Junior ministers, TD, ceann comhairle meet with Azerbaijani representative after genocide threat
By Dean Buckley
A Fianna Fáil junior minister, the head of the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee and the ceann comhairle met the Azerbaijani president's special representative last month in Leinster House – less than two years after the diplomat threatened genocide against ethnic Armenians.
Independent junior minister Noel Grealish and Bertie Ahern also joined the meeting with Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev’s senior diplomatic envoy Elchin Amirbayov.
"A genocide may happen,” he said in an interview with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, in September 2023, ”...if this clique of separatists continue to hold hostage their own population," referring to ethic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Minister of state at the Department of Foreign Affairs Thomas Byrne, foreign affairs committee chair John Lahart and Verona Murphy met with Amirbayov for a “working visit” in Dublin on June 19.
‘Another “working visit” to the Dáil by Azerbaijani MPs’
Amirbayov also “held discussions at IIEA - Institute for International and European Affairs and spoke with Irish media representatives”, according to a Facebook post by the Azerbaijani Embassy in London.
In September 2023, nine months into the Azerbaijani blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, Amirbayov threatened the region's separatist government with a genocide if it didn’t capitulate – which it did weeks later.
Former Fianna Fáil senator Terry Leyden, who was appointed honorary consul of Azerbaijan in Ireland last year, organised the meetings with Amirbayov, which came just 21 months after the Azerbaijani’ diplomat’s threat.
Last year Armenia called on the International Court of Justice to pursue Azerbaijan for what Armenia considers its ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh. "After threatening to do so for years, Azerbaijan has completed the ethnic cleansing of the region and is now systematically erasing all traces of ethnic Armenians' presence," said Armenia’s UN representative last year.
Leyden previously arranged another “working visit” to the Dáil by Azerbaijani MPs in September 2023 – just as the mass displacement of ethnic Armenians was beginning. He defended Azerbaijan's actions during the visit, saying “They reclaimed their rightful territory, which is their right. If east Donegal was occupied by the British or the coloniser, what would we do?”
Leyden told the Irish Independent his comment “almost derailed” his appointment as Azerbaijan's honorary consul, but it was ultimately approved by Micheál Martin, then foreign affairs minister.
Lahart told The Ditch, “Such meetings do not imply any endorsement or position,” adding, “I was provided in advance, as is customary, with a formal briefing/background note on Azerbaijan to inform the discussion.
My understanding is that the ambassador was also scheduled to meet senior office holders during the visit to Dublin and Leinster House and was also engaging with representatives in other European capitals as part of his visit.”
Byrne, Grealish, Murphy, Leyden and Ahern declined to comment.