More foreign journalists, experts are under fire for traveling to Karabakh
Another wave of anti-Azerbaijani sentiments
KARABAKH 23 November 2022 - 13:08
Investigations Team of Caliber.Az |
In the aftermath of the second Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020, official Baku announced mass reconstruction in the war-torn region, allocating a vast budget to mega projects such as smart villages and solar energy power. The general idea behind Azerbaijan's heavy investment in the war-torn region is to demonstrate the Karabakh region's scale of destruction and neglect for almost three decades. As a result of the completion of the first phase of reconstruction, some residents returned to their homeland in Zengilan’s Aghali village, which has been rebuilt as a smart village.
The post-conflict reconstruction in Karabakh enabled Azerbaijan to attract foreign countries and companies to contribute to the rebuilding process and reach out to the international community for more empathy. Although it is hard to claim that the entire world community demonstrated solidarity with Azerbaijan to address its grievances following the end of the most protracted conflict in the post-Soviet region, there are some cases when foreign bloggers, academicians, and journalists took a short visit to the recently de-occupied territories in Karabakh to witness both destruction and reconstruction scales.
In December 2020, July 2021, and 2022 various foreign journalists’ groups visited the ruined Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, and Shusha cities, including damaged historical and cultural sites. However, the reaction to foreigners' visits to Karabakh has not been usually welcomed in certain Western circles that take a strictly anti-Azerbaijani stance.
Numerous foreign media outlets are closely linked with well-known Armenian lobbyists. As a result, some journalists who decided to travel to the Karabakh region came under fire and harsh criticism, sometimes even facing death threats by ultra-nationalist groups. While such criticism and issued death threats do not contribute to confidence building between Azerbaijani and Armenian communities, it fuels enmity and hatred.
As such, on November 16, 2022, a group of Canadian bloggers visited the Karabakh region and shared their impressions on social media. Traditionally their content became an object of harsh criticism, mostly by foreigners of Armenian origin from Western countries, including members of ultra-nationalist groups.
The situation worsened when one of the Canadian bloggers, Shai de Luca, announced on social media that he was closing his account for a while due to numerous death threats from Armenian ultra-nationalists.
Shai took a break from twitter because Armenian ultra-nationalists were sending him death threats and threatening his husband, too. I may include this in my coverage of this issue. It shows how nationalists use online harassment to erase Azerbaijani victims.
— Adam Zivo (@ZivoAdam) November 21, 2022
According to Luca, who is also a member of the LGBT community, "Twitter platform is not safe and sane for Jewish anymore due to hate speech against himself".
During this trip, Shai de Luca visited local Jewish cultural and religious sites based in Baku, and Guba, which is home to the ethnic Jewish community. In his Facebook post, Luca said that "the stories of the Caucasus as it pertains to Jews are certainly Complicated. But, if Jewish history was silenced from the various lands we found refuge in, we’d have no stories to tell".
His trip was concluded by a visit to Aghdam and Shusha cities in Karabakh.
Other Canadian bloggers also were harshly criticized for accepting the Azerbaijani government's invitation to visit Karabakh at the expense of "undermining of ethnic Armenians' rights."
Obviously, accepting the invitation of the Azerbaijani side to visit Karabakh should not be a tough thing as this is another way to get acquainted with the results of the violent ethnic conflict that purged around 700.000 ethnic Azerbaijanis from the region and erased their cultural heritage. Similar trips have once been arranged by Armenian authorities for other foreigners illegally travelling to Karabakh to see the scale of the first Karabakh war.
The reason for such visits to Karabakh organized by Armenia was to address the “concerns of the ethnic Armenian community” and create an international defence line against Azerbaijan, albeit unsuccessfully. As a matter of fact, international law was on the Azerbaijani side in the Karabakh issue, strengthening its position and neutralizing all following anti-Azerbaijani statements and sanction documents.
Hence, with the military victory in a 44-day-long war, Azerbaijan now restored its internationally recognized territories, and its attempts to present the outcomes of the long-term conflict to foreign experts and bring the case to the attention of the international community should not come as a surprise.
