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A paper on Anti-Armenianism in Azerbaijan was presented at an international conference Racism, Nationalism and Xenophobia  that took place in Warsaw, Poland on March 17-18.  
The conference was organized by University of Gdańsk, University of Finance and Management (Warsaw), the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Warsaw, Poland) and McGill University (Canada).

The interdisciplinary conference which included over 70 participants from different European countries, the United States, Brazil, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Armenia and other countries, featured a wide range of topics related to xenophobia and covered in-depth case studies from many countries.զ

Conference participant Nvard Chalikyan (Armenia) presented a paper “Xenophobia in Azerbaijan”, which addressed the phenomenon of anti-Armenianism as a state policy of Azerbaijan and the reflection of this policy in Azerbaijan’s key institutions, namely in official decrees and statements, mass media, academia, education system (textbooks) and literature. Azerbaijan’s destruction of Armenian cultural heritage as well as its caviar diplomacy which serves as a tool for the export of anti-Armenianism abroad was also addressed.   

Answering the question of Panorama.am as to what conclusions can be drawn from the results of this study, Nvard Chalikyan said, “I would like to highlight two points. First, Azerbaijan, which is a member of leading human rights organizations in Europe (Council of Europe, OSCE and others), practices anti-Armenianism at such a scale that it can be qualified as incitement to genocide on the state level, however it is in no way held accountable for this and for the breach of its international obligations. This should be of concern not only to Armenia but also to Europe and to the international community, which to this day has no effective mechanism of preventing mass atrocities and incitement.”
“Second, the mere fact that Azerbaijan’s education system from early years of school raises young generation in profound hatred against Armenians and instils in them the goal of conquering Armenia, let alone the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, speaks for itself about the long term goals of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan prepares new generations for war, and by this eliminates the prospects of peaceful coexistence of Armenians and Azerbaijanis in this region. As long as Azerbaijan pursues this state policy, any concession on the Armenian side should be completely ruled out”, - said the author of the paper.

At the conference the azerichild.info  website as well as the book Armenopobia in Azerbaijan (authored by Anzhela Elibegova and Armine Adibekyan) were also presented. 
The co-author of the book Armine Adibekyan who also participated at the conference shared her thoughts.

“It is obvious that the phenomenon of xenophobia is present also in developed countries. Bringing out and analysing the roots and reasons of this phenomenon can help in combating it. This is why such conferences are very important”, - she said.

Speaking about the topic of anti-Armenianism in Azerbaijan Armine Adibekyan noted, “Azerbaijan is spending millions of dollars for creating a positive image in the eyes of the international community and thereby deceives them by hiding the deep-rooted anti-Armenianism inside its country. Our task is to show the real picture in Azerbaijan where more than one generation has already been brought up in the spirit of armenophobia and nationalism”.

Marta Patej (University of Finance and Management in Warsaw) told Panorama.am that today in Europe in general and in Poland in particular the question of refugees and that of xenophobia is a major issue and a burning topic.  

“Mass media doesn’t give us precise information about these issues, while we need to know the real picture of what’s going on. That is why academic studies on these topics are important for us. With this conference we aimed to raise awareness and foster discussion on the topic of xenophobia in academic circles as well as to stress the importance of research that is being done in this field. Many important studies are conducted on this and related topics, but they stay unnoticed”, – said Marta Patej adding that such international conferences also create opportunities for establishing new acquaintances and cooperation among scholars which they are happy to foster.  
 

Organizers of the conference with a copy of the book Armenophobia in Azerbaijan