Dark tourism as a means to justify the dark deeds of Azerbaijan

The Shushi State Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Nerses Matinyan

Azerbaijan is employing tools of modern tourism policy to carry out cultural genocide in Artsakh. A delegation from Nomadmania, a well-known organization in the field of “dark tourism,” visited Artsakh. Besides tourism, Nomadmania's activities include using various media formats to promote awareness of places suited for “dark tourism.” Fueled by Azerbaijani petrodollars, Nomadmania presents Artsakh to the world as an “Azerbaijani territory” subjected to “Armenian brutality and aggression.” Azerbaijan is not using this initiative to develop “dark tourism” per se, but rather to legitimize its aggression and positions, justify the forced ethnic cleansing, and make the world “turn a blind eye.”

Within the framework of “dark tourism,” since 1996, tours have been organized to sites of major global tragedies, mass death, cemeteries, bombed and destroyed cities, as well as museums. Some of the most well-known “dark tourism” destinations in the world include the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York City, the ghost city of Pripyat in Ukraine, the site of Princess Diana’s death in Paris, and others. It is worth noting that public attitudes toward this kind of tourism are not unanimous.

It is not considered an important subfield within the tourism industry; on the contrary, it is associated with aggression, terrorism, death, and tragedy, and is regarded as highly sensitive and unethical. Many countries reject including their tourist destinations for this type of tourism. Moreover, in some countries, sites of tragedy are declared “prohibited” to prevent the spread of “dark tourism” to those locations.

The Azerbaijani authorities are now exploiting “dark tourism” to erase the Armenian national and cultural presence in Artsakh, to distort history, and to justify its aggression. This policy by Baku clearly demonstrates not only the unethical but also the highly politicized nature of “dark tourism.”

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