‘Their crimes were even worse than what the Nazis did during WWII’ — Aliyev on Armenian prisoners
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has claimed that the ‘war crimes’ committed by the 13 Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians still held in Azerbaijan ‘were even worse than what the Nazis did during WWII’. Most of those in detention, who were captured after Azerbaijan’s final offensive in 2023, recently received life sentences or other lengthy prison terms. A total of 19 Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians are being held in Azerbaijan, some of whom are still on trial.
The hyperbolic accusation came during a wide-ranging interview with France24 on Saturday in Germany, where Aliyev was attending the Munich Security Conference.
When asked if the fate of the 13 former political and military leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh was raised during the visit by US Vice President JD Vance to both Armenia and Azerbaijan earlier in February, Aliyev said he ‘expressed Azerbaijan’s position on this issue, and that was it’.
Referring to them as the ‘masterminds of all the war crimes against Azerbaijanis and Azerbaijan’, Aliyev claimed the trials were fair and ‘absolutely transparent’.
The trials were attended only by Azerbaijani state-run media outlets — no international observers were present, and the defendants were represented exclusively by Azerbaijani lawyers. These conditions, among other issues, have raised widespread concerns about the defendants’ ability to receive a fair trial.
Aliyev was then further pressed by the interviewer, who asked, ‘Could you do something about this [...] turn the page and grant them clemency or something. You could make a gesture. This is within your powers’.
‘You know, these people committed serious crimes against humanity’, Aliyev responded.
‘Imagine after the Second World War, the Nuremberg trials, and all those Nazi leaders, who were sentenced to death, in two months some would come and say, please release them’.
The interviewer appeared to be somewhat surprised, asking, ‘It's the same for you?’.
‘Yes, absolutely. It’s even worse, even worse. Their crimes were even worse than what the Nazis did during World War II’.
Moving on past his extreme hyperbole, Aliyev then said he would support a ‘universal right of return’.
‘Taking into account that we were at war with Armenia for 30 years, and for 30 years they were occupying our territory, we expect the same attitude toward [the] hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis, who we call Western Azerbaijanis, to be able to return to today’s Armenia’, Aliyev said.
Nate Ostiller
Finally, the interview turned to the question of Azerbaijan’s relations with France, which have long been tumultuous, largely because of French support for Armenia.
In response, Aliyev said ‘we were not the source of the problems with France’, claiming relations were not an issue prior to the Second Nagorno Karabakh War in 2020.
However, the visits of ‘very famous French personalities’ to Nagorno-Karabakh before the final 2023 offensive, as well other forms of support from France for Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, ‘was an open insult to Azerbaijan’s statehood and a total sign of disrespect’, Aliyev said.
At the same time, Aliyev added that he had a ‘very positive’ meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the end of 2025, and they ‘agreed to put [sic] a restart button’.
Nate Ostiller
