Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev used his October 15 address at the CICA summit in Baku to insult Armenian leaders, mock Armenian hostages and celebrate Azerbaijan’s military attacks, while accusing Armenia of the very crimes documented against Azerbaijani forces.
Aliyev called all three former Armenian presidents “war criminals and baby killers,” saying they had not received the punishment they deserved. He also accused Armenia’s current leadership of continuing their alleged crimes.
Turning to Armenian hostages illegally held in Baku, Aliyev compared their trials to the Nuremberg Tribunal, declaring that “this time, it was the Armenian fascists who were in the dock.”
He then openly mocked their imprisonment, stating that those who once threatened Azerbaijan “now drink Azerbaijani tea in our prisons,” while boasting that captured Armenian military equipment is displayed in Baku.
Aliyev also celebrated Azerbaijan’s September 2023 attack on Artsakh, which followed a nine-month blockade and resulted in the forced displacement of more than 100,000 Armenians. He declared that Azerbaijan had been forced to “break the backbone of Armenian fascism on the battlefield.”
His speech made no mention of documented war crimes committed by Azerbaijani forces. Amnesty International verified footage of Azerbaijani soldiers beheading Armenian captives during the 2020 Artsakh War. Human Rights Watch documented the torture of Armenian prisoners and analyzed footage showing the execution of at least seven Armenian POWs during Azerbaijan’s September 2022 attack on Armenia.
After mocking Armenian hostages, glorifying military attacks and repeatedly invoking “Armenian fascism,” Aliyev claimed Azerbaijan had not sought revenge and had instead offered Armenia peace.
