Russian TV’s biased broadcast sparks protest in Azerbaijan
By Mushvig Mehdiyev
A biased broadcast on the Russian television channel has sparked serious protests in Azerbaijan, which blamed the channel for distorting the truth about the January 20th tragedy.
Hikmat Hajiyev, Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said Channel 5 distorted the truth about January 20 tragedy and the Ministry will send a protest letter to Russia.
“Azerbaijan will show its dissatisfaction with Russian government and the management of the Channel 5 in regard to the broadcast of an anti-Azerbaijan program," Hajiyev said. "The program distorted the essence of the January 20 tragedy, as well as the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
Hajiyev said the program was far from impartiality and promoted the Armenian lies, speaking nothing about the bloodbath carried out by the Armenians against Azerbaijanis in the occupied territories and also in the territory of Armenia, as well as the displacement of over a million Azerbaijani IDPs and refugees.
"Although there were some references to the Khojaly tragedy, the author of the program and channel's management didn’t dare to say that it was conducted by the Armenians against the peaceful residents of Khojaly," Hajiyev added.
The January 20th was the crime of the Soviet regime against the Azerbaijani people aimed at saving the Soviet Union, which was on the verge of a collapse, said Hajiyev.
He noted that the author of the program has illegally visited the occupied territories of Azerbaijan without an agreement with the Azerbaijani side.
"Before preparing the program, management of the TV channel and journalist should have known about the moral liability of disrespect to the feeling of more than a million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs, as well as ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijani people," Hajiyev said.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.
Armenia continues the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal of armed forces.
Peace talks brokered by mediators from Russia, France and the U.S. have produced no results so far.
- - -
Follow Mushvig Mehdiyev on Twitter: @Mushviggo
Follow us on Twitter: @AzerNews