Int'l Association Israel-Azerbaijan sends letter to Polish channel due to Karabakh war documentary

By TrendInternational Association Israel-Azerbaijan (‘Aziz’), on behalf of the immigrants from Azerbaijan in Israel, sent a letter to the international channel of Poland's Public Television Telewizja Polska (TVP), Trend reports citing the letter.

The letter was sent due to the fact that on Jan. 24, 2020 the channel aired a documentary film by military journalist, an expert on the Middle East, Witold Repetovich, "Depth of field - 44 days - a nightmare of war" ("G??bia ostro?ci - 44 dni - koszmar wojny"), telling about the war in the Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh, previously held under occupation by Armenia.

“We note with regret that this film was shot, edited and presented exclusively from the point of view of the interests of Armenia and the position of official Yerevan,” the letter said.

The letter noted that the purpose of the creation and demonstration of this film is most likely to show horror for the civilian population about what military actions can lead to.

“Azerbaijan, our people and the Baku officials have been waiting around 30 years for the OSCE Minsk Group, international organizations and mediators to resolve the issue of the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjacent 7 regions. However, expectations were not met, and hope faded with each new provocation of the Armenian Armed Forces located in the occupied territories. At the same time, the foreign media rarely reported these incidents, international human rights organizations, designed to protect all people, regardless of nation, race and religion, were silent about the dead civilians of Azerbaijan,” the letter said.

The letter noted that starting from September 27, 2020, hostilities, once again launched as a result of the provocation of the Armenian side, led to full-scale armed operations, which was not the goal of Azerbaijani officials.

“President Of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly noted and proposed to resolve this conflict peacefully, which hinders the development of the entire region. However, having a strong pressure from the Armenian lobby, which does not have an objective opinion about the region, Yerevan continued its occupation policy and categorically did not want to negotiate in the format proposed by Baku,” the letter said.

“Neither in the early 1990s nor at the end of September 2020, Armenia took responsibility for the war crimes and crimes against humanity. No one has yet been punished for the genocide of Azerbaijanis committed by Armenians in the city of Khodjaly in 1992. No one until today has been punished, and the world community just brings its condolences,” the letter said.

The letter noted that Azerbaijani community of Israel notes with regret and sorrow that the Azerbaijanis have become victims of the aggression of the Armenian policy since the end of the 1980s.

“Oppression, expulsion, terror, murder - all this was poured on the Azerbaijani people, both living on the territory of the former Armenian SSR and the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh. Without telling these facts, neither the author of the film, nor those who let this "movie" on the air, have earned either honor or respect,” the letter said.

“But, to keep silent about the fact that within the framework of these full-scale hostilities there were casualties among the civilian population of Azerbaijan, that ballistic missiles and cluster bombs were used against the cities not involved in the conflict, that the Armenian Armed Forces shelled peaceful cities such as Ganja, Barda, Tartar, Mingachevir, Naftalan, Agjabadi, Gabala, Khizi suffered from prohibited weapons used by Armenia, or about the fact that Azerbaijani servicemen captured by the Armenian Armed Forces were subjected to cruel torture, which is confirmed in the reports of international organizations - it is either the height of unprofessionalism or, which upsets us even more, a biased or paid position,” the letter said.

“We ask you to pay attention to the fact that such actions undermine the intentions of Azerbaijan to restore peace in the region and good-neighborly coexistence of the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples on the territory of the de-occupied Karabakh,” the letter added.

“We would be glad if outside "spectators" of all these events helped us to establish relations with the Armenian side, and not try to incite hatred between neighboring countries. Since we, unlike Yerevan officials, are aimed at restoring peace, we hope for the complicity of international organizations, journalists, politicians and public figures, and not for prejudice,” the letter said.