HRC 56: ID with SR on Racism

Delivered byMs. Lilit Toutkhalian, Minister Extraordinary and Envoy Plenipotentiary

Mr. President,

Armenia welcomes the Special Rapporteur and thanks for her timely report.

The glorification of Nazism is closely intertwined with other practices fueling contemporary forms of racism, discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

This policy has been for years cultivated in Azerbaijan against ethnic Armenians. The UN CERD has qualified it as "incitement to racial hatred and the propagation of racist stereotypes against persons of Armenian national or ethnic origin."

On numerous occasions Azerbaijan has declared "all Armenians of the world" as its "main enemies."

The European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance has observed that an entire generation of Azerbaijanis has grown up listening to anti-Armenian hateful rhetoric.

It is this generation that committed an ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. The authorities of Azerbaijan refer to it as a "final cleaning". They have never made a secret of their intent. The former Deputy Prime Minister and then mayor of Baku openly drew parallels with Holocaust and claimed that (I quote) "our goal is the complete elimination of Armenians."

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan glorifies Nazi collaborators from its midst, such as Mammad Amin Rasulzadeh, and erects monuments in their honor.

I thank you.

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