The open letter sent by Azerbaijani civil society representatives to senior EU officials this week is more than a routine diplomatic protest. It is an alarm bell, rung by those who have lived through decades of war, occupation, and human loss, warning that Europe is on the verge of repeating one of its most consequential moral errors: confusing the perpetrators with the victims, and granting legitimacy to those who built their reputations on terror. The decision to admit the Armenian Military-Sports Lyceum named after Monte Melkonyan into the European Union Military Secondary Schools Forum is not merely a bureaucratic lapse. It is a profound ethical contradiction that risks eroding the EU’s credibility as a promoter of human rights, justice, and conflict-sensitive governance.

For Azerbaijanis, particularly the families of the missing, this is not an abstract debate. It is a deep wound torn open. Only days after these families held a dignified silent protest at the UN Office in Geneva, pleading for accountability for their decades-long suffering, news emerged that an EU-affiliated platform was preparing to sign a memorandum of membership with a school named after a man whose legacy is inseparable from pain, terror, and violence.

Monte Melkonyan is not simply a controversial figure. He is a documented participant in some of the most violent operations carried out during the occupation of Azerbaijan’s Kalbajar district in the 1990s, territory that Armenia itself........

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