Even as Armenia’s current authorities continue speaking of “peace” and “good-neighborly relations” with Azerbaijan, Baku and Ankara are once again advancing openly anti-Armenian propaganda and fabricated historical claims.
On Tuesday, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry called for recognition of a so-called “Azerbaijani Genocide,” reviving the false narrative that Armenians massacred Azerbaijanis in Baku in March 1918. According to Baku’s latest version of events, thousands of Armenian Revolutionary Federation members allegedly participated in mass killings before Armenia and Azerbaijan declared independence later that year.
Armenia’s foreign ministry rejected those accusations on Wednesday, calling them “hostile and unfounded narratives” that have been cultivated in Azerbaijan for decades and continue to be promoted at the state level. Foreign ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan expressed hope that the so-called peace established between the two countries would help end fabricated claims and hate speech.
Yet Azerbaijan’s latest falsification of history comes precisely as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has been preaching reconciliation and denouncing the pursuit of “historical justice,” which he recently described as “anti-Armenian.” In effect, while Yerevan softens its language and signals retreat from national positions, Baku responds not with restraint, but with new accusations, new distortions, and renewed incitement.
Turkey quickly joined Azerbaijan’s campaign. In a statement, Turkey’s defense ministry declared that it would not allow the alleged “genocide committed by Armenians against Azerbaijanis” to be forgotten. It claimed that Armenian armed groups had “mercilessly killed thousands of innocent Azerbaijanis” and described those events as a “black mark in history.”
The episode once again exposes the emptiness of the illusion that Armenian concessions and conciliatory rhetoric will reduce hostility from Azerbaijan and Turkey. On the contrary, even as Pashinyan speaks the language of “peace,” Armenia’s adversaries continue to intensify anti-Armenian narratives, promote historical revisionism, and deepen the very hatred Yerevan claims it is trying to overcome.
