Armenian Nationalists Attack Azerbaijan Embassy in Lebanon

A group of Armenian nationalists living in Lebanon attacked the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Beirut, earlier this week.

In video footage circulated on Thursday, the outraged group is seen throwing stones, explosives, pieces of metal, and paint bottles at the embassy’s administrative building. The group also damaged the building’s fence, gate, and a guardian kiosk. They chanted multiple slogans against the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan said around 50 people of Armenian origin living in Lebanon vandalized and attacked on the embassy.

“The embassy’s staff was not injured as a result of the attack. As soon as the agency responsible for the protection of diplomatic missions was informed about the incident, the law enforcement agencies arrived at the scene, but at that time the provocateurs managed to escape the scene,” the ministry said in a statement issued on Thursday.

A relevant note was submitted to the Foreign Ministry of Lebanon to bring the culprits to justice and related measures are being implemented, the statement noted.

Currently, the security of the embassy has been strengthened and the investigation into the crime is underway, it added.

The incident in Beirut came on the heels of Azerbaijan’s efforts to send humanitarian aid to its Armenian-origin residents in the Karabakh region. On August 29, the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society dispatched 40 tons of flour products in two trucks from Baku to the Aghdam district.

The cargo reached Aghdam on the same day, but could not move toward the destination city of Khankendi due to the rejection by the Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

On Wednesday, Armenian residents blocked the road leading from Aghdam to Khankendi, staging a protest and stopping the movement of the aid convoy.

Orkhan Amashov, a political analyst from Azerbaijan, reported from Aghdam that the representatives of the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society are currently in negotiations with the temporary Russian peacekeeping mission in the Karabakh region to settle the situation.

“The negotiations between the Azerbaijani side and the Russian peacekeepers are underway to work out the best possible arrangement to send the supplies from here (Aghdam) to Khankendi,” Amashov said in a special report for Baku-based Caliber.Az news service.

The movement of the aid convoy to Khankendi could resume the traffic on the Aghdam-Khankendi road after decades. The proposal to use the road for goods supplies to the Karabakh region was put forward by Azerbaijani authorities, after multiple illegal military shipments by Armenian separatists were uncovered on the Lachin road – the route connecting the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan with Armenia.

However, the Armenians in the Karabakh region and Yerevan turned down the proposal insisting on the use of the Lachin road, while simultaneously blocking the Aghdam-Khankendi road.

In July, President Ilham Aliyev said the so-called “leadership” of Armenians in the Karabakh region had deliberately installed concrete blocks on the Aghdam-Asgaran portion of the Aghdam-Khankendi road.

Armenian Attacks on Azerbaijani Embassies

The recent act of vandalism by Armenians against Azerbaijan’s diplomatic mission in Lebanon came almost a year after a previous attack on the same embassy in September 2022. Back then, an angry crowd tried to damage the embassy building but was confronted by the Lebanese police forces.

In September 2022, Armenian descent people also attempted to storm the Azerbaijani embassy’s administrative building in Paris, France. They toppled the iron barriers in front of the embassy’s building in an attempt to break through the front door of the building. Despite the ruckus in the center of Paris, the French police did not exercise timely intervention to stop the attackers.

In Georgia last year, Armenian nationalists’ attempts were thwarted by police before they managed to march toward the Azerbaijani embassy in the capital Tbilisi.

In October 2022, a fire was opened on a service car of Azerbaijan in Washington. Shortly after the incident, the embassy voiced its serious concerns over the security of the diplomatic mission and recalled “systematic nature of attacks against diplomatic missions of Azerbaijan by radical members of Armenian communities in foreign countries”.