Yerevan's childish tricks: amusing for Baku, irritating for Tehran
By Trend
The Armenian media outlets have recently spread provocative news, referring to the statements of Seyyed Hassan Ameli, the representative of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, regarding the Khodjaly genocide of 1992.
The news claimed that Ameli in one of his speeches allegedly blamed Azerbaijani side for the tragic events and voiced ideas contradicting Iran’s official position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The provocative tone of the article triggered to start a research, which led to surprising results. The "news" material was actually a reprint of a 7-year old bogus propaganda story. Moreover, the article never mentioned any sources or places, or circumstances the alleged statements might have been made.
The same story was spread once more in 2014 by an anti-Azerbaijani website, which didn't bother with any proof or sources as well.
Further investigation led to believe that this "news" was apparently fake. What followed was a call to Seyyed Hassan Ameli himself, to clarify the issue.
As expected, the press office of Ameli said his opinion on the Khodjaly genocide has been distorted.
"Seyed Hassan Ameli condemns the Khojaly genocide committed by Armenians against Azerbaijanis, and pays tribute to the victims. This tragedy should not be forgotten. We are ready to take revenge for Karabakh martyrs,” the press service told Trend.
This, of course, is not the first time the Armenian side tries to justify or shift the responsibility for the Khojaly massacre.
In 1997, former Armenian Foreign Minister A. Arzumanyan sent a letter to the renowned Human Rights Watch (HRW) international organization in an attempt to justify Armenian crimes in Khojaly.
In a response letter to the Armenian government Executive Director of the HRW Holly Cartner reaffirmed results of the independent investigation carried out by the organization in March 1992 and placed direct responsibility for the incident upon the Armenian forces.
“We place direct responsibility for the civilian deaths with Karabakh Armenian forces… We welcome the use of our reports by governments and intergovernmental organizations, and we sincerely hope that there will be no further misrepresentation regarding the contents of our 1992 report,” the letter, which is available of the HRW’s web-site, said.
“Further misrepresentation” –was especially for Foreign Minister A. Arzumanyan.
Armenia's current government seems to be going the same way - spreading around its unfounded, sacrilegious and hypocritical position by any means possible.
The "re-launch" of the above mentioned bogus story now, amid the comprehensive development of the trilateral interstate relations in Moscow—Baku—Tehran and Ankara—Baku—Tehran format, accompanied by implementation of numerous integration projects, makes one think about a childish “jealousy” of Yerevan towards Baku.
That is the main reason for Armenia trying to drive a wedge between Azerbaijan and its partners. That also perfectly describes the motives behind recent interview with Russian politician Konstantin Zatulin and invitation of Russian political expert Sergey Markedonov to the pro-Armenian conference on Karabakh.
Yerevan's childish tricks however can hardly be called efforts. Azerbaijan is a serious and successful player on international political scene. Other countries are interested in cooperation with Baku and consider its opinion on different matters.
It is time for Armenia to finally understand that, stop with cheap provocations and try to absorb some wisdom. After all, the country is not in the best of positions.
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