Aftenposten: Azerbaijan Is Falsely Accused

Guivami Rahimli, PhD, Professor at Baku State University, who also served as president of the Azerbaijan-Norway Friendship Society, shared with Azerbaijan in Focus the article by Shervin Najafpour, Chairwoman of Norway’s cultural bridge building organization published in Aftenposten, which is considered a newspaper of record for Norway.

Aftenposten’s article “Azerbaijan is falsely accused” is based on the evidence about the everyday life of the residents of Karabakh collected from social media in response to the Armenian claims about “blockade” and “humanitarian crisis.”

According to Shervin Najafpour, the Armenian residents in Karabakh have an active social life and Khankendi seems to be the dream destination based on her social media findings.

Shervin’s investigation in her X-thread can be accessed via the following link. 

Azerbaijan is falsely accused of isolating its Armenian residents from the rest of the world by establishing a border checkpoint on its territory bordering Armenia at the beginning of the Lachin-Shusha road, in April 2023.

The Armenian population of Karabakh can freely travel through the Lachin border checkpoint from the Azerbaijani side and the Red Cross vehicles use this road for the delivery of medicines and other humanitarian needs of the residents of Karabakh.

Azerbaijan is ready to meet all the needs of Armenians, offering an open road between Aghdam and Khankendi for humanitarian activities, to prevent the illegal transfer of personnel, mines, and other military equipment from Armenia to Karabakh where Armenia still maintains its illegal military presence.

In fact, Armenian claims about “blockade” and “humanitarian crisis” are pure political manipulation. Armenia deliberately manipulates the media narrative, trying to influence international public opinion, spreading false information.

This is in line with the old Armenian tradition of the fabrication of historical facts and exaggeration of biased claims, especially when it comes to their suffering.

The Armenian-style fake news quickly finds its way to media outlets drawing the attention of the international community. Just like during the Spitak earthquake in Armenia, as mentioned by RFE/RL “..The Armenian Earthquake Rescue That Was Too Good To Be True”.

“…Hakopian and the others’ saga reverberated throughout the Soviet Union and beyond, and was quickly picked up by foreign media outlets, including The New York Times.

It was an inspirational story of human hope and survival, but there was one problem: It was a hoax. An early instance of fake news…”

“Western countries had already begun to forget about it,” Lyova Azroyan, a longtime Armenpress reporter based in Yerevan, tells RFE/RL. “That’s why [he said he] invented the story.”

But as the old saying goes: “A witness saves lives when he tells the truth; when he tells lies, he betrays people.”