UFC in Baku: Stop Sportwashing Genocide
On June 21, the UFC, the world’s premier mixed martial arts organisation, will host an event in Baku, Azerbaijan. This is not just a sporting event, it is a deliberate attempt to sportwash war crimes and genocide.
The UFC event will be held at Baku Crystal Hall, just a few meters away from the site where Armenian prisoners of war are illegally incarcerated, subjected to sham trials and abuse in violation of international humanitarian law.
The authoritarian regime of Azerbaijan is responsible for the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of over 120,000 indigenous Armenians from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). After starting a brutal war in 2020 and a ten-month genocidal blockade, Azerbaijan launched a full-scale assault in 2023, erasing an entire population from its ancestral homeland. The ethnic cleansing went unpunished, as Azerbaijan failed to comply with the binding resolutions of the International Court of Justice. Now, Armenia itself is under growing threat of a new war and invasion.
This is not the first time Azerbaijan has used global sports to launder its international image: the Azerbaijan Grand Prix (F1) and UEFA Europa League final at Baku’s Olympic Stadium were also tools of the regime’s ongoing propaganda strategy. By partnering with Azerbaijan, the UFC is endorsing a dictatorship that silences dissent and glorifies violence.
We call on athletes, fans, and human rights defenders to speak out. Share this message and make your voice heard across social media.