BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct.27
By Zeyni Jafarov – Trend:
Azerbaijan strongly condemns the firing of the Euronews channel’s reporters who carried out their professional journalistic activities in the liberated Talish and Sugovushan villages, by Armenian Armed Forces with the Kornet type anti-tank missile, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev said, Trend reports.
"We regard this attack by Armenia as aggression against the freedom of speech and professional journalism. Fortunately, the reporters weren’t injured from the attack, and only the vehicle used by them was damaged," Hajiyev noted.
He pointed out that the attack of a car having the Euronews logo with an anti-tank guided missile was targeted.
According to him, in the video footage. Earlier, representatives of the Azerbaijani media were also fired upon by the Armed Forces of Armenia, as a result of which there were wounded among the journalists, and the cars of the camera crews were damaged."
The assistant also said that the representatives of the international media who present video footage from the military operations by Azerbaijan, upon returning to their countries, face verbal and physical attacks, blackmail, and threats from the Armenian lobby.
"In some cases, under pressure from the lobby, professional journalists are dismissed. A vivid example is the attacks of the Armenian lobby in France on the French TV channel TF1’s reporters because of their videos from Azerbaijan. Currently, more than 70 representatives of international media work in Azerbaijan. In accordance with the operational situation, the necessary conditions are created for them to prepare reports from the front and carry out their professional activities," added Hajiyev.
Armenian Armed Forces launched a large-scale military attack on positions of the Azerbaijani army on the front line, using large-caliber weapons, mortars, and artillery on Sept. 27.
Azerbaijan responded with a counter-offensive along the entire front. As a result of retaliation, Azerbaijani troops liberated a number of territories previously occupied by Armenia, as well as take important, strategic heights under control.
The fighting continued into October 2020, in the early days of which Armenia has launched missile attacks on Azerbaijani cities of Ganja, Mingachevir, Khizi as well as Absheron district.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, the Armenian Armed Forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.