Historian: Armenian Foreign Ministry`s cautious response to  Azerbaijan`s false narratives fails Armenia`s national interests

ArmInfo. The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' (MFA) cautious response to Azerbaijan's false narratives does not serve the national interests of the Republic of Armenia. Ashot Melkonyan, a historian at the Institute of  History of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, made this statement in an interview with an ArmInfo correspondent in response to a request to assess the Armenian Foreign Ministry's statement regarding Azerbaijan's accusations against the Armenian people concerning the alleged "1918 genocide against Azerbaijanis." 

Days earlier, Azerbaijan's Human Rights Commissioner Sabina Aliyeva  called on international organizations and UN member states to take a  principled stance on the issue of "ethnic cleansing and crimes  against Azerbaijanis by Armenians, and to recognize the events of  1918 as genocide."

According to Melkonyan, in this situation, it would have been more  appropriate for the Armenian Foreign Ministry to specify in its  statement who exactly committed the genocide and against whom. "For  example, the events of February 6, 1905, in Baku, better known as the  Armenian-Tatar massacre. It's worth recalling the attack by radical  Muslims on the Armenian quarter of Armenikend in Baku, which marked  the beginning of the pogroms of Armenians, which then continued  throughout the Transcaucasus - in Tiflis, Artsakh, and the Yerevan  and Elizavetpol provinces. These events continued into 1918,  particularly on September 15, when the Turkish army invaded Baku and  carried out a massacre of Armenians under the leadership of Nuri  Pasha, the brother of Enver Pasha (one of the main organizers of the  Armenian Genocide - ed.)," the historian recalled.

At the same time, according to him, the Armenian Foreign Ministry  should have reminded Azerbaijan of the massacre organized on March  22-23, 1920, by the troops of General Khosrov bey Sultanov in the  Armenian quarter of Shushi, as well as the massacre in Sumgait in  February 1988, in Kirovabad in November 1988, and the massacre of  Armenians in Baku in January 1990. "And it would be right if they  responded to the accusations of a fabricated 'genocide' in Khojaly in  February 1992, which was organized by the Azerbaijani authorities  themselves as a result of disagreements between them and the National  Front, but shifted all the blame onto the Armenians. This is the  reality. We must not adhere to the principle of concealing genocide  committed by our neighbors. Nor can we equate our cases with theirs,  as they are completely different. The claim that Armenian armed  forces allegedly organized a massacre of Azerbaijanis on March 31,  1918, is a completely fabricated story," Melkonyan added.

He noted that numerous materials have been published on this issue  and expressed his conviction that Azerbaijan's state policy in this  regard pursues far-reaching goals. "Thus, the aggression committed in  Artsakh in 2020-2023 is seamlessly projected onto Armenia. Meanwhile,  actual genocide was committed against Armenians, and the most recent  genocidal act took place in Artsakh in 2023, as the people there were  not only displaced from their own cradles but also deprived of their  homeland. This fully complies with the definition of genocide  enshrined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the  Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948, based on Raphael Lemkin's  formula (defines genocide as a crime aimed at the destruction of  national, ethnic, racial, or religious groups - ed.). The Armenian  Foreign Ministry's response in this regard is excessively cautious  and does not serve our interests," the historian emphasized.

According to him, the Armenian Foreign Ministry should have fully  disclosed the reality. "However, instead of publicizing the policy of  genocide committed against the people of Artsakh and the destruction  of Armenian cultural heritage, we are talking about mirror  concessions. By refusing to recognize the actual genocide, we are  attempting to respond to fabricated accusations and advance a peace  agenda," Melkonyan concluded.

Recall, in response to accusations from Azerbaijani Human Rights  Commissioner Sabina Aliyeva regarding the "events of 1918," Armenian  Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan merely noted with regret  that "Azerbaijan continues to use false narratives." According to  her, "peace established between Armenia and Azerbaijan will not only  contribute to the establishment of stable, peaceful coexistence and  good- neighborly relations between the two countries and societies,  but will also put an end to contrived narratives and eliminate the  incitement of hatred." She then recalled the agreements reached  between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington on August  8, 2025, in particular, point 5, according to which "the parties are  discussing the possibility of closing the page of hostility and  beginning good- neighborly relations after a conflict that caused  human suffering to both sides."