Baku, April 8, 2025 – The Europe Today: The Western Azerbaijan Community has issued a strong statement criticizing recent comments made by Council of Europe High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, in response to questions raised by Armenian parliamentarians during a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
In the statement released on Monday, the Community expressed deep concern over what it described as O’Flaherty’s “complete unawareness” of key issues related to the rights of displaced Azerbaijanis.
“It is unacceptable that the High Commissioner raised the issue of the return of Armenians to Azerbaijan without any mention of the right of Western Azerbaijanis to return to Armenia, their ancestral homeland,” the statement read. “We call on the High Commissioner not to become hostage to the deep-rooted double standards on human rights prevalent in certain Western institutions.”
The Community further urged the High Commissioner to refrain from making statements that could be perceived as encouraging impunity concerning ongoing legal proceedings in Baku. Instead, they called for a more balanced approach, including urging Armenian authorities to prosecute individuals accused of war crimes, particularly those involved in the 1991 Aghdaban tragedy.
They also called on O’Flaherty to seek accountability from Armenia’s former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, citing his past statements which the Community deemed inflammatory and discriminatory. Ter-Petrosyan reportedly claimed, “by expelling the Azerbaijanis, we have achieved a 600-year-old historical goal.”
The Western Azerbaijan Community concluded its statement by urging the High Commissioner to visit Armenia to assess firsthand the state of Azerbaijani cultural and religious heritage sites, and to investigate what it described as “widespread ethnic hatred” against Azerbaijanis in Armenian media and public discourse.
The statement underscores persistent tensions between the two countries and highlights the continued sensitivity surrounding issues of displacement, heritage, and justice in the region.
