Azerbaijan's Press Council urges impartial global media coverage of protest in Khankendi-Lachin road

Representatives of Azerbaijan's journalistic community and the entire Azerbaijani public are deeply concerned about how the action of Azerbaijani eco-activists on the Khankendi-Lachin road is being covered in the international media.

The Azerbaijani Press Council made the remarks in a statement, which described the relevant world coverage as an abuse of free speech, biased and partial, Report informs.

"Azerbaijan's Press Council calls on the world's leading media to give an objective assessment of the action on the Khankendi-Lachin road, to take into account the real facts, not to be a tool of one-sided and biased propaganda. They should consider that the action is critical in terms of bringing the conflict situation between Azerbaijan and Armenia to the attention of the international community, as well as the formation of peace, trust, and peaceful coexistence in the geography of the South Caucasus," the council said.

It noted that Karabakh is a sovereign and internationally-recognised territory of Azerbaijan.

From a legal standpoint, Armenians living in the region are also citizens of the country. However, through the dirty financing of Armenian lobbying and diaspora organisations, as well as Ruben Vardanyan, who holds the puppet "state minister" post of the unrecognised Karabakh regime, numerous world media outlets are attempting to portray the action staged by Azerbaijani activists on the Khankendi-Lachin road as a threat to the lives of Karabakh Armenians.

Against this background, false patterns such as the humanitarian catastrophe, the genocide of the Armenian population, ethnic cleansing, the blockade of 120,000 Armenians, including 30,000 children, and the presence of seriously ill people in Khankendi hospitals are being put into circulation. Such a presentation is completely inaccurate because Azerbaijani activists' protest has a specific goal. The action in no way serves the purpose of the blockade of Karabakh, there are no obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian supplies to the region.

The statement reads:

"The action on the Khankendi-Lachin road has been going on for more than a month. If the mentioned mass media had not become prisoners of pro-Armenian policy and reacted more sensitively to the situation, they would have paid attention to the essence of Vardanyan's and others' patterns and realized that a humanitarian disaster in the region is completely ruled out. Unfortunately, we see unprofessionalism rather than a delicate approach. This is a clear attempt to divert attention away from reality, an obvious manipulation.

It is regrettable that those mass media that influence the formation of public opinion in the world and Europe, are guided by the pluralism of opinions, and declare that their activities are based on the goal of serving human values, consciously or unconsciously allowing manipulation. Their articles practically repeat each other. The same content, the same biased statements, and even, in some cases, the same sentences.

Although the objective media had to find out everything about Vardanyan's personality, his large-scale money frauds, and his proximity to crime, and bring his illegal and criminal activities to attention. It would be an example of serving human values."