Caliber.Az
1
|
Triumph of sovereignty: Azerbaijan's quiet victory in the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers Has & Verdiyan on Caliber.Az
20 April 2024 - 16:30
|
2
|
Unveiling Armenia’s motives behind lawsuits at The Hague From politics to policy
20 April 2024 - 12:35
|
3
|
Azerbaijan's diplomatic masterstroke: Return of occupied villages marks strategic achievement New geopolitical reality
21 April 2024 - 11:43
|
4
|
Early Russian withdrawal from Karabakh: how has Azerbaijan’s ‘calculated risk’ strategy paid off? Contemplations with Orkhan Amashov
21 April 2024 - 10:03
|
5
|
Pro-Armenian senator urges US to cut military aid to Azerbaijan French MP questions US diplomatic response
20 April 2024 - 11:47
|
Demonstrations sweep US universities demanding end to Gaza war
23 April 2024 - 13:21
Germany urges US to send Kyiv another patriot missile system
23 April 2024 - 13:05
UNESCO resorts to double standards - chairman
23 April 2024 - 12:52
Azerbaijani president invites Ukrainian counterpart to COP29
23 April 2024 - 12:45
China sharply reduces equipment, machinery supplies to Russia
23 April 2024 - 12:40
Researchers say China's coal dependency to persist even after 2040
Despite climate targets23 April 2024 - 12:28
Armenia faces internal strife as border agreement with Azerbaijan sparks unrest
Tensions rise23 April 2024 - 12:28
Reuters: Ukraine launches military charm offensive as conscription flags
23 April 2024 - 12:15
High-ranking Hezbollah commander eliminated in Lebanon
VIDEO23 April 2024 - 12:02
Azerbaijan, Armenia initiate border clarification process
Geodetic measurements underway23 April 2024 - 11:54
Iraq, Qatar, UAE, Türkiye unite for connecting Persian Gulf to Europe
Quadrilateral MoU inked23 April 2024 - 11:49
Norway to increase military aid for Ukraine
23 April 2024 - 11:37
Azerbaijan produces over 7 billion kWh of energy
In Q1, 202423 April 2024 - 11:25
Armenian PM's Moscow visit sparks speculation on bilateral relations
Dilemma between East, West23 April 2024 - 11:19
Azerbaijan continues to clear Khankendi from Armenian weapons
23 April 2024 - 11:13
Putin: Russia invites interested parties to create North-South corridor
23 April 2024 - 11:00
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft sending data back to Earth
For first time in 5 months23 April 2024 - 10:48
Iran welcomes Azerbaijan-Armenia border delimitation agreement
23 April 2024 - 10:36
UK to allocate £500m military aid package to Ukraine
23 April 2024 - 10:24
US wants Israel to end Gaza operation
23 April 2024 - 10:13
Great return: Azerbaijan relocates 39 more families to Fuzuli
23 April 2024 - 10:01
Azerbaijani foreign minister leaves for Czech Republic
23 April 2024 - 09:50
COP29 president meets with UN chief
PHOTO23 April 2024 - 09:38
Prime Minister Pashinyan: Armenia not to fight for Karabakh
23 April 2024 - 09:27
Armenia returns four villages to Azerbaijan, paving the way for peace in the South Caucasus
Landmark accord23 April 2024 - 09:14
Boston Dynamics' new humanoid robot freaking people out
23 April 2024 - 09:02
You can buy home in France or Italy for “price of new truck”
take these three steps before retiring abroad23 April 2024 - 07:03
Can wind and solar solve climate change?
23 April 2024 - 05:04
NASA reveals “glass-smooth lake of cooling lava” on surface of Jupiter's moon Io
23 April 2024 - 03:05
Singapore gives top-level briefings to reassure foreign banks on stability
23 April 2024 - 01:03
How might new US aid change war in Ukraine?
22 April 2024 - 23:01
Georgia ready to contribute to peace process in South Caucasus - MoD
22 April 2024 - 21:03
Erdogan: Türkiye expects Iraq to take effective steps in fighting PKK
22 April 2024 - 20:52
Armenia, US mull border delimitation with Azerbaijan
22 April 2024 - 20:40
Kazakhstan bans extremists from entering its territory
22 April 2024 - 20:31
Slovenia welcomes agreement between Baku, Yerevan
22 April 2024 - 20:23
Next Russia sanctions must target shadow oil fleet, Sweden says
22 April 2024 - 20:09
Kremlin: Withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Karabakh corresponds to regional realities
22 April 2024 - 20:04
Georgia welcomes start of Armenian-Azerbaijani border delimitation process
22 April 2024 - 19:55
Jordan welcomes agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia
22 April 2024 - 19:42