Azerbaijan’s media puzzled over unprecedented tension escalation in Karabakh conflict zone - Expert

YEREVAN, August 4. /ARKA/. Samvel Martirosyan, a cyber security expert, told journalists on Monday that Azerbaijan’s mass media was puzzled over the unprecedented escalation of tension in the Karabakh conflict zone. 

Raids from the Azerbaijani side became frequent in recent days. According to various sources, more than 25 Azerbaijani and five Nagorno-Karabakh servicemen were killed as a result.  

“There have been raids on the contact line also before that, but this time they sparked hysteria among Azerbaijani media outlets and paralyzed governing institutions,” Martirosyan said. “These day, only one report appeared on the Azerbaijani president’s website – it was Aliev’s congratulation sent to Barack Obama on the latter’s birthday. The Azerbaijani leadership and the president personally were criticized by the Azerbaijani community.”

Azerbaijani people, he said. Had no idea of what has happened on the border and how many servicemen were really killed there. 

Receiving no information, Azerbaijani media outlets released reports on the number of killed servicemen referring to the Armenian media, and later they treated the incidents in their own way. 

Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Karabakh, mainly populated by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan.

On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan. 

Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions adjacent to it.

Some 30,000 people were killed in this war and about one million people fled their homes. 

 

On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations.

Since 1992, talks brokered by OSCE Minsk Group are being held over peaceful settlement of the conflict. The group is co-chaired by USA, Russia and France. -0---