Baku exhibition-park, where Armenians are ridiculed and humiliated, is a great danger for Azerbaijan itself – Tessa Hofman  

The exhibition-park, which the Azerbaijani authorities opened in their country’s capital to boast about their “feats” in the recent Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) war, is humiliating and degrading for the Armenian nation as a whole, says Tessa Hofman, a German historian and doctor in philpsophy.

In an interview with Tert.am, she described the move as a blatant manifestation of racism that amounted to gross violations of international law and a series of war crimes.

“Such an exhibition is obviously aimed at degrading and humiliating the Karabakh Armenian people and their armed forces as well as the Armenian nation as a whole. In this respect, this is not just mere triumphalism of the most primitive kind, but open racism (anti-Armenism) on the part of a state leadership that, with the support of Turkey, decided last fall to wage a war of aggression on Nagorno-Karabakh in violation of international law and in the course of which committed a series of war crimes. These crimes should be dealt with comprehensively under international law as soon as possible,” she said.

Meantime the historian agreed that the Azerbaijani ruling class is very sensitive to the slightest criticism of their country abroad.

“When in March a number of scholars, the majority of whom are based in Germany, expressed their concern about Armenian cultural monuments in Artsakh/Karabakh and in this context also mentioned the falsifying "Albanization" of the regional cultural history, Azerbaijani "NGOs" hastened to issue a (counter)appeal accusing Armenia of "Armenizing" the Albanian sacral monuments. I assume that the concerned colleagues in Azerbaijan are informed enough to know about the history of the Artsakh/Karabakh region. So, apparently, the facts do not matter here, but only the confusion of outsiders. It is a tactic to parry accusations based on human rights and international law with counter-accusations and to trust that most people outside Armenia and Azerbaijan have neither the time nor the opportunity to investigate these accusations in detail,” she added.

Ms. Hofman added that she was one of the signatories of the call for the protection of Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh/Karabakh. In her words, the signatories to  the Azerbaijani counter appeal praised, among other things, their country's religious tolerance.

“I would love to believe that Azerbaijan is such a tolerant country. However, the existence of a park in the country's capital, Baku, where Armenians are ridiculed and humiliated in the most primitive manner contradicts the self-promotion of Azerbaijani colleagues. And at the same time signals a great danger for Azerbaijan itself: A society and state that have become accustomed to disparaging real or perceived opponents in such a way will do the same to any domestic groups the regime deems worthy of persecution,” she noted.

The German scholar said she also regrets that the governments of both Azerbaijan and Armenia have failed to initiate confidence-building measures for over 30 years.

“Given the spiral of violence in bilateral relations, given the war and war crimes, given the continued war rhetoric and increased potential for hatred in Azerbaijan, the chances for confidence-building measures are worse than ever. At the same time, however, they are more necessary than ever,” she added.