Famous content creators Nuseir Yassin, known for his Nas Daily videos, and Aija Mayrock recently released a video about Azerbaijan that falsely portrays the country as a “beacon of coexistence” and “tolerance,” dangerously downplaying and whitewashing its history of human rights abuses, war crimes, and the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Armenians in Artsakh.
The video promotes Azerbaijan as a model of “tolerance,” highlighting supposed peaceful coexistence. Yassin notes that over 30,000 Jews and 10 million Muslims live in harmony, while Mayrock emphasizes how people of different religions not only live side by side but also celebrate local holidays together. They point to mosques, synagogues, and churches situated next to each other, with Shia and Sunni Muslims praying together in the same mosque”rare for the region. However, this glossy portrayal conceals a darker truth.
The video, released to millions of followers, dangerously downplays the reality of Azerbaijan’s genocidal actions against Armenians in Artsakh and beyond. It presents Azerbaijan as a harmonious country, stating, “But because of a miracle, people in this country get along!” This gross misrepresentation ignores the ethnic cleansing and genocide of 120,000 indigenous Armenians from Artsakh, which occurred not only during the 44-day war in 2020 but culminated in another attack in 2023 after a prolonged 10-month blockade that left Armenians without essential supplies.
By ignoring Azerbaijan’s human rights record, Yassin and Mayrock offer a sanitized version of reality, obscuring Azerbaijan’s role in ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and the illegal detention of Armenian political prisoners under President Ilham Aliyev.
Despite overwhelming evidence of Azerbaijan’s atrocities, including decades of violence inflicted on Armenians through events such as the Sumgait Pogrom (1988), Kirovabad Pogrom (1988), Baku Pogrom (1990), Operation Ring (1991), Maraga Massacre (1992), Talysh Massacre (2016), Beheadings During the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War (2020), Destruction of Armenian Cultural Heritage, and the Blockade of Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor (2022-2023), Nas Daily’s portrayal erases these horrors.
During the 2020 war, Aliyev declared: “If they [Armenians] do not leave our lands of their own free will, we will chase them away like dogs.” This chilling statement encapsulates Azerbaijan’s ongoing policy of ethnic cleansing, which was further realized in 2023. Despite this, Yassin and Mayrock chose to ignore these atrocities, contributing to Azerbaijan’s propaganda.
By promoting a whitewashed image of Azerbaijan, Nas Daily and Aija Mayrock help obscure the regime’s human rights abuses and genocide. Instead of addressing these violations, their video misleads millions, presenting a facade of peace and harmony that masks Azerbaijan’s crimes.
It’s critical that influential content creators be held accountable for the narratives they promote. While Yassin and Mayrock portray Azerbaijan as a peaceful and tolerant country, the reality is that behind this carefully crafted image lies a nation responsible for the ethnic cleansing and displacement of an entire population.
