Website Karabakhinfo.com is one of the official speaking-trumpets of Azerbaijani propaganda.

The reason to believe that the website is official is the fact that it was created on April 10, 2012 by the initiative and authorship of the head of Association for Civil society Development in Azerbaijan, the deputy of Milli Majlis Elkhan Suleymanov.

The level and the argumentation base of the website are designed for unpretentious reader who is prone to emotional and sensitive perception without an ability to independently analyze the findings. 

Screaming headlines, abuse of the word “Shock”, plenty of scary and horrific details with reference to unjustified sources disguised as “evidence of witnesses”, bogus photos that have nothing to do with the story; all of these prove that the development of civil society in Azerbaijan is happening in the environment of misinformation, defamation and rooted Armenophobia created by official Azerbaijan.

On this website under the usual emotional headline “Shock! Armenian tortures (+18)- PHOTO” an article is published by Zaur Aliyev, representative of Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences, Diaspora and lobby research center Chairman who holds PhD at political philosophy. According to the article Aliyev himself is one of the witnesses of Khojaly events, in spite of the fact that his name is not mentioned in any of international or Azerbaijani reports refereeing to the events. The article is reported to be based “on the testimony of witnesses as well as information provided by Ministry of National Security of Azerbaijan and the State Commission on prisoners, missing persons and hostages, war veterans and the writings of Armenian authors.”

Naturally, names and sources are not mentioned by the author, justification of which is the familiar phrase “upon request”.

It’s pointless to try to refute the facts of the site as a whole and this article in particular, however it is noteworthy to look at the visualization of the content.

First Photo    was shot in the beginning of the 20th century, approximately in 1923. The author is unknown like the circumstances of the photo. The factors of anonymity and ambiguity of the photo explain the fact why it is being exploited for various purposes by various sources. In particular Turkish propaganda prefers to put the photo in the articles demonstrating “the genocide of Turks carried out by Armenians”.
Azerbaijani propaganda uses it to illustrate the events of 1918 or 1992. Probative value of the shocking photo is weak- there is no information who took the photo, of whom and where. However, this is not an obstacle for propaganda activities.

Second Photo  of dead children is taken from an Ukrainian websites devoted to Famine. However, it is presented as a photo of Azerbaijani children “killed by Armenian terrorists”. The original version of the photo can be found in the official webpage of the president of Ukraine.

Third Photo is an illustration of Azerbaijani soldiers taken as hostages in Nagorno Karabakh war. Looking at the quality of the photo it can be stated that it has been cut from a newspaper. And as it is presented separate from the article it belonged to, it can be claimed that it doesn’t have to do anything with the “tortures” of Khojaly and other statements of the article.

Fourth Photo is quite actively used in Azerbaijani Media as a rule with reference to the “genocide of Azerbaijanis” in 1918, but sometimes it is also “tied” with modern events. If one carefully observes the photo it becomes obvious that its exposition is of a stage character and most likely it is a shot from a movie. Anyway it is strange to see a guy with bandaged hands holding a bottle with his teeth and drinking from it while his fellow inmates stare into emptiness and don’t even try to help him. Even if they don’t try to unleash his hands, they would hold a container to make convenient for him to drink. We don’t even speak about the fact of who put the bottle between his teeth. Be that as it may, the origin of the photo is questionable-neither the author’s name, nor the place and the participants of the scene are known. No special notation archive room from where it was taken is available.

Fifth Photo is actively used by Azerbaijani propaganda which has already been considered by the website xocali.net “№ 20. Lvov Jews are presented as victims of Armenian terror”. It is noteworthy that the photo is marked as taken from “Zaur Aliyev’s personal archive” which gives reader false impression that Aliyev is an author or copyright holder of the photo. However, the original of this photo is kept in the Museum of Holocaust.  

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