Military Trophy Park

The Military Trophy Park (Azerbaijani: Hərbi Qənimətlər Parkı), also referred to as War Trophies Park is a public park in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, containing war trophies seized by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces from the Armenian Army and the Artsakh Defence Army during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.

News of the park led to widespread condemnation in Armenia due to its display of helmets of dead Armenian soldiers and wax mannequins of Armenian troops. The Armenian government accused its Azerbaijani counterpart of publicly humiliating the memory of those killed in the war, with Armenia's ombudsman calling it a "clear manifestation of fascism". Several international journalists called the park "barbaric", and international observers also criticized the park. The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, expressed concerns over the inauguration of the park and its display of "dehumanising scenes".

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the other hand, stated that "this practice exists in military museums in many countries of the world" and that "Azerbaijan has every right to perpetuate its victory through parades, parks, etc". The wax figures and the helmets were removed from main display in October 2021, though a couple of helmets were left in the trenches. The employees of the park were cited saying that the models and helmets had been sent for repairs, but that it was not clear when they would be returned. Armenia's representative at ICJ Yeghishe Kirakosyan emphasized this was done in the period after Armenia filed the lawsuit at the ICJ, adding that Armenia was still demanding the full closure of the park.

Background

Large-scale hostilities between the Azerbaijani Armed Forces and the armed formations of the unrecognized Artsakh Republic and Armenia, began on 27 September 2020, lasted 44 days and became the longest and bloodiest war in the region since 1994. On 9 November 2020, the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia signed a ceasefire agreement. Armenian side was defeated. Azerbaijan regained seven regions around Nagorno-Karabakh and about a third of the territory of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of the Azerbaijan SSR.

Opening

The park itself was established in January 2021. Information that the Azerbaijani authorities would open a park filled with war trophies obtained during the last conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh in Baku appeared in February 2021. It was reported that construction work was underway on the territory, and some military equipment had already been brought to the site. Some of the equipment were demonstrated at the Victory Parade in Baku on 10 December. The creation of the entire exposition took about three months. The park was opened on 12 April 2021. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the opening ceremony of the park.

On 13 April, Baku hosted an international conference entitled "A New Outlook at the South Caucasus: Post-Conflict Development and Cooperation”, after which, 27 guests from 15 countries visited the newly opened park. A day later, it became open to the public.

Exhibit

The park displays mock-ups of the defense system, and more than 300 exhibits, including up to 150 pieces of heavy equipment. Among the exhibits are tanks, combat vehicles, artillery installations, anti-aircraft missile systems, small arms, and vehicles. In particular, the park includes T-72 tanks, lightly armored MT-LB tractors, 9K33 Osa and 2K12 Kub anti-aircraft missile systems. The park also displays fragments of missiles from Russia's 9K720 Iskander operational-tactical missile systems (OTRK) found in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA).

The park also purports to recreate the Armenian defence network in Karabakh, which consisted of 10 lines, including concrete engineering structures, anti-tank trenches and hedgehogs, mined areas, tunnels, trenches, etc. The park, among other things, displayed hundreds of helmets taken from dead Armenian troops, as well as wax dummies of the Armenian military. The helmets belong to dead Armenian soldiers, but Azerbaijani authorities claimed that they were left behind by retreating Armenian soldiers.

The wax figures and the helmets were removed from main display in October 2021, though a couple of helmets were left in the trenches. The employees of the park were cited saying that the models and helmets had been sent for repairs, but that it was not clear when they would be returned. Armenia's representative at ICJ Yeghishe Kirakosyan emphasized this was done in the period after Armenia filed the lawsuit at the ICJ, adding that Armenia was still demanding the full closure of the park.

At the entrance to the park is a large plaque which was displayed at the parade with more than 2,000 Armenian licence plates, with the panel having the inscription "Karabakh is Azerbaijan!".

Creation of wax figures

Ankara-based journalist Javid Agha wrote that the wax figures of Armenian military personnel were deliberately designed to show them as "ugly and cowardly".

The mannequins of the exhibit were made to be as ugly as possible, based on the sculptors' own imagining of Armenians, using sharp-hooked noses and abnormal skull shapes.

In an interview with Azvision.az, Kamran Asadov, one of the three sculptors of the wax mannequins of Armenian soldiers on display at the park, said he and the other sculptors used "aquiline (hooked) nose forms," with "skull bases absent" in crafting the mannequins.

Another sculptor, Rəşid Məhərrəmov, told in an interview with the journal Xəzər Xəbər, that before making the models he researched images "typical of Armenians" and adopted his mannequins to these images. He added that similar museums are built in such parks in "most countries of the world" which depict the military of the defeated side and that these depictions may not necessarily resemble real people.