EURO-LIE FROM EURONEWS
Akper Hasanov
news.az
Dec 3 2009
Azerbaijan
Euronews logo Euronews TV’s recent report on Karabakh is at best a
piece of sloppy journalism, at worst a piece of deliberate propaganda.
The report, Winds of Change in Nagorno-Karabakh, first broadcast
by Euronews on 28 November, falls far short of the independence and
neutrality in reporting that has been the principle of Euronews since
it started broadcasting in January 1993. An ancient Azerbaijani land,
Nagorno-Karabakh, was presented as "an ancient Armenian land and the
heart of Armenia" and as "the stronghold of Christianity". This is
not only incorrect but a purely one-sided, pro-Armenian view.
The report says that Armenians made up 95% of the population of
Nagorno-Karabakh in Soviet times. This is another cynical lie. Imagine
the surprise of Euronews journalists when they learn that about
two-thirds of the population of Karabakh were Azerbaijanis according
to the census in the first half of the 19th century. As for Soviet
times, the Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh was 23%.
Moreover, according to the recent Soviet census the population of
Shusha was 23,156 in 1989, of whom 21,234 (91.7%) were Azerbaijanis
and 1,620 (7%) were Armenians. Some 17,000 people lived in the city
of Shusha itself and 98% of them were Azerbaijanis. The report said
that Karabakh is the heart of Armenian culture, but said nothing of
the heart of Azerbaijani culture, the city of Shusha, home to the
Karabakh khanate.
The report fails to say that the international community, including
France where Euronews is headquartered, supports the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan. It made no mention of the four UN resolutions
calling for the withdrawal of Armenian occupying forces from
Azerbaijani territory.
The TV report on the Karabakh conflict does not say anything about
the massacre of Azerbaijanis in Khojaly, in which 613 people died,
including 63 children, 106 women and 70 elderly people. Terrible
atrocities were committed for the only reason that the Khojaly
residents were Azerbaijanis. Almost all of them were tortured,
murdered with great cruelty: people were beheaded, blinded, pregnant
women were disemboweled.
Le Monde newspaper wrote on 14 March 1992: "Foreign journalists in
Agdam saw three scalped people with their nails pulled out among
gthe women and children murdered in Khojaly. This is not Azerbaijani
propaganda, this is reality." Valaire Actuel magazine (Paris) of 14
March 1992 read: "In this autonomous region Armenian armed formations
along with incomers from the Middle East have modern military hardware
including helicopters. The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation
of Armenia has military camps and arms caches in Syria and Lebanon.
Armenians murdered the Azerbaijanis of Karabakh and committed massacres
in more than a hundred Muslim villages."
This is the truth about which Euronews keeps silent. Could we imagine
a report on the Second World War that didn’t mention the victims
of concentration camps who were tortured by fascists or that didn’t
mention the Holocaust and Auschwitz? The massacre of Azerbaijanis in
Khojaly cannot be ignored in reporting on the Karabakh conflict.
Unfortunately, Euronews says nothing of this. This allows us to say
that the report is pro-Armenian.
Euronews editorial policy seems to have a place for Armenian propaganda
and lies, but no place for Azerbaijani truth on the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, the truth about the massacre of Azerbaijanis in Khojaly.
Is this simply a case of very sloppy journalism or something far more
cynical? We may be able to tell by Euronews’ response to the letter
of protest from Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry.