JEWISH ATTACK RUMORS ANGER AZERBAIJAN RABBI

Jewish Telegraphic Agency
970/jewish-attack-rumors-anger-azerbaijan-official s
Feb 12 2009
NY

MOSCOW (JTA) — The head Chabad rabbi of Azerbaijan denounced reports
of orchestrated attacks on Jews.

Rabbi Meir Bruk called the reports by the PanArmenian news agency a
concerted campaign to drive a wedge between Israel and Azerbaijan.

On Tuesday, the news agency reported that several apartments where
Jewish families live in the coastal town of Sumgait had been robbed
and their residents attacked.

The article, the most viewed on the agency’s site, quoted the
city’s head imam denouncing the attacks and attributed the quote to
AzerTopNews, a news portal that has since ceased to function. JTA
also reported Tuesday that the attacks had occurred and cited the
imam’s comments, which are now being called into question.

The imam could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

In subsequent statements, the Interior Ministry of Azerbaijan and the
local police in Sumgait denied reports by the Armenian news agency,
saying there were no organized efforts to attack Jews in the country. A
spokesman for the Jewish community in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital,
confirmed their assertions.

The original report on the PanArmenian Web site carried the provocative
title, "Are the Jewish pogroms beginning again in Sumgait?"

Azerbaijan and Armenia have a history of tense relations, which
are most evident in the tumultuous Nagorno-Karabakh region where
both countries still maintain an armed presence. A predominantly
Muslim country, Azerbaijan is home to thousands of Jews, mostly in
Baku. Armenia, a majority Christian country, is home to some 200 Jews.

Bruk said that Iran and Armenia had tried to stoke conflict between
Azerbaijan and Israel by playing up Azerbaijani sympathies for the
Palestinian cause.

"For the Jews in Azerbaijan, there is no problem. We are loved and
respected," Bruk said. "The spread of such information is intended
to damage our relationship. No one should yield to provocations of
their enemies."

Marina Ananykyan, the head editor of PanArmenian, told JTA that
political provocation was not the agency’s intention, though she
said they had not been able to confirm any more details of the
Sumgait attacks.

Ananykyan said her agency had never used AzerTopNews as a source
for stories and did not know why the site closed down the day after
the attacks.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress