Yerevan journalistic organizations issued an emotional appeal: “Our question is addressed to fellow journalists who are currently enjoying the lavish hospitality of the Aliyev regime while finding themselves just a few kilometers away from the cities and villages of Nagorno-Karabagh, living in isolation from the outside world for more than seven months. Within this setting, thousands of people have been deprived of access to basic food for an extended period, women in childbirth are unable to reach hospital due to the scarcity of petrol, water supply is threatened due to a shortage of electricity: doesn’t your professional duty drive you to demand freedom of movement from the Azerbaijani authorities in order to witness a tragedy with few parallels in the modern world? Isn’t it anymore essential for the media to continue its role in breaking through information blockades, particularly in a situation where news about unfolding events is provided exclusively by biased sources?”
Almost simultaneously, a tearful appeal “on behalf of the community of journalists of ‘the Republic of Artsakh’ (the quotation marks are editorial—Aze.Media)” appeared online and on Telegram channels controlled by the Khankendi separatists. The authors of this appeal also hysterically demand from the forum participants to “stop providing only one-sided information and narratives about Nagorno-Karabakh, the blockade and the conflict in general”, and to “come to our communities a few kilometers away from you to cover the real life of our people and the true face of those who invited and fed you in ‘Shushi'”.
Obviously, any significant event in Shusha is a knife through the heart and a painful reminder of their own military defeat for the political party in Yerevan and their Khankendi puppets. If Azerbaijan feels confident enough in Shusha to hold events with the President attending and to invite journalists from 120 publications in 50 countries, this is a hard pill to swallow.
Most importantly, all the guests attending the forum will also witness Armenian vandalism in the formerly occupied lands. And they will tell their audience about it. The Yerevan miatsum-mongers and their Khankendi puppets were all too happy with the situation when the world heard only the squealing of the Armenian side in the early stages of the conflict. But the Armenian propagandists and provocateurs were not ready to see that this comfortable imbalance would not last forever, and that now Azerbaijan was gaining not only military success but also a breakthrough in information warfare, just as Armenian generals were not ready to face the Azerbaijani army of the 21st century. They already realize what an “information bomb” the forum in Shusha is. Especially now, when all the cries of “starvation” and “blockade” cannot be taken outside the purely Armenian “party”. That is why they are being hysterical. With all the theatrics, all the spitting and demonstrative fainting.
But what would have happened if the journalists attending the forum had actually traveled to Khankendi? If they had admired the local crowded cafes? Sat with the locals at picnic tables? If they had reported then on how the separatists themselves are blocking the Aghdam road to stop humanitarian supplies?
But it looks like Armenian media specialists did not ask themselves that. They are just doing what they were told to do, bluntly and clumsily: more dirt on Azerbaijan and forum participants and more cries and lamentations about the “blockade”. So what if the end result is a veritable circus show? They did what they could. To the best of their abilities. Indeed, it is hard to demand more from Yerevan journalists, much less from Khankendi journalists. One cannot make an edible meal with rotten water. No wonder that Yerevan and Khankendi hysterics, sadly for them, have no audience. All their organizers can do is take umbrage—against the participants of the media forum in Shusha, against the Azerbaijani authorities, against the EU and US diplomats….
Well, let us wait and see who they take umbrage against next time.
