JANUARY 20: AZERI MASS MEDIA LET IMAGINATION RUN WILD
By Ivan Gharibyan

news.am
Jan 20 2010
Armenia

As a rule, it is in the latter half of every January that Azerbaijani
mass media let their fevered imagination run riot. The reason is
quite clear: Azeri journalists are faced with a formidable, almost
impracticable task – in defiance of all the evidence presenting the
tragic events in Baku in January 1990 the wrong way about.

The further are the "masterworks" of the Azeri state propaganda from
the truth, the sheerer is the idiocy shown by the small fry at the
service of the Aliyev clan. And when it comes to the Armenian pogroms
in Baku, Sumgait and Kirovabad, the Azeri mass media, which are fully
controlled by the authorities, resort to such a blatant lie that an
ordinary Azerbaijani will never believe them; or they just pass the
facts over in silence.

Everything is much more apparent with the Armenian pogroms. First
the "national leader" Heydar Aliyev and then his son and "heir to
the throne" Ilham could think of nothing better than holding back
the truth about the Armenian pogroms in Baku on January 13-19,
1990. At the same time, they spare no efforts to advocate the
so-called "January 20 tragedy", the entry of Soviet troops to Baku
to prevent the annihilation of all the Christian population in the
once multinational city.

But the state television channel AzTV, which is immediately controlled
by the Azeri presidential administration, is showing firm leadership in
making the Azerbaijani people lose their memory and turning them into
"humble servants" for the Aliyev clan. So on January 19 the "Habarlar"
(News) TV program did its best to "expose the monstrous terrorist act
against the Azerbaijani people." And the word "monstrous" was quite
to the point, as so much monstrous lie was told on the air that no
normal person would swallow it.

The leading reporters of the main news program provided comprehensive
coverage of the events "in commemoration of the Shahids, who heroically
defended Azerbaijan’s independence and territorial integrity" arranged
by the ruling party Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan). The heroes are,
of course, the participants in the Armenian pogroms, the "humans"
that had robbed, raped and murdered hundreds of Armenians in Baku
before Soviet troops entered the city.

U.S. Charge d’Affaires Donald Lu "came to the aid" of Azeri
journalists. With passion he was speaking about the monstrous Soviet
troops that entered Baku on the night of January 20, 1990. Was not
the American diplomat, with his ideas of pan-human values, indignant
at the brutal crimes against the Armenian population in Baku?

However, the state TV of Azerbaijan was not content with all that. The
AzTV channel decided to emphasize the "inhumanity" of the Russian
people. A three-minute story was about Russian servicemen that
allegedly did not allow doctors to help the injured lying on the
streets. This information policy pursued by the main TV channel at
the Aliyev clan’s service must be in harmony with the Azerbaijani
authorities’ policy of strategic partnership with Russia.

But the most "moving" was the story about the "attack on Baku the
Soviet army launched by first occupying the Azerbaijani television."

So it turns out that, in those tragic days, AzTV was "the mouthpiece
for the people" rather than a source of nationalist propaganda (the
Baku TV center was actually out of the Azeri authorities’ control and
was broadcasting on behalf of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan). That
is why, according to official Baku’s propaganda, a KGB task group blew
up the power unit of the Azerbaijani Television. At this point too
the "Habarlar" staff surpassed themselves: the TV channel has been
developing into "a mouthpiece for the people" over the last 20 years!

Indeed! We can do nothing but feel sympathy for the Azerbaijani
people. If AzTV, which has "beaten", say, the Armenian Public TV at
disinforming the public, is the "mouthpiece for the people", things
are really bad with our neighbors.

Of course, we might as well have not watched and listened to that
idiotic piece of "news," but it is better to know your neighbors,
isn’t it?