Propaganda efforts of Azerbaijan in Italy do not prove their value
Armenian Embassy in Italy actively opposes the anti-Armenian policy of Azerbaijan in the Italian press and the civil society of Italy.
In particular, the Armenian Embassy in Italy has addressed to the editorial-office of “Agenzia Radicale” and “Notizie Geopolitiche” publications demanding explanations about published materials concerning the Aghdam events of 1992.
In response the two editorial-offices published the comment received from the Armenian Embassy which can be found here and here.
Through the Italian media the Armenian diplomats, in their comment, have expressed their solidarity with 35 thousand Armenians and Azerbaijanis, who have become victims of the conflict "because of the silence of the international community."
Noting that the articles of the Italian authors, that reflect a distorted view about the Karabakh conflict, may be the result of delusion or lack of knowledge, the Armenian side provided series of necessary explanations.
It is noted in particular that some media have spread information provided by the ruling regime of Azerbaijan, which according to the rating of "Reporters without Borders" organization is ranked the 160th in media freedom among 180 countries, and 139th in political and economic freedoms’ index.
As for the factual inconsistencies, the Armenian Embassy focused on the following: "First of all, the definition of the conflict as "clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh's sovereignty issue" is misleading. In fact, the main reason for the conflict was the deviation of self-determination of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh by the authorities of the Soviet Socialist Republics Union," the comment reads.
As for the victims among the civilian population of Khojalu, the comment reads, "we should admit that the phrase "Azerbaijani civilians were killed by Armenian troops" is irrelevant, which is proved by the evidences found in numerous Azerbaijani sources and with some Western journalists working in the Caucasus in early 90s."
"The experts involved in the study of this conflict, know quite well that for the Azerbaijani Armed Forces Khojalu served a firing-post in direction of Armenian civilians by rockets GRAD. A few days before the 25th February 1992 the headquarters of the Armenian self-defense forces of Nagorno Karabakh informed the Azerbaijani authorities and the civilian population by radio about the inevitability of military operations needed for the neutralization of the missile base, and about the humanitarian corridor left for the evacuation of the civilian population," the comment reads.
Referring to Azerbaijani sources, the authors of the address noted that Khojalu resident Salman Abbasov confirms the fact of dissemination of the warning-information by the radio about the coming attack, and that the local authorities had banned to evacuate the residents.
The address also notes that the civilian population served for the Azerbaijani authorities a human shield protecting the missile base.
In this regard an excerpt from an interview with former Azerbaijani President Ayaz Mutalibov is presented, where he, in fact, confirms the fact that the incident was organized by the Azerbaijani opposition in order to overthrow Mutalibov.
It should be noted that during the last years in the Italian media articles containing one-sided information about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have increased. Experts attribute this fact to the presence of close cooperation of Azerbaijan and Italy in the energy area. In particular, Italy is one of the main importers of Azerbaijani oil, and soon it will become the main consumer of Azerbaijani gas that is being exported to Europe.