Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has in an interview with Corriere della Sera raised the anti-Armenian sentiment observed in Azerbaijan, especially against sportsmen and artists.

Pashinyan reminded how foreigners with Armenian roots are often denied entry to Azerbaijan due to their Armenian surnames. The head of the Armenian government also recalled the time when midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan was unable to travel to Baku for a Europa League finale due to security concerns. An Azerbaijani driver, Pashinyan went on to say, was only recently arrested in Baku for listening to music by an Armenian artist.

“An officer of the Armenian armed forces, Gurgen Margaryan, was murdered in his sleep by an Azeri officer named Ramil Safarov. Both were attending a NATO seminar in Budapest in 2004,” Pashinyan told the Italian paper.

“A few years after he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Hungary, the Azeri officer was extradited to his country, where he was greeted as a national hero, was pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev, promoted and given an apartment in Baku."