Commencement Speaker Statement

The New School Fields IR Student with Ties to Azerbaijani Government as 2025 Commencement Speaker

To: Mr. Aleinikoff, Executive Dean of the New School For Social Research, and New School 89th Annual University Commencement Ceremony Leadership

From: All-Armenian Student Association 

Re: Strict Reconsideration of The New School’s 2025 Student Commencement Speaker, Ayan Huseynli 

We write to bring your attention to concerns raised by the Armenian-American community that derisive perspectives being presented, represented, or otherwise expressed by Student Speaker Ayan Huseynli at The New School’s 2025 Commencement Ceremony. Facts regarding Huseynli’s affiliation with the President of Azerbaijan, as noted on the Commencement webpage, raise serious concerns that we believe warrant further scrutiny independent from Huseynli’s professional pedigree. The New School’s Annual Commencement is a celebration of the preeminent academic institution’s great achievement in producing a vibrant and diverse graduating class and should not to be tainted by statements or implications connected to President Ilham Aliyev and the dictatorial government of Azerbaijan, which is one of the largest violators of human rights globally. As such, the All-Armenian Student Association, on behalf of more than 50 chapters nationwide and the 20,000 university students we represent, requests serious reconsideration of Huseynli’s selection for the reasons outlined below.

Most recently, Huseynli was affiliated with COP29’s greenwashing of Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh. Her government-issued certificate for “active participation” in COP29 held in November 2024 should be scrutinized for what it represents: greenwashing genocide. Azerbaijan––a petro-state whose capital was known as the world’s first oil town––weaponized the international climate conference to greenwash its ethnic cleansing one year prior of the 120,000 Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and rejection of a dignified right of return for the displaced Armenian population. Moreover, Huseynli’s “humanitarian work” with refugees belies the massive humanitarian crisis resulting from Azerbaijan’s full-scale military attack on civilians following the government’s 10-month blockade of the population. To add insult to injury, Azerbaijan actively denies this ethnic cleansing, which forms the basis of a case pending at the International Criminal Court.

Huseynli’s personal online presence also does not align with the New School’s mission to champion progressive, deep inquiry. On her LinkedIn, Huseynli has liked content naming Shushi the “Cultural Capital of the Turkic World,” which grossly neglects the history of the region. In fact, in 1919, the year the New School was founded, Azerbaijani forces massacred 20,000 Armenians in Shushi to silence the Armenian National Council of Karabakh’s call for self-determination. Historic developments presenting an Azerbaijani presence cannot be allowed to erase the centuries-old Armenian history in Shushi or the democratic struggle for self-determination championed by the majority non-Turkic population of Karabakh at the time of this school’s founding. To the extent that Huseynli’s social media activity represents her espousal of pan-Turkic beliefs contradictory to Armenian sovereignty, her selection should be reconsidered.

More generally, All-ASA is concerned that Husyenli’s selection undermines the New School’s commitment to advancing democracy and peace in academic and diplomatic spaces. Azerbaijan, which Freedom House considers a “Consolidated Authoritarian Regime,” has a state of democracy rating of 1/100. Following Azerbaijan’s violent takeover of the territory in 2023, Nagorno-Karabakh became the least free place in the world, according to Freedom House’s “Freedom in the World” index. 

Her ties to Azerbaijan’s government — a regime directly responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh’s entire Armenian population in 2023 and human rights violations against Azerbaijani civil society — are altogether contradictory to being selected to speak on behalf of students at commencement. 

To expand, the Azerbaijani government since 2020 has been arbitrarily detaining Armenian prisoners of war and political prisoners, in addition to Azerbaijani journalists, environmental activists, and opposition figures speaking against the reigning regime. Both Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission have condemned the government since. Hence, Huseynli’s past work, area of study, and active participation in international forums on behalf of Azerbaijan’s government provide cause for concern.

The All-Armenian Student Association thereby urges the New School to reconsider its decision to platform a speaker whose public affiliations and past work align with a regime accused of genocide, cultural erasure, and the forced displacement of indigenous Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. Ayan Huseynli’s alignment with Azerbaijani state narratives, particularly in international forums, raises serious concerns about the values being represented at a pivotal and symbolic event such as commencement.

Commencement is more than a celebration of academic achievement; it is a reflection of a university’s identity and the voices it chooses to uplift. By elevating a representative of a state-sponsored narrative that denies and distorts the lived experiences of a forcibly displaced and marginalized community, the New School risks legitimizing historical denial and silencing survivors of atrocity.

In the interest of upholding its stated commitments to human rights, justice, and the dignity of all communities affected by state violence and historical trauma, we call on the New School to immediately reconsider this speaker selection.