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Azerbaijanis created stickers featuring photos of mutilated bodies of Armenian servicemen and civilians through chat bots on the Azerbaijani platforms of Telegram, Armenia’s former Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan said on Monday.

“These stickers were created on September 14, 2022, but we found them on September 18. Immediately after their creation, they became publicly accessible with the opportunity to download and use them during communication in public,” he wrote on Facebook.

“We recorded 119 photos, i.e. 119 stickers, that had been downloaded more than 20,000 times in 5 days. In other words, only within 5 days 20,000 Azerbaijani users downloaded the photos/stickers to their Telegram accounts.

“With the efforts of our expert, Telegram closed this opportunity to download, but it still is evident that the Azerbaijani platforms will use this new tool to terrorize and cause sufferings in Armenian society. The photos of atrocities conducted in the 44-day Artsakh war and during the aggression against Armenia on September 13-15, 2022 were used for the stickers.

“Our monitoring proves that the Azerbaijani users who downloaded these photos have taken great joy in the pictures of torture and dismemberment of Armenian soldiers and civilians for the opportunity to use them in their daily communications and during various discussions.

“This criminal act is further indication that the policy of Armenophobia (hatred towards Armenians) supported by the Azerbaijani authorities for decades is deeply rooted in the Azerbaijani society and the calls for peace building by Azerbaijan are nothing but a veil for the eyes of the international community and that they hide their real intentions,” Tatoyan said.