Sad clowns in the arena: the old repertoire of Azerbaijan's detractors

In the arena, it’s all the same. The anti-Azerbaijani propaganda, generously funded by global Armenians, is experiencing a serious crisis of genre. There are not enough new faces and, more importantly, new approaches. Everything is formulaic, predictable, and primitive. This is what happened this time when a video posted by The Armenian Report showed a troupe of sad clowns attempting to touch on the COP29 climate forum, which is taking place in Baku.

The sad clowns "demand to put pressure on a country that has carried out ethnic cleansing and has political prisoners." Hmm, I was even surprised at how the Armenian-sponsored masters of the conversational genre decided to skirt around Armenia. It was Armenia that carried out ethnic cleansing and has political prisoners. There is simply no reason for discussion—everything is so obvious.

Azerbaijanis were purposefully expelled and deported from the territory of present-day Armenia also in 1905-1906, 1918-1920, and 1948-1953. In 1948-1953 alone, more than 150,000 Azerbaijanis were forcibly expelled from historical lands in the Armenian SSR. Some of them, particularly the elderly and infants, died from the harsh conditions of resettlement, abrupt climate changes, physical shocks, and moral suffering.

Later, in the late 1980s, about 300,000 more Azerbaijanis were expelled from the Armenian SSR. As a result of this policy, there are no Azerbaijanis living in Armenia today. Not a single one! Moreover, the Armenian occupiers carried out ethnic cleansing in the temporarily occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Yes, there have been no Azerbaijanis living in Shusha, Lachin, Khankendi, Fuzuli, and other Azerbaijani lands for more than a quarter of a century.

At the same time, Armenian occupiers, including those who moved there from the Middle East, lived in the territories temporarily occupied by the enemy of our country. There are a lot of documents testifying to all this. But the sad clowns are not ready to admit the obvious. They simply enter the circus arena and perform a show that has been demonstrated many times before. That's their job.

The main thing is not to acknowledge the obvious problems of Armenia, including political prisoners. For example, take Armen Ashotyan. The former Minister of Education of Armenia is being held behind bars for criticizing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. In this regard, it makes sense to quote the words of Armenian political strategist Tigran Kocharyan, who gave a clear description of what is happening in Armenia.

"There has been no democracy in Armenia since 2018. Decisions in our country are made by one person, but these decisions are dictated to him from the outside," he said on the Fifth TV Channel. But, of course, the sad clowns did not mention this either. Who are they? All the familiar faces, so to speak. For example, Baroness Caroline Cox or former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo.

They have long since achieved automatism in voicing lies and nonsense about Azerbaijan. Ask them, for example, how things are going, and they will automatically give you a text about "the horrific crimes against Armenians committed by Azerbaijan." And so, today they do not hide their sadness and despair at the fact that COP29 is being successfully and effectively held in Baku, attended by presidents and prime ministers from over seventy countries, including many European ones.

What else were the sad clowns upset about? Baroness Caroline Cox, for example, complained that "Azerbaijan illegally holds quite a lot of Armenians captive, and they have not committed any crime, and there are many well-known leaders from Karabakh." This lady is too old, and therefore she may have forgotten that the correct name of this territory is the Karabakh economic region of Azerbaijan. Those who are in Baku awaiting trial are correctly called the former leaders of the Karabakh junta.

These are Arkady Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Araik Harutyunyan, David Babayan, David Ishkhanyan, Leva Mnatsakanyan, David Manukyan, Ruben Vardanyan, and others. They were charged with terrorism, financing terrorism, creating armed formations and groups not provided for by law, and conducting exercises for the purpose of terrorism. The evidence base of the crimes they committed is huge.

So, the demands of a lady who has long been supported by global Armenians sound absolutely ridiculous. Equally ridiculous are attempts to present as a "representative of academic circles" a professional scoundrel, a classic "Sharikov," who hangs out outside Azerbaijan, swearing no worse than Polygraph Polygraphovich.

The only difference is that Bulgakov's Sharikov had the official position of head of the sub-department of cleaning the communkhoz of the city of Moscow from stray animals. Whereas the "Sharikov" that pleases the world Armenians is demonstrated for the amusement of the public, without any official position. At the same time, he is so detached from reality that he criticizes Ursula von der Leyen, who was not in Baku at COP29.

Yes, I remember that Bulgakov's character liked to talk about Engels' correspondence with Kautsky. I also remember that he, in the process of turning from a mongrel into a human, ran around the room, pronouncing the word "abyrvalg," which meant "Glavryba." That's exactly how a new member of the troupe of sad clowns behaves, touring with an old, long-worn program. The whole troupe, having worked out their act and received a fee, will leave the stage to reappear in the arena when ordered by those who pay them to denigrate Azerbaijan, according to a long-agreed price list. It will be bland, sad, and predictable again. But sad clowns have not been able to squeeze anything else out of themselves for a long time.