Stepanakert: Public manifestation of hatred towards Armenians began  to be perceived as a norm in the Azerbaijani society

ArmInfo. The processes related to the final match of the Europa League held in Baku, which midfielder of the London Arsenal and captain of the Armenian national  football team Henrikh Mkhitaryan had to miss, and which many Armenian  fans could not attend, have become another evidence that negative  consequences of the decades-long state policy of hatred towards  Armenians cannot be overcome overnight.  Foreign MInistry of Artsakh  mentioned in its statement related to the situation with Henrikh  Mkhitaryan.

As the press service of the Artsakh foreign ministry informs, the  statement reads as follows:  "This sporting event, which could  contribute to reconciliation of the societies of the conflicting  parties, had the exact opposite effect and demonstrated the level of  hostility by the Azerbaijani side to everything connected with the  Armenians.

In this regard, it should be noted that xenophobia against Armenians  has been actively used by the Azerbaijani authorities, in the context  of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict, as a tool in their policy of  forcibly suppressing the right of the people of Artsakh to  self-determination.  Over the years, intolerance towards Armenians  not only did not weaken in Azerbaijan but began to penetrate into all  spheres of public life, including the education system. The report of  the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) notes  that in Azerbaijan "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".[ ECRI Report on the Azerbaijan (fifth monitoring cycle).  17 March 2016] The imposition of Armenophobia and promotion of hate  crimes against Armenians were elevated to the level of state policy,  which was formulated by the President of Azerbaijan in the form of  the thesis "Armenians of the world are the main enemy of Azerbaijan".  The manifestations of racism and xenophobia towards Armenians in  Azerbaijan have been also documented by several international  organizations, in particular, the UN Committee on the Elimination of  Racial Discrimination, the European Commission against Racism and  Intolerance and the Council of Europe Advisory Committee on the  Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.  One  glaring example of encouragement by the Azerbaijani authorities of  hate crimes against Armenians has been the extradition to Azerbaijan  in August 2012, followed by pardon and nationwide glorification and  making a hero of Ramil Safarov, a criminal who hacked to death a  fellow Armenian officer, with whom he was taking part in the training  courses under the NATO Partnership for Peace program in Budapest, and  was convicted by a Hungarian court for life imprisonment.  The ECRI  unequivocally noted that such actions could cultivate a sense of  impunity for the perpetrators of racist crimes of the most serious  nature,[ Ibid., par. 38] and the UN Committee on the Elimination of  Racial Discrimination regarded this step by the Azerbaijani  authorities as condoning racial hatred and hate crimes and denying  redress to victims.[ CERD/C/AZE/CO/7-9, par. 15] The problem of  xenophobia towards Armenians in Azerbaijan has reached such  proportions that any Azerbaijani citizen who publicly advocates the  establishment of any relations with Armenians is faced with  intimidation and harassment by the Azerbaijani authorities, as it  happened with Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli. Even participation in  joint civil peace initiatives is a sufficient reason for the  Azerbaijani authorities to fabricate criminal cases. In 2014, a  number of leading Azerbaijani human rights activists and journalists,  who had participated in projects aimed at confidence building and  preparing societies for peace, were arrested in Azerbaijan on charges  of treason and espionage in favor of Armenia.  Moreover, any person  bearing an Armenian surname, regardless of citizenship and age, is  faced with discrimination when trying to visit Azerbaijan. This  situation even caused a lengthy comment by the Foreign Ministry of  the Russian Federation on 6 July 2017. In particular, the Information  and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry had to admit  that Russian citizens of Armenian descent visiting this country are  indeed subject to ethnic discrimination.  Contrary to the numerous  recommendations of international organizations, the Azerbaijani  authorities take no action to comply with their international  obligations to eliminate all forms of discrimination.  Against the  background of the continuing degradation of the situation with  xenophobia in Azerbaijan, a shared responsibility of the  international community is to influence on the Azerbaijani  authorities to stop the propaganda of hatred and eradicate the  negative phenomena caused by it. This state policy pursued for many  years has led to a situation when public manifestation of hatred  towards Armenians began to be perceived as a norm in the Azerbaijani  society. In order to reverse this negative trend, effective measures  will have to be taken with the support of the international  community, which will allow the Azerbaijani society to get rid of  man-hating norms and guidelines imposed by the authorities and take  the path of recovery".