MONTREUX — Representatives of Christian Solidarity International (CSI), the Council of Armenian and Armenophile Associations of Switzerland (CAAS), and the Switzerland Armenia Association held a press conference on Tuesday, 8 September to pose an urgent question to the organisers of Montreux’ annual Septembre Musical festival: Is it their intention to whitewash Azerbaijan?
The impetus for the press conference was an upcoming 14 September gala programme dedicated to Azerbaijan, in collaboration with Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture, which promises to foster a “long term strategic partnership” between Bern and Baku.
In the programme’s promotional materials, there is no hint of Azerbaijan’s ongoing destruction and distortion of the centuries and millennia-old heritage of the indigenous Armenian population of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh).
Nor is there mention of Azerbaijan’s ten-month siege and military assault that drove out the entire Armenian population of 120,000 just three years ago.
Instead, Azerbaijan is portrayed in the festival’s social media posts as the “cradle of more than 5,000 years of culture”.
Sarkis Shahinian, President of the CAAS, noted that this language suggests that the programme will be used to uncritically amplify Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s false claim that Armenians have not been living in the region for thousands of years, but are recent arrivals, and that Armenia in its entirety is “Western Azerbaijan”.
Dr. Joel Veldkamp, CSI’s Director for Public Advocacy, questioned if the organisers of the festival were prepared for the likely scenario that Azerbaijan would use the 14 September event to lay claim to Armenian heritage as its own.
“Certainly, this programme has been designed by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture — the same Ministry of Culture that is presenting churches like this one, this 12th century Armenian monastery in Nagorno Karabakh called Dadivank, as Azerbaijani,” said Veldkamp, holding up a photo from materials made available to journalists in attendance.
How, he posited, might the Azerbaijani government partner organisers present Armenian culture during the programme?
“There are so many places where this event could really turn into a quite serious distortion of the historical record, a distortion that has real consequences for real people who are the victims of ethnic cleansing today,” he said.
“If the organisers of this festival do not think that they’re in a position to judge all of the historical claims being made during this event,” he said, they must urgently consider what steps can be taken to avert being used as a vehicle for image laundering.
Beyond the regional festival, Veldkamp said that Azerbaijan’s extensive lobbying should be a matter of concern for Switzerland nationally.
“Switzerland has a long tradition of supporting human rights, and of supporting the persecuted Armenian people in particular,” he said.
“We believe that if the people of Switzerland understand the true nature of the Aliyev regime, they will reject the idea of a ‘long-term strategic partnership’ with it.”
Joint press conference in Montreux:
