On July 30, at the initiative of the delegation of Armenia, the issue of the promotion of hate crimes by Azerbaijan was included in the agenda of the OSCE Permanent Council’s session.

The Permanent Representative of Armenia, Ambassador Armen Papikyan, presenting the cases and attempts of violence against Armenian citizens and members of Armenian communities in the OSCE member states and elsewhere, the cases of obstruction of the normal work of the Armenian diplomatic service abroad and a deliberate destruction of their property, noted that those are ethnically motivated hate crimes, attacks, intimidation, and harassment perpetrated by Azerbaijani mobs against people of Armenian origin and the members of the Armenian community.

Then, Ambassador Papikyan informed the representatives of the OSCE member states that those aggressive actions of Azerbaijani mobs were orchestrated and directed by the respective Embassies of those countries. Furthermore, at least in one case we have evidence that implies the support of the Turkish Embassy as well.

Ambassador Papikyan emphasized that the attacks against Armenians in different countries, though seemingly a new phenomenon, in fact are the continuation of Armenophobia and hate propaganda that Azerbaijani society is being indoctrinated with for decades. In this regard, the Permanent Representative of Armenia noted that 

the policy of Armenophobia, aimed at instilling hatred and intolerance against any Armenian among the population of Azerbaijan, is being pursued at the highest state level.

Ambassador Papikyan further noted that Armenia repeatedly raised the awareness among its international partners on anti-Armenian policies perpetrated and promoted by the Azerbaijani leadership warning that the anti-Armenian hatred in Azerbaijani society reached such a level that with slightest manipulation it will spill over the territorial boundaries of the state of Azerbaijan, into the streets of different cities throughout the world. This is exactly what we are witnessing today.  “We firmly believe that the absence of adequate reaction from the international community, amounting to indulgence towards Azerbaijan and its despotic authorities, further emboldened the ruling regime of that country in pursuing anti-Armenian hate propaganda”.

In his statement the Permanent Representative of Armenia strongly condemned the instigation of ethnic clashes in different countries, which is another manifestation of Baku's irresponsibility and is fully in line with the policy and rhetoric of the Azerbaijani leadership provoking hostility between the two peoples without geographical restrictions.