Azerbaijani “Eco-Activist” Behind Artsakh Blockade Arrives in Yerevan for Peace Talks

The meeting held in Yerevan between Armenian and Azerbaijani experts was presented as a step toward dialogue and peacebuilding. Yet for many in Armenia, this event symbolized something very different — a deep insult to truth, justice, and the memory of Artsakh’s tragedy. The outrage that followed was not only understandable but entirely justified. How can a country like Azerbaijan, where free thought is criminalized and independent activism is crushed, send representatives who are described as “civil society”?

The answer is simple — it cannot. There is no civil society in Azerbaijan. The dictatorship of Ilham Aliyev has long eliminated it. The journalists, activists, and opposition figures who dared to speak freely are either in prison, exiled, or dead. What remains are voices controlled by the regime, working under the cover of “non-governmental” organizations but serving only one master — the Azerbaijani state.

Armenian experts familiar with Azerbaijan’s internal repression know this well. Researcher Bahruz Samadov, who once openly criticized the regime and spoke with Armenian media, is now behind bars, accused of treason. Another independent voice, Talysh activist Zahiraddin Ibrahimi, was kidnapped from Russia and secretly taken to Baku. His fate remains uncertain. These are the realities of “civil society” in Aliyev’s Azerbaijan — silenced, erased, and destroyed.

The Yerevan roundtable was organized by the Research Center on Security Policy, with support reportedly coming from both governments. The organizers described the participants as members of the “expert communities” and “civil societies” of Armenia and Azerbaijan, focusing on peacebuilding, humanitarian concerns, and regional cooperation.

 But the participation list alone exposed the hypocrisy behind this image of dialogue.

Among those sitting at the table was Dilara Afandiyeva, one of the so-called Azerbaijani “eco-activists” who played a direct role in the blockade of the Lachin Corridor that cut off Artsakh from the world between December 2022 and September 2023. That blockade led to starvation, medicine shortages, and, ultimately, the forced exodus of the entire indegenous Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. It was the final stage of Azerbaijan’s long campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Armenians of Artsakh.

For such a person to now arrive in Yerevan under the label of “civil society” is beyond cynical — it is an open provocation. Her presence at a peace meeting dishonors the memory of those who suffered during the blockade and mocks the humanitarian values the event claimed to promote.

Other Azerbaijani participants included figures linked to state-backed think tanks, government-run NGOs, and propaganda outlets. Kamala Mammadova, editor of the pro-government 1News.az website, represents a media landscape ranked near the bottom of the global Press Freedom Index. Ramil Iskandarli, head of the Azerbaijan National NGO Forum, is known for defending the regime’s human rights record internationally. These are not independent experts — they are instruments of a dictatorship dressed in civilian clothes.

Since the 2020 war, the power imbalance between Armenia and Azerbaijan has only deepened — militarily, politically, and socially. Azerbaijan uses its oil wealth and military strength to impose humiliation on Armenia, while maintaining complete control over domestic opinion through censorship and propaganda. In such conditions, any talk of equal dialogue is an illusion.

Peace cannot be built on falsehoods. Trust cannot be established when one side speaks freely and the other recites the words of its authoritarian ruler. Armenia’s civil society operates in an open environment, with real debates and plural voices. Azerbaijan’s does not. When these two realities meet at the same table, it is not a meeting of equals — it is a meeting of freedom and fear.

Many Armenian civil activists who have spent years working on peace initiatives are now asking themselves an honest question: how can one engage in meaningful dialogue with those who represent a dictatorship and not a people?

For years, Armenia’s civil society has tried to build bridges, only to see them burned by Azerbaijan’s aggression — from the war in 2020 to the siege and cleansing of Artsakh in 2023. Decades of patient work and goodwill have been met with hatred and lies.

It is true that even minimal communication is better than renewed violence. But this should not mean tolerating deceit. When those who actively took part in a genocidal blockade are invited to sit in Yerevan’s conference halls, the message sent is one of weakness, not peace. Dialogue must not come at the cost of dignity.

Armenia’s institutions — both governmental and non-governmental — must act with vigilance and integrity when organizing or joining such meetings. Participants representing Azerbaijan must be carefully vetted, and those with a record of anti-Armenian activity must be excluded. This is not intolerance; it is a matter of moral responsibility. The Armenian people still have captives held illegally in Azerbaijani prisons, and the wounds of Artsakh are still open. Pretending that everything is normal while our people suffer is unacceptable.

Building peace requires truth, accountability, and justice — not polite conversations that ignore reality. Trust cannot be forced or faked. It must grow from honesty, not propaganda.

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