Azerbaijani Press Council: Global media should objectively cover protests on Khankandi-Lachin road

The presentation of the protests held by Azerbaijani activists and representatives of non-governmental organizations on the Khankandi-Lachin road in a number of media outlets of the world is seriously disturbing the representatives of the journalistic community of Azerbaijan, as well as different sections of its society, Report informs, citing the statement released by the Azerbaijan Press Council.

The council stated that these presentations are an abuse of the possibilities of freedom of speech and expression, prejudice and non-objectivity.

The Press Council noted that Karabakh is Azerbaijan's sovereign, internationally recognized territory. Armenians living in the region are also Azerbaijani citizens from a legal point of view. However, some of the world's media outlets, motivated by the dirty finances of the Armenian lobby and diaspora organizations, as well as Ruben Vardanyan, who holds the puppet position as the "state minister" of the illegal regime in Karabakh, create the impression that the action of the Azerbaijani activists on the Khankendi-Lachin road is a threat to the right to life of the Karabakh Armenians. Against this background, false templates such as the humanitarian disaster, Azerbaijan's genocide against the Armenian population, ethnic cleansing, the blockade of 120,000 Armenians, 30,000 of them children, and the presence of seriously ill patients in Khankandi hospitals are being circulated. Such presentations do not reflect reality at all. Because the protest of Azerbaijani activists has a specific purpose. The action in no way serves the purpose of keeping Karabakh under blockade, there are no problems or obstacles in transporting humanitarian goods to the region.

The statement reads:

"The protest on the Khankandi-Lachin road has been going on for more than a month. If these media outlets had approached the situation a little more sensitively instead of having become a prisoner of pro-Armenian policy, they would have paid attention to the nature of the templates of Vardanyans and others, they would have determined that evaluating the situation in the region as a humanitarian disaster is utterly wrong. Unfortunately, we see not such a sensitive approach, but unprofessionalism. This way is a distraction from objective reality; it is a blatant manipulation.

It is also regrettable that the ones who knowingly or unknowingly allow manipulation are media outlets declaring that they have weight in the public opinion of the world and Europe, that they lead the pluralism of opinion, and that their work is based on the service of human values. Their articles are practically duplicates of each other. The same content, the same prejudicial claims, and even, in some cases, the same sentences.

However, the objective media should have investigated the identity of Ruben Vardanyan, reported that he was involved in large money fraud cases, was close to criminals, and should have drawn attention to the fact that such a person carries out illegal and criminal activities. This would be an example of service to human values.

The Azerbaijan Press Council calls on the world's leading media outlets to objectively evaluate the protests on the Khankandi-Lachin road, to pay attention to the real facts about it, and not to be a tool of one-sided and non-objective propaganda. They should consider that the fair presentation of this protest, in general, of the conflict situation between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the international scale, is extremely important in forming peace, security, and peaceful coexistence in the Caucasus as a whole."