Anti-Armenian sentiment is widespread in Azerbaijan. Observers and human rights bodies describe Armenians as the most vulnerable ethnic group in the country, noting widespread negative stereotyping in public discourse. Polling over the past decades has shown deep animosity toward Armenia, and the term "Armenian" (erməni) is widely used as an insult in everyday language and media.
Historical roots trace back to anti-Armenian sentiment in Turkey,*
pan-Turkism, the actions of Russian and Soviet authorities, and the higher economic and social status of Armenians compared to Azeris at the turn of the 20th century.*
Contemporary Armenophobia in Azerbaijan traces its roots to the Karabakh Movement, in which Armenians petitioned Soviet authorities to transfer the mostly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) in Azerbaijan to Armenia. , editor-in-chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs In response, anti-Armenian pogroms occurred in Sumgait, Kirovabad and Baku. From 1988 through 1992, an estimated 300,000–350,000 Armenians were either deported from or fled Azerbaijan under threat of violence — primarily from areas outside Nagorno-Karabakh, where the Armenian population was largely spared. The conflict eventually escalated into the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, in which Azerbaijan lost control over the territory to the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) Republic, further magnifying anti-Armenian sentiment.
Since its independence from the Soviet Union, the Azerbaijani government has institutionalized anti-Armenian attitudes through school curricula, state media, historical negationism, and the erasure or appropriation of Armenian cultural heritage. Government officials and prominent figures within Azerbaijan routinely engage in hate speech against Armenians, Alt URL using dehumanizing language and promoting negative caricatures of Armenians. Human rights organizations and others have documented various anti-Armenian conduct within Azerbaijan including restrictions on Armenian identity and right of return, torture, extrajudicial killings, and sexual violence. State-sponsored symbols such as the military trophy park in Baku and postage stamps reinforce dehumanizing narratives.
Anti-Armenian sentiment is cited as a genocide risk factor and contributed to the forcible expulsion of all Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). The Armenians that remain in Azerbaijan face a deeply marginalized existence, conceal their identities, and are sometimes described as "second-class citizens."
Early period The establishment of the Azerbaijani state is historically linked to ethnic violence against Armenians.Watch, Genocide (6 November 2020). "Genocide Emergency Alert on the War in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)". Genocide Watch. For over a century, Turkish and Azerbaijani authorities cultivated anti-Armenian sentiment. In a secret July 1920 letter, Soviet Karabakh leader Asad Karayev urged his counterpart Nariman Narimanov to "kill a Russian soldier and accuse the Armenians of the crime," then wipe out Zangezur’s Armenians and their wealth so "this accursed tribe can never rise again."
Other incidents include the Armenian–Tatar massacres (1905-1906), and the Armenian–Azerbaijani war (1918–1920) which included the Muslim uprisings in Armenia (1919-1920). In these periods organized killings of Armenians occurred in the Armenian cultural centers in Baku and Shushi. Scholars consider these incidents to be precursors or extensions of the Armenian Genocide.Shaw, Madeleine . "Legacy of Loss: The Armenian Genocide in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict." Journal of Peace and War Studies (2023): 204. "The [Armenian] genocide did not stop after 1915; Armenians remaining in Turkey were systematically forced into conversion, massacred, or imprisoned. From 15–17 September 1918, Nuri and Enver Pasha murdered an estimated 30,000 Armenian civilians in Baku after taking the city from the Russian army via the newly-formed Islamic Army of the Caucasus." Between 1914 and 1918, pan-Turkic military campaigns—coordinated between the Ottoman Empire and local Caucasian Tatars (Azeris)—sought the elimination of Armenian presence and autonomy in the Caucasus. In this period, although all sides engaged in violence, the balance of power was skewed against Armenians, in part due to the policies of Turkey and Britain. Vahakn Dadrian, professor of sociology, describes Turkey’s collusion with Azeris as a deceitful "Ittihadist pattern of genocide," citing statements from Turkish General Karabakeir who wrote "under the pretext of protecting the rights of Muslim minorities, there is ground for constant intervention" and "arming the Turks of the area little by little, toward the goal of linking up east and west in the area, and molding Azerbaijan into an independent Turkish government through the creation of a national force structure."
In 1918, Azerbaijan in collaboration with Ottoman Turkey carried out genocidal massacres of 15,000-60,000 Armenians in Azerbaijan,Dorfmann-Lazarev, Igor, and Haroutioun Khatchadourian. Monuments and identities in the Caucasus: Karabagh, Nakhichevan and Azerbaijan in contemporary geopolitical conflict. Vol. 31. Brill, 2023. P.25-26 which permanently diminished the historical Armenian presence in the region. Massacres of Armenians occurred in Baku,Human Rights Watch. Playing the "Communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1995.Andreopoulos, George (1997). Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, , p. 236. Nagorno-Karabakh (KhaibalikendHovannisian, Richard. The Republic of Armenia: Vol. I, The First Year, 1918–1919. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971, pp. 176–177, notes 51–52. and Shusha), and 45 villages of Nakhchivan (e.g. Agulis). In several incidents, the massacres of Armenians had been planned in advance. Armenians were mass arrested, forcibly disarmed, displaced, and subjected to public hangings. The Armenians of Azerbaijan faced extermination under the policies of Governor Khsrov bey Sultanov.Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. I, p. 177. who was an anti-Armenian Musavatist and advocate of pan-Turkism. The 1920 Turkish invasion of Armenia led to Armenia ceding land to Azerbaijan, creating the Turkish protectorate of Nakhchivan and enabling the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from the area.
Soviet Era Anti-Armenian sentiment was well-established before and during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and formed a foundational element of Azeri nationalism. The incorporation of Armenia into the USSR prevented the complete annihilation of the Armenian nation.Dadrian, Vahakn N. "Genocide as a problem of national and international law: The World War I Armenian case and its contemporary legal ramifications." Yale J. Int'l L. 14 (1989): 221. Despite this, during the Soviet Era, the Armenians of Nakhichevan and of Lachin were subjected to gradual ethnic cleansing by Soviet Azeri authorities resulting in the exodus of all Armenians from the region. During the Soviet Era, Armenians were scapegoated for state, societal and economics shortcomings in Azerbaijan. Certain sources have described Azerbaijani policies of discrimination against Armenian in this period as "apartheid."
Suppression of Armenian culture in Nagorno-Karabakh