Primitive provocation against Azerbaijan Siding with Armenian war criminals

At the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris, whose opening ceremony is scheduled for July 26, Azerbaijan will be represented by 48 athletes. This marks the second-largest delegation in the country’s sports history after Rio 2016, where it had 56 representatives. Importantly, Azerbaijan will participate in 15 sports for the first time. There are high expectations for achieving a record number of medals, including gold.

However, we are already witnessing how the Paris Olympics are becoming a tool of political pressure against Azerbaijan. The organization Christian Solidarity International (CSI) has called on the President of the International Olympic Committee to exclude Azerbaijan from the Paris Olympics, suggesting that Azerbaijani athletes compete under a neutral flag.

"Excluding Azerbaijan from the Olympics would send the correct message: the international world of sport will not condone and ignore egregious violations of human rights," said CSI representative Joel Veldkamp.

It is noteworthy that IOC President Thomas Bach was present at the event. Regrettably, he did not refute this blatant verbal provocation against Azerbaijan.

CSI cynically and shamelessly lied, attempting to smear Azerbaijan, which has been a victim of occupation for over a quarter-century, while whitewashing Armenia, the occupying country. CSI falsely claims that Azerbaijan "attacked Nagorno Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave, after laying siege to it for nine months." CSI surely knows that there is not and has never been a "Nagorno Karabakh Republic," but they deliberately and cynically lie.

The truth is that Azerbaijan could not attack its own internationally recognized territory. Armenia ignored international law and resolutions of the UN Security Council and General Assembly, which clearly demanded the withdrawal of all Armenian illegal military formations from our occupied territories. Armenia plundered our occupied territories for over a quarter-century. Armenia maintained an army there. But the human rights organization "Christian Solidarity International" does not mention any of this. They stand in solidarity with war criminals, with Armenian myth-makers. They forget about the genocide of peaceful Azerbaijani civilians in Khojaly, for which none of the Armenian leaders were punished. The organization forgets that Armenia's third president, Serzh Sargsyan, boasted about this crime against humanity in an interview with British journalist Thomas de Waal. They ignore the fact that Armenia's second president, Robert Kocharyan, authored a monstrous, racist statement about the "genetic incompatibility of Armenians and Azerbaijanis."

CSI forgets about the rights of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis who were expelled from their native lands. They ignore the fact that during the 44-day war, rocket strikes were launched from Armenia into peaceful Azerbaijani cities, resulting in the deaths and injuries of Azerbaijani elderly, women, and children, by order of the leadership of that country. This is blatant amorality!

CSI's staggering stupidity lies in ignoring the fact that official Yerevan was forced to recognize Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, including the Karabakh region. Their blatant falsehood was the circulation of the Armenian propaganda thesis about a "blockade" in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. There is ample evidence that the Karabakh separatist regime blocked humanitarian aid shipments from Baku to Khankendi.

There is also plenty of evidence that food warehouses in Khankendi were stocked with everything necessary for a comfortable life. The Karabakh separatist regime simply concealed all this, creating myths about a "blockade" and "starvation." This very myth was actively promoted by CSI in tandem with longtime lobbyist for the Karabakh separatists, Baroness Caroline Cox.

CSI is not new to demonstrating solidarity with all the crimes committed by Armenia against Azerbaijan, with all the lies concocted by the Armenian side against Azerbaijan.

Last year, this organization called on the IOC to ban the Azerbaijani national team and government officials from participating in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. In addition, CSI called on the IOC to suspend the membership of the National Olympic Committee of Azerbaijan. Clearly, these amoral and unethical demands were not met then. They will not be met now. But everyone will see how the attempt to politicize the Paris Olympics took place and who the Christian Solidarity International organization truly stands in solidarity with.