WASHINGTON – Tensions were high in front of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, July 19. The Armenian Youth Federation arranged an early afternoon protest to call for the end of attacks against Armenia’s Tavush region by Azerbaijani troops. Dozens of Turkish and Azerbaijani people took the Embassy side, chanting anti-Armenian slogans. As the traffic was shut down by police, the protesters took over the street, with often only a few feet separating one group from the other, and US law enforcement members standing in-between.
Both sides assigned a participant to insure that their protesters do not cross the middle line of the road. The Armenians chanted “Artsakh is Armenia,” and slogans like “Yerevan wants peace, Baku wants Yerevan” and #Artsakhstrong were written on posters held in hands. An Azerbaijani woman was heard screaming that historically there had been no Armenian statehood on the map – leaving an impression of someone with highly dubious knowledge of the very basics of the history of the region. Other Azerbaijani/Turkish participants were flashing the Gray Wolf signs, as can be noticed in the accompanying video. Unlike the protest in the United Kingdom, which resulted in violence, there were no physical clashes in D.C.
