Aliyev threatens to destroy ‘Armenian fascism’

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has called for ‘fascism’ in Armenia to be destroyed — either by the authorities in Yerevan or by Azerbaijan.

His remarks came as part of an extensive interview with several pro-government media outlets on Tuesday, during which he discussed the conflict with Armenia, the peace talks, and the border delimitation process.

During the interview, Aliyev said that Armenia was a ‘source of threat to the region’, calling it a ‘fascist state’. He pointed to statements made by Armenia’s first president, Levan Ter-Petrosyan, in 1993 about the expulsion of Azerbaijanis from Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

In a speech given by Ter-Petrosyan, the former Armenian president can be heard praising the ‘cleansing of foreigners’ from Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh as a problem ‘the Armenian people had not been able to solve for 600 years’.

‘I repeat again, this was a 600-year problem and the Armenian people will feel its significance for another 600 years hereafter. Imagine if there were 170,000 foreigners in Armenia today, as there were in 1988, today we would not have a state, we would not be able to protect the Zangezur region, our northeastern regions, the Sevan basin. Moreover, we would have several new autonomies here.’

Aliyev criticised the speech, which recently stirred controversy in Azerbaijani social media.

‘Now look, the racist and fascist statements of the first president of Armenia are as ugly as they are dangerous. He portrays ethnic cleansing as a source of pride, bragging about the expulsion of Azerbaijanis from their historical ancestral lands. This video, as they say, has now been made public. But, of course, they knew this in Armenia’, said Aliyev.

‘They live with ideas of revenge, and Armenia is a source of threat to the region… We are neighbours with such a fascist state, and the threat of fascism is not going away. Therefore, fascism must be destroyed. Either the Armenian leadership will destroy it or we will. We have no other choice.’

Footage of the speech given by Ter-Petrosyan made waves in Azerbaijan when a Russian dub was published by Albert Isakov, a Jewish–Armenian YouTuber who was born in Baku, the day prior.

In the description of the video, Isakov said that he had sourced the speech from ANI, a website run by Armenian journalist and editor Tatul Hakobyan.

After the speech was shared by Azerbaijani media, Hakobyan said that he had taken the video from the YouTube channel of news outlet Azdagir, where it was published ‘two years ago’.

‘If I had this speech of Ter-Petrosyan 15 years ago, I would without hesitation post it on my YouTube channel, but since I saw it only six weeks ago, I posted it as I saw it’, he said, adding that he was unable to predict who or for what purposes the speeches of former presidents, foreign ministers, ‘or my interviews and articles’ would be used.

Military aid to Armenia and France

Aliyev also extensively spoke about Armenia’s acquisition of arms, stating that these ‘weapons are given to Armenia for free or in the form of loans’.

‘Those loans are also written off after a certain period and also from the European Union’s notorious Peace Facility. Notorious, because the Peace Facility should actually be used for peace purposes’, he said, in reference to the EU’s provision of a non-lethal military aid package to Armenia in July 2024.

He also criticised an April 2024 meeting between Armenia, the US, and the EU, stating that it ‘de facto’ included a military component, despite reassurances from Brussels and Washington that the meeting would largely focus on Armenia’s economic resilience.

He said the alleged inclusion of a military agreement as part of the meeting ‘excluded both the European Commission and the US from the Azerbaijan–Armenia normalisation process’.

‘We have already informed them about this. If any party takes sides, it cannot be a fair mediator’, he said, adding that it was the reason behind Azerbaijan’s refusal to take part in a meeting with Armenia and the US in Malta in December.

‘Arming Armenia will simply lead to new tensions’, he said, adding that Azerbaijan, Armenia, and ‘its new patrons’ do not want new tensions.

‘I want to say again that we cannot just watch this as observers. Armenia must immediately stop arming. France and other countries that provide it with weapons must terminate and cancel these contracts. The weapons that have already been sent to Armenia must be returned’, he said.

