French media exposes Armenian rumours of violence, hatred towards Azerbaijanis

The website of the French agency AFP has published an article by Thibaut Marchand, which, on the one hand, refuted rumours about violence against Armenians during their move from the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan to Armenia, and on the other hand, showed the ethnic hatred of Armenians towards Azerbaijanis, which they did not even try to disguise in communication with foreign media.

“They are cruel! I don’t want to live with those dogs,” said Ofelya Hayrapetyan, referring to Azerbaijanis, The Times of Israel reports.

Sitting nearby, Spartak Harutyunyan played with his ten-month-old baby.

“The ‘Turks’ say we can stay, but they always lie. How can we live with them?” he said, using a derogatory shorthand for Azerbaijani forces.

Steps away, Alina Alaverdyan, 69, grimaces as she mentions the rumour “of the rape of the daughter-in-law” of an acquaintance.

“The kind of things that get into your mind,” she says.

“They’re not human. They’re dogs.”

Every family in Garabagh has heard such rumours, impossible to confirm and almost always obtained second-hand. Yet most of the refugees admit that they did not encounter any Azerbaijani soldiers before fleeing.

According to the testimonies gathered by AFP, Baku’s army generally did not enter towns and villages, confining itself to strategic heights and roads.

“We were told to leave and in 15 minutes it was done,” says Marine Poghosyan, 58, insisting they would not return to Garabagh under any circumstance.

“I’d rather live here in a tent than go back there.”

Images of alleged war crimes and atrocities, for which each side blamed the other, have begun to spread online.

The Al Jazeera TV company also reported on the absence of violence against the Armenian population in Karabakh in its report from Khankendi on the previous day. Thus, the reporter said that the ICRC and international structures did not confirm a single case of violence against the Armenian population and their expulsion by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. The report did not confirm the Armenian narrative of "ethnic cleansing", saying that people were leaving because of their own fears.