The Press Council of Azerbaijan on Friday called on international media to objectively and impartially cover the ongoing peaceful protests on the Lachin-Khankandi road, News.Az reports.

In a statement, the Press Council said the presentation of the peaceful protest rally of Azerbaijani activists and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the mentioned road in a number of world media causes serious concern among both various sectors of society and representatives of Azerbaijani journalism.

“Such an interpretation of the events is nothing but an attempt to distort reality, an abuse of freedom of speech and expression, bias and non-objectivity of a number of Western media,” the statement said.

“Karabakh is a sovereign, internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan. Armenians living in the region are also legally citizens of our country, but “thanks to” the financial support of Armenian lobbying and diaspora organizations, as well as the puppet “state minister” of the so-called Karabakh regime Ruben Vardanyan, some world media create the impression that the rally of Azerbaijani activists on the Lachin-Khankandi road poses a threat to the right of Karabakh Armenians to life,” the statement noted.

“Against this background, such false patterns are being exploited as a humanitarian catastrophe, the genocide of Azerbaijanis against the Armenian population, ethnic cleansing, blockade of 120,000 Armenians, 30,000 of which are children, seriously ill in hospitals in Khankandi,” the statement further said. “Such information is completely false and doesn’t reflect reality, because the protest of Azerbaijani activists has a specific goal - the rally in no way pursues the goal of blockade of Karabakh, and there are no obstacles for the passage of humanitarian convoys to the region to and from Khankandi.”

The Press Council noted that the protests on the Lachin-Khankandi road have been going on for more than a month. “If the mentioned mass media had not become captives of the Armenian propaganda, if they had treated the situation somewhat impartially, they would have paid attention to the essence of the patterns and determined the situation in the region. Unfortunately, we see a manifestation of unprofessionalism, and this method is a distant from reality, an obvious manipulation,” the statement pointed out.”

The Press Council called on the world's leading media outlets to give an objective assessment of the rally on the Lachin-Khankandi road, draw attention to real facts, and not be an instrument of one-sided and biased propaganda.

“They should take into account that this rally, in general, is very important in terms of a fair international presentation of the conflict situation between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the formation of peace, trust and an atmosphere of peaceful coexistence in the South Caucasus region as a whole,” it concluded.

News.Az