Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of fomenting hatred with display of dead soldiers’ helmets

Armenia accused its rival Azerbaijan of inciting ethnic hatred by showing helmets of Armenian soldiers killed in last year's war between the two countries. In September,  the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory erupted into an all-out war, killing over 6,000 civilians. Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev had paid a visit to a park of trophies that showcased military equipment seized from the Armenian army during the war.

There were hundreds of helmets of Armenian soldiers who were killed while fighting the war. The helmets were displayed in Central Baku and wax mannequins of Armenian troops, reported by Al Jazeera. The park reportedly opened for the public on April 15 and the people in large numbers came to see the park. This park has sparked outrage in Armenia, with the country's foreign ministry accusing Azerbaijan of publicly insulting the memory of the war victims, missing persons, and prisoners of war. They added that Azerbaijan is violating the rights and dignity of their families.

Armenian Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan in a tweet said that a "Park" of the Artsakh war opened in Baku on April 12. He further added that this park is proof of Azerbaijani genocidal policy & state-supported Armenophobia. Mannequins of Armenians-in a degrading manner-violating human dignity. He said that Park-museum of human sufferings is violating the dignity of the people of Armenia.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan had defeated Armenia in November after six weeks of combat. Yerevan ceded swaths of territory to Baku under a Russian backed war. The war's defeat triggered a political crisis in Armenia, with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian facing a series of protests from crowds who did not believe his claim that signing the cease-fire agreement was the best course of action. In a move to defuse the political crisis, Nikol Pashinyan last month announced that an early election would be held on June 20.