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ARMENIAN SCHOLAR'S ANALYSIS OF KHOJALU EVENTS IN LINE WITH AZERBAIJANI PROPAGANDA - OPINION
10:27 * 17.03.14
With less than a year left until the Armenian Genocide centennial,
Turkey is exaggerating its trump-card over the Khojalu events, as
does Azerbaijan, as well as the Armenian scholar, Jirair Libaridian,
who recently published an article on the topic, says a media expert.
"The Azerbaijani Turks clearly want to hush up all the crimes committed
against Armenian civilians since 1988," Karen Vrtanesyan told Tert.am,
noting that Libaridian's remarks are fully in line with the Azerbaijani
propaganda.
In the article first published last month in the Turkish-Armenian
weekly Agos, the author particularly said, "I do not know for sure
and exactly what happened in Khojali in 1992, although I was, at the
time part of the Armenian government as an adviser to the President of
the Republic. I know that Armenian authorities had neither authorized
nor supported questionable activities. Still, Armenians do not speak
about it and Azerbaijani sources are more interested in using Khojali
for propaganda purposes than as a subject for serious study, thus they
are unreliable ... I do hope that someday scholars will find out what
happened exactly with the cooperation of all parties concerned."
Commenting on Libaridian's remarks, Vrtanesyan said he is under the
impression that the author acted more as an advocate rather than a
scholar, with his text reflecting the enemy propaganda instead of an
analysis of raw facts.
The article later spurred wide debates in the social networks.
"Especially, the attempt of drawing parallels between Genocide and
the Khhujalu events stirred up anger," the expert noted.
He particularly referred to the part of the article saying,
"Karabakh Armenian forces undertook military operations in Khojali and
elsewhere to ensure a secure neighborhood for their own people against
Azerbaijani air force bombardments and shelling of civilian targets.
Still, as I have asked publicly before, is the Azeri grandmother who
had to leave her home holding the hand of her granddaughter any less
of a grandmother and her granddaughter any less of a granddaughter
because they were Azeris? How are these two civilians different from
their Armenian counterparts who had to leave their villages and towns
in Karabakh because of the Azerbaijani attempt earlier for ethnic
cleansing around and in Karabakh? In fact, how were they different
from my own grandmother's story, who had to leave her town in the
Ottoman Empire holding her grandmother's hand in 1915? On the human
level, they are all grandmothers and granddaughters first."
Vrtanesyan described the analysis as a dishonest attempt of putting
an equal sign between mass killings that lasted several years and a
few hundred Azerbaijanis' murder committed in circumstances yet to
be clarified.
Asked what could be the aim of such a "confession" by an Armenian
scholar, the expert said he is trying probably to spur a debate in
Armenia in that way to make the Azerbaijani thesis discussable in
the Armenian media circles.
"Anyone considering himself or herself a scholar must first of all
avoid basing his or her allegations on emotional arguments. Secondly,
if he does not know 'for sure and exactly what happened in Khojali
in 1992', he must first try to bridge that gap before speaking of
morality," Vrtanesyan added.
http://www.tert.am/en/news/2014/03/17/vrtanesyan/
10:27 * 17.03.14
With less than a year left until the Armenian Genocide centennial,
Turkey is exaggerating its trump-card over the Khojalu events, as
does Azerbaijan, as well as the Armenian scholar, Jirair Libaridian,
who recently published an article on the topic, says a media expert.
"The Azerbaijani Turks clearly want to hush up all the crimes committed
against Armenian civilians since 1988," Karen Vrtanesyan told Tert.am,
noting that Libaridian's remarks are fully in line with the Azerbaijani
propaganda.
In the article first published last month in the Turkish-Armenian
weekly Agos, the author particularly said, "I do not know for sure
and exactly what happened in Khojali in 1992, although I was, at the
time part of the Armenian government as an adviser to the President of
the Republic. I know that Armenian authorities had neither authorized
nor supported questionable activities. Still, Armenians do not speak
about it and Azerbaijani sources are more interested in using Khojali
for propaganda purposes than as a subject for serious study, thus they
are unreliable ... I do hope that someday scholars will find out what
happened exactly with the cooperation of all parties concerned."
Commenting on Libaridian's remarks, Vrtanesyan said he is under the
impression that the author acted more as an advocate rather than a
scholar, with his text reflecting the enemy propaganda instead of an
analysis of raw facts.
The article later spurred wide debates in the social networks.
"Especially, the attempt of drawing parallels between Genocide and
the Khhujalu events stirred up anger," the expert noted.
He particularly referred to the part of the article saying,
"Karabakh Armenian forces undertook military operations in Khojali and
elsewhere to ensure a secure neighborhood for their own people against
Azerbaijani air force bombardments and shelling of civilian targets.
Still, as I have asked publicly before, is the Azeri grandmother who
had to leave her home holding the hand of her granddaughter any less
of a grandmother and her granddaughter any less of a granddaughter
because they were Azeris? How are these two civilians different from
their Armenian counterparts who had to leave their villages and towns
in Karabakh because of the Azerbaijani attempt earlier for ethnic
cleansing around and in Karabakh? In fact, how were they different
from my own grandmother's story, who had to leave her town in the
Ottoman Empire holding her grandmother's hand in 1915? On the human
level, they are all grandmothers and granddaughters first."
Vrtanesyan described the analysis as a dishonest attempt of putting
an equal sign between mass killings that lasted several years and a
few hundred Azerbaijanis' murder committed in circumstances yet to
be clarified.
Asked what could be the aim of such a "confession" by an Armenian
scholar, the expert said he is trying probably to spur a debate in
Armenia in that way to make the Azerbaijani thesis discussable in
the Armenian media circles.
"Anyone considering himself or herself a scholar must first of all
avoid basing his or her allegations on emotional arguments. Secondly,
if he does not know 'for sure and exactly what happened in Khojali
in 1992', he must first try to bridge that gap before speaking of
morality," Vrtanesyan added.
http://www.tert.am/en/news/2014/03/17/vrtanesyan/