Georgian journalists appeal to int’l organizations over mine explosion in Kalbajar

By Trend

The Union of Journalists of Georgia appealed to the international organizations in connection with the death of their Azerbaijani colleagues as a result of mine explosion in Azerbaijan’s Kalbajar district while performing their official duties, the Azerbaijani State Committee on Work with Diaspora told Trend on June 9.

The statement was sent to the UN, the Council of Europe and such international organizations as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch.

“The media representatives play an important role in disseminating impartial and objective information from the war zone and the territories where the war ended, act as a bridge between conflicting parties,” the statement said.

"We bring to your attention that the employees of the Azerbaijan State News Agency and Azerbaijan State Television Maharram Ibrahimov and Siraj Abishov, who were performing their duties in the territories liberated from the Armenian occupation, were killed as a result of the mine explosion on June 4 in Susuzlug village of Kalbajar district," the statement said.

Georgian journalists stressed that by refusing to give maps of the minefields created in the territories of Azerbaijan liberated as a result of the 44-day Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh war, Armenia grossly violates humanitarian norms and principles, international human rights.

The authors of the statement urged the international community and journalism organizations to pay close attention to the incident.

The statement was signed by Chairman of the Union of Journalists of Georgia Manana Salukvadze, members of the Union, Honored Journalists of Georgia, Head of the Department of the Georgian Imedi TV channel, Honored Journalist Beka Oniani, AzTV correspondent in Georgia, Honored Journalist Shahismayil Mammadov, editor-in-chief of the "Georgia" newspaper, honored journalist Khaleddin Yolchuyev and others.