Azeris protest at “pro-Armenian” Dutch documentary

Bilik Dunyasi news agency, Baku
12 Jan 05

BAKU

A short-length documentary by Dutch filmmaker (?Susan Kroeger), “Hope
dies last”, has caused serious discontent of Azerbaijani diaspora
organizations in the Netherlands.

The press service of the state committee for Azerbaijanis living
abroad said that the documentary tells a story of three Armenian and
two Azerbaijani soldiers who went missing in the Karabakh war during
the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. After its presentation in
Amsterdam, over 100 members of the Dutch-Azerbaijani society and
Azerbaijani diaspora organizations exchanged views on the developments
in the documentary with representatives of the Dutch Council of
Churches and the Dutch Red Cross Society. Members of Armenian diaspora
organizations also joined the debates. Our compatriots strongly
protested at the facts that the narration and the end of the
documentary are related to Armenia and 21 minutes of the documentary
are about Armenia and only eight minutes about Azerbaijan.

Other causes of discontent were the choice of music, a sharp
disproportion in the presentation of the parents of the missing
soldiers, the video of Armenian and Azerbaijani cities and reference
to towns and villages in Karabakh using Armenian names.

During the debates, the Azerbaijanis strongly condemned the film and
said that its content was inaccurate and pro-Armenian. They stressed
that it was inadmissible to demonstrate such a film. Dutch experts
also supported our compatriots.
From: Baghdasarian