12 03 2009 - FIASCO FOR THE AZERI PROPAGANDA IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

- The anti-Armenian Pogroms in Sumgait were evoked at the Azerbaijani commemoration of Khojalu

- The ambassador of Azerbaijan prohibited to speak

The “commemoration” of the Khojalu events that was for Azerbaijan the pinnacle moment of its ongoing misinformation campaign turned to a fiasco on Tuesday, March 3, 2009, in the European Parliament.

Alerted by the European Armenian Federation and other voices of European public opinion, the MEP Mrs. Gisela Kallenbach (Greens, Germany) which initially had sponsored the exhibition of the “Aliev Foundation”, became aware that she was the object of the Azeri attempt of manipulation. Consequently, she surprised the participants, primarily the Azeris by declaring that she was there only “because it was too late to cancel the exhibition”.

In her inaugural speech, Gisela Kallenbach did not hesitate to say that she regretted that the exhibition did not include pictures of the anti-Armenian pogrom that was committed in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait in 1988, before taking one minute of silence in memory of the victims of all the conflicts of the South Caucasus. She criticised implicitly the Azeri attempt of misinformation and stated that she learnt that this exhibition “could be used in order to destroy the promising and recent process of reconciliation between Armenia and Azerbaijan” and “that was absolutely not” her intention.

The short speech that Mrs. Kallenbach delivered on this occasion is available here.

Mrs. Kallenbach quickly put an end to her participation while the ambassador of Azerbaijan was prevented from expressing himself and distributing his false propaganda.

According to various sources, Mrs. Kallenbach had been deceived by officers of her political group directly financed by the Aliev Foundation.

“We congratulate Mrs. Kallenbach for her courage and her perspicacity” declared Hilda Tchoboian, the chairperson of the European Armenian Federation; “it is clear that the commemorations of Khojalu organized everywhere in Europe and in the United States form part of the political warmongering of the leaders of Azerbaijan; they aim to prevent the settlement of the conflict by prohibiting any concession to its public opinion, while masking its own crimes” she continued.

Within the framework of a worldwide campaign of disinformation, the Baku regime intends to make the international institutions acknowledge that the events which would have occurred in Khojalu in 1992 at the time of Artsakh liberation war (formerly Nagorno Karabakh) would have constituted war crimes – even a “genocide”. These events – presented as such using photos taken in Kosovo were never clarified but several sources – in particular Azeri – tend to prove that they would have been caused by the Aliev clan to destabilize the Azeri regime of Mutalibov which was at that time in power.

The massacres and pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait, Baku and Kirovabad, recalled by Mrs. Kallenbach, are on the other hand, attested as having constituted the response of Azerbaijan to the peaceful process by which the Armenian populations of Karabakh had requested their unification to Armenia, in accordance with the Soviet constitution which was into force at that time. These pogroms caused the Artsakh liberation war to begin.

At that time, the European Parliament strongly criticised the actions of Azerbaijan towards its Armenian population, pointing out “the blockade and the aggression of Azerbaijan”, “the 300,000 Armenian refugees who fled the pogroms”, the murders of Armenians perpetrated “in horrific circumstances”, “the economic blockade of Armenia”, “the unprecedented attack against the Armenians of Karabakh” and their “right to self-determination”.

These resolutions of the European Parliament are available on the European Armenian Federation website.

“Taking into consideration the serious incriminations that the European Parliament and the International community charged against Azerbaijan, for the first time, the machine of Azeri misinformation failed to use the European Assembly as a springboard to spread its falsified interpretation of the history” commented Hilda Tchoboian.

“The abusive exploitation by Azerbaijan of the Karabakh conflict to justify the warmongering and racist speech of his leaders towards Armenia and the Armenians, will have to be condemned by the European Union which carries a real interest with the establishment of a durable peace in the area” continued the Chair of the European Armenian Federation.

The European Armenian Federation recalls that for several years, the Azeri power has tried repeatedly to discredit the OSCE Minsk group who is in charge of the peace negotiations in order to move their framework. In spite of these attempts, the European Parliament constantly affirmed its confidence in the Minsk group which takes into account the right to self-determination of the Karabakh people in compliance with the principles of the International law.

EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION
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