14/09/2026
𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗡 𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗢 𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗗𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗔 𝗚𝗥𝗢𝗡𝗢, 𝗔𝗠𝗬 𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗢𝗡, 𝗦𝗢𝗣𝗛𝗜𝗘 𝗟𝗔𝗚𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗧𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗔𝗥Í𝗔 𝗩𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗔 𝗥𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗢 𝗖𝗔𝗕𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗥𝗢
From ARS –Armenian Federation in Sweden🇦🇲🇸🇪
You recently visited Artsakh together with other diplomats as part of a trip organised by the Azerbaijani authorities. For Armenians around the world, this was not an ordinary diplomatic visit. It was deeply painful to see representatives of the European Union, the United States and European states visit a region from which the entire Armenian population was forced to leave their homes and ancestral land, while Azerbaijan is now seeking to redefine the region’s history and cultural heritage.
What took place at Gandzasar was particularly troubling.
There, Hikmet Hajiyev showed you books containing blank pages and presented them as alleged evidence that Armenians had falsified history. At the same time, Gandzasar and its Christian heritage were presented as “Caucasian Albanian.”
For Armenians, this is not an abstract academic debate. It concerns their churches, monasteries, graves, homes and history — places that have been part of Armenian family and community life for generations.
What is particularly striking is that this presentation does not appear to have been challenged.
Why did none of you ask what the blank pages actually represented?
Why did no one request independent historical sources?
Why was a politically charged interpretation of history allowed to stand without hearing the other side?
The Matenadaran in Yerevan has previously explained that the volumes displayed at Gandzasar were museum reproductions in which only selected pages had been reproduced, while the remaining pages were intentionally left blank. The original manuscripts had not been transferred to Gandzasar.
This should have prompted an obvious question from any diplomat committed to facts, cultural heritage and historical truth.
Artsakh is not a historical vacuum.
There is a long and extensively documented Armenian historical, religious and cultural presence in the region. Armenian churches, monasteries, inscriptions, manuscripts and monuments bear witness to that history.
To present this heritage today as something entirely different is not a neutral historical debate. It forms part of a political process in which the Armenian presence has first been removed through forced displacement and now risks being erased from the historical record as well.
This is precisely why your visit raises such serious questions.
You represent institutions and states that consistently speak of democracy, human rights, minority protection, historical truth and the preservation of cultural heritage.
But where are these principles when it comes to Armenians?
Europe rightly insists that historical atrocities and persecution must neither be forgotten nor relativised. Europe speaks of Srebrenica, of the protection of cultural heritage, and of every person’s right to dignity and justice.
Why, then, should Armenians be held to a different standard?
When you visited Artsakh, you saw a region where its Armenian population is no longer present.
The people who once lived there are now in Armenia and elsewhere around the world.
Their homes remain.
Their churches remain.
Their graves remain.
But the people to whom those places belonged have been forced to leave.
And now they must watch international diplomats stand alongside Azerbaijani officials while their history is presented as belonging to someone else.
This is not merely a question of history.
It is a question of dignity.
It is a question of political morality.
And it is a question of Europe’s credibility.
We therefore ask you:
Where was the European voice for those who were forced to leave their homes?
Where were the questions about their rights?
Where were the questions about their cultural heritage?
Where was the demand for independent verification when historical claims were presented to you?
And where was the democratic instinct to say:
“We need to hear the other side before accepting this as fact.”
Peace cannot be built by allowing one side’s narrative to prevail while the people of the other side have been forced from their land.
You do not have to choose between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
But you do have to choose between facts and propaganda.
You must choose between a peace built on truth and a peace built on the gradual erasure of the memory of those who have suffered.
ARS therefore calls upon you to publicly clarify what information was presented to you during the visit, which independent historical sources you consulted, and how you intend to ensure that the historical and cultural heritage of Armenia and Artsakh is not reduced to a one-sided state narrative.
Diplomacy requires compromise.
But diplomacy must never require turning a blind eye.
Sincerely,
Anahit Asatryan
Chairperson
Armenian Federation in Sweden
Melvin Massih
Vice Chairperson
Armenian Federation in Sweden
