine regime on its territory (and I quote) “in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection, the COVID-19 (end of quote).”

While there is a clear irony here, there may also be several explanations. First, Azerbaijan is an authoritarian country and it uses the “quarantine regime” to strengthen the grip on its society. Second, Azerbaijan may prepare a new war against Armenia. Azerbaijan may aim at going to war having its hands free of any international scrutiny under the guise of “quarantine regime.”

Azerbaijan does not hide its intentions. Earlier today, at the HRC, during the ID on education, Azerbaijan made open threats and territorial claims against the Republic of Armenia. We hope that this warmongering at this august platform should not remain unnoticed.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan is engaged in the distortion of the history. It aims at the erasure of the Armenian heritage of the region both in destroying cultural and religious monuments and rewriting the history. The UN Special Rapporteur on cultural rights stated in this regard that “the vast majority of experts in the region’s art, architecture, and archaeology have all rejected the revisionist claims as false.” The International Court of Justice, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe have all expressed concerns about the developing narrative in Azerbaijan to replace Armenian cultural heritage and the revisionist tendency negating Armenian cultural heritage and presence.

This policy intensified after the ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. This was by far not the first forced displacement of Armenians committed by Azerbaijan. Armenians were expelled in several waves of massacres and persecution. Overall, there were around 500.000 Armenians living in Soviet Azerbaijan in 1980s. There are almost no Armenians living in Azerbaijan today.

However, Azerbaijan continues to cultivate anti-Armenian hated including through education. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern about school textbooks in Azerbaijan that promote prejudice and incite racial hatred, particularly against ethnic Armenians.

If Azerbaijan genuinely wants to establish peace it should consider refraining from anti-Armenian references in its textbooks, as well as its bellicose rhetoric at the international organizations.

I thank you.

2nd Right of reply

President,

Armenia shares its grave concern with regard to what the UN CERD has characterized as an “incitement to racial hatred and the propagation of racist stereotypes against persons of Armenian national or ethnic origin by public figures and government officials” of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani public has been consistently injected with the idea of racial inferiority of Armenians, as well as with repetitive calls to violence, brutality and annihilation. Armenians are described in Azerbaijani school textbooks as “willy and corrupt” and “infidels in black clothes.” The history textbooks read that Armenians are “genetic enemies”. A video on social network featured a teacher in Baku preschool who taught the kids that the Armenians are the enemies of the nation, while another Azerbaijani teacher was fired from school after calling for peace with Armenia.

The Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance reported “Political leaders, educational institutions and media have continued using hate speech against Armenians; an entire generation of Azerbaijanis has now grown up listening to this hateful rhetoric.”

On the other hand, the books of a renowned Azerbaijani novelist were burned on the streets because he was preaching for peace with Armenia. The special procedure mandate holders issued communications on this, as well as other cases of anti-Armenian racism in Azerbaijan.

As an integral part of this rhetoric, Azerbaijan bases its territorial claims against the Republic of Armenia on distorted historical narratives that further fuel anti-Armenian hatred in the Azerbaijani society. This must stop.

I thank you.

MFA RA
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