Aliyev then criticised French President Emanuel Macron over statements he had made on Monday.

The French president had said that Russia ‘supported Azerbaijan’s actions against Armenia’, and accused Baku of interfering in ‘many of its overseas territories, especially in New Caledonia’.

France has previously accused Azerbaijan of supporting riots in New Caledonia, one of its overseas territories.

‘As for France, what is happening on the political scene there now? Everyone can see that. Yesterday, the French president made further absurd accusations against Azerbaijan. It seems that Mr Macron cannot live without Azerbaijan,’ said Aliyev.

‘He has some kind of mania and wants to blame all his sins on us. I think that if we have become so strong that we can interfere in the internal affairs of France and change something, we can simply be proud of it. In fact, this statement is an admission of his own helplessness.’

‘A president of a great state suffers from the actions of a country with a population of 10 million located far away in the Caucasus region’, he said, adding that Azerbaijan has ‘nothing to do with the internal affairs of France’.

Aliyev also criticised the EU Monitoring Mission in Armenia, a civilian mission sent to observe the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

‘I don’t want to show them how quickly they might run if someone even accidentally sneezes on Azerbaijani territory, but we’re tempted. This is why we told them to stop these binocular theatrics, and it seems they have’, he said.

Armenia as a ‘geographical barrier’

During the interview, Aliyev also spoke of the ‘Zangezur corridor’ — an Azerbaijani  proposal to link mainland Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan through Armenian territories.

In August, Azerbaijan reportedly agreed to withdraw its demands for the ‘Zangezur corridor’, seemingly removing a major roadblock to the signing of a peace treaty. However, since then, Azerbaijani, Russian, and Turkish officials have all continued to voice support for the proposal.

‘We want peace and cooperation in the South Caucasus. They should not be in the way. They should not act as a geographical barrier between Turkey and Azerbaijan. The Zangezur corridor must and will be opened’, he said.

‘The sooner they understand this, the better it is. Why should we have to go to Nakhchivan, an integral part of Azerbaijan, in different ways? We should have a direct connection, and this connection does not question Armenia’s sovereignty,’ he said, adding that Azerbaijan had been ‘showing patience for more than four years’.

‘I once said that they should not upset us and understand that we are the ones who have a say here and that Azerbaijan is the leading economy, the leading military power, and the leading state in the South Caucasus.’

In response to Aliyev’s remarks, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesday said that Azerbaijan was attempting to legitimise a new escalation through aggressive statements paired with the ‘distribution of false statements’ about ceasefire violations.

‘We will not take that path and we will remain committed to the strategy of peace and consistently continue the implementation of the peace agenda’, Pashinyan told Armenpress.

Since Monday, Armenia has twice refuted Azerbaijani accusations of ceasefire violations on the border. On Wednesday, the EU Monitoring Mission in Armenia also reported that the situation on the border was ‘calm’.

On the same day, both Pashinyan and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan seemingly criticised Aliyev’s use of the term ‘Western Azerbaijan’ during his interview.

‘Western Azerbaijan’ is an irredentist term laying claim to Armenian territory. During his interview on Tuesday, Aliyev used the term to describe Azerbaijanis displaced from ‘Western Azerbaijan’ — or Armenia.

Pashinyan called the rhetoric ‘directly aggressive’, equating his use of ‘Western Azerbaijan’ to that of ‘Western Armenia’ — which he said ‘cannot be on the other side of Armavir’.

Foreign Minister Mirzoyan called the use of the term a ‘direct territorial demand, or aspiration’, saying that it implied the ‘violation of Armenia’s territorial integrity’.

Mirzoyan also criticised Aliyev for calling Armenia a ‘geographical barrier’ between Azerbaijan and Turkey, saying that it was not Armenia’s intention to obstruct the two countries, and that Armenia wants to be a ‘bridge’ between neighbouring countries.

‘We want to be a link, and not a wedge. This pertains to both the countries that are geographically close to us’, said Mirzoyan.

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