Azerbaijani Ambassador Greets Pashinyan in Armenian, Then Pushes Baku’s Narrative in Germany

During Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s official trip to Germany, Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Germany, Nasimi Aghayev, used the opportunity to repeat Baku’s long-standing narratives that ignore the destruction of Artsakh, the forced displacement of Armenians, and Azerbaijan’s growing pressure on Armenia’s sovereignty.

The exchange took place at the German Council on Foreign Relations. At the start, Aghayev greeted Pashinyan in Armenian, saying «Բարի գալուստ Գերմանիա» — translated as “Welcome to Germany.” Pashinyan reacted with a smile, acknowledging the greeting, and the discussion continued.

After greeting him in Armenian, Aghayev quickly shifted to English and began presenting Azerbaijan’s preferred messaging. He claimed major regional changes were underway and described the present moment as the “most stable and peaceful period” between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He also said that “Azerbaijan was, of course, the initiator of the peace agenda.”

These statements ignore the reality of Azerbaijan’s military attacks, its 2023 ethnic cleansing of Artsakh’s Armenians, and the ongoing destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in the territories it captured.

Aghayev also brought up Azerbaijan’s demand for Armenia to change its Constitution. He referred to this as “the last obstacle” and suggested that only after such changes could a peace treaty be finalized. He additionally highlighted TRIPP, a project intended to give Azerbaijan a direct route to Nakhijevan.

This reflects Azerbaijan’s long-term strategy: using negotiations to pressure Armenia into altering internal laws while avoiding responsibility for its actions against the Armenian population of Artsakh.

Pashinyan replied by giving a long explanation of Armenia’s position:

“I am grateful for your warm greeting, but on the other hand you know I wonder whether Azerbaijan wants there to be territorial claims in the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia or not. Sometimes I have the impression that our Azerbaijani partners very much want our Constitution to contain territorial claims against Azerbaijan, but there are none. We have no territorial claims, and we are ready to prove that. Our strategy is the following: to be consistent, without tension, in a positive and peaceful environment, and to present and explain all the nuances of our position. But the reality is different. Even considering that if Azerbaijan sincerely believes that there are territorial claims in Armenia’s Constitution, you know the fastest solution to this issue: to sign the peace treaty. And the Armenian Government will send that treaty to the Constitutional Court. And when the Court says that the treaty fully corresponds to our Constitution, it will go to Parliament, be ratified, and obtain the highest legal force, and in that case there will be no territorial claims by Armenia toward Azerbaijan. But when the Court decides that the treaty does not correspond to the Constitution, as I have already said, we will initiate constitutional changes.”

While presenting himself as a supporter of peace, Aghayev has a long history of public messages attacking Armenia, Armenians, and Artsakh.

He has:

• repeatedly demanded that Germany recognize the so-called “Khojaly genocide,” fully blaming Armenia

• accused Armenia of “ethnic cleansing” and “military aggression”

• dismissed the rights and history of Artsakh’s Armenian population

• never acknowledged the humanitarian disaster caused by Azerbaijan’s actions in 2020 and 2023

• used German media platforms to push Azerbaijan’s narrative

His public comments show no recognition of the mass forced displacement of Artsakh’s 120,000 Armenians or the destruction of Armenian cultural sites now under Azerbaijan’s control.

Aghayev has also frequently used social media to claim that the Blue Mosque in Yerevan is “Azerbaijani,” despite the historical fact that it is an 18th-century Persian (Iranian) Shia mosque. These posts support Azerbaijan’s broader campaign to rewrite the history of Yerevan and Artsakh, often framed in Azerbaijani state propaganda as the “Azerbaijani Iravan Khanate.”

—

Support independent reporting from the region by subscribing to The Armenian Report. Our team is funded solely by readers like you.