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Citing its “anonymous reader,” Azerbaijani news website Oxu.az ran fake information about a “confirmation” of losses of the Armenian side during armed clashes, allegedly published on the website of the Armenian newspaper Aravot. The Azerbaijani website attached a falsified screenshot of a Russian-language material with grammatical mistakes to its article.

First, Aravot is an Armenian-language newspaper, and the Russian version of the website gives only the translation of some parts of the more important articles published during the day. Naturally, there are no such kind of articles either on the Armenian version of the website, or in the printed version of the newspaper.

Moreover, the small size and poor quality of the screenshot, which make it difficult to watch the details, suggest that the authors did not work thoroughly it. Consequently, they had to zoom in the image to the minimal size possible to conceal the traces of interference. However, the Azerbaijani falsifiers were not watchful enough to remove the address of the news, and searching that address one can easily discover another article titled “Kocharyan’s only chance: When September comes” published on 22 August 2015, 23:45, by Emma Gabrielyan, who was claimed by the Azerbaijani website to be the author of the fake material.

Emma Gabrielyan, the journalist, quickly published an article titled “Azerbaijani marasmus knows no limits” on Aravot website denying any connection with the fake article.

Moreover, search engines help to discover that the authors of the fake article have not written the text themselves: they just copied various parts of press releases of the Ministry of Defense of various periods.

This is not the first case when the Azerbaijani propaganda spreads fake information citing “the Armenian media.” In particular, the Azerbaijani hackers broke the website Tert.am and posted a fake press release of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia about numerous losses the Armenian side suffered on the border. However, the fake information was quickly denied. Another text of similar content was posted on the “Spokesperson” section of website Mamul.am, where anyone can post any information. It was not the first case Azerbaijani propaganda used it for running fake information. Remarkably, the same Russian text was also published on the Armenian and English versions of the website.

Related:
Azerbaijani media hack news outlet in attempt to legalize disinformation about losses of Armenian side
Tert.am website was hacked: Azerbaijani media spreads disinformation about casualties of Armenian side