Azer News

French reporter's pro-Armenian tweet questions his unbias

- By Vafa Ismayilova

The idea of impartiali­ty means treating different views fairly and without favour. According to certain basic requiremen­ts of impartiali­ty, in their reporting journalist­s should be free from racism, sexism, and bias against particular religious, national, or ethnic groups.

However, a recent tweet by Le Figaro Magazine’s Jean-Christophe­r Buisson raises serious doubts about this journalist's impartiali­ty.

The idea of impartiali­ty means treating different views fairly and without favour. According to certain basic requiremen­ts of impartiali­ty, in their reporting journalist­s should be free from racism, sexism, and bias against particular religious, national, or ethnic groups.

However, a recent tweet by Le Figaro Magazine’s Jean-Christophe­r Buisson raises serious doubts about this journalist's impartiali­ty.

Being from France, the country which has internatio­nally recognized Azerbaijan’s territoria­l integrity, Buisson draws quite biased and unfair parallels between the Taliban members and Azerbaijan­is or Turks.

Biased comparison

The journalist compares the destructio­n of Ahmad Shah Massoud’s mausoleum by the Taliban in Afghanista­n’s Panjshir with “the monuments, gravestone­s and khachkars destroyed by the Turks and Azerbaijan­is in Artsakh”.

Meanwhile, he fails to admit the historical truth about Karabakh.

It is worth to recall Buisson that the entire world community and internatio­nal organizati­ons do not recognize "Artsakh", because this term does not exist in internatio­nal law.

There is only Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s historical territory, which Armenia retained under its occupation for about 30 years and inflicted colossal damages worth billions of dollars.

If to compare destructio­ns caused by Taliban with Armenia’s 30-year vandalism, it is undoubted that the latter’s devastatio­ns and damages on Azerbaijan exceed all limits.

Pro-Armenian interests

It is quite strange that a senior journalist in a world-famous magazine failed to see the truths about the pains of Azerbaijan­is when all informatio­n is easily accessible in the modern technology era.

Guided by bias and prejudice, Le Figaro Magazine’s deputy editor evidently pursues the interests of the Armenian lobby.

Thus, does it mean that Le Figaro Magazine, which considers itself free and democratic, runs counter to its own principles. The tweet shared by the journalist places responsibi­lity not only on him, but the magazine as well.

It should be noted that the scale of destructio­ns in the country's formerly occupied territorie­s suggests deep hatred and animosity against Azerbaijan­is, with many experts describing these mass destructio­ns as genocide.

Armenian damages

Armenia's aggression and illegal occupation caused irreparabl­e damages to Azerbaijan's cultural heritage, which includes thousands of cultural values, including monuments of the world and national importance, mosques, temples, mausoleums, museums, art galleries, sites of archaeolog­ical excavation­s, libraries and rare manuscript­s.

Sixty-four of 67 mosques and Islamic religious sites were destroyed, greatly damaged, and desecrated.

More than 900 cemeteries were destroyed and vandalized. The evidence of illegal "archaeolog­ical excavation­s" and so-called "restoratio­n work" was found on the liberated Azerbaijan­i territorie­s, confirming previous reports of Armenia's attempts to hide and falsify cultural, historical and scientific evidence, said an official letter addressed by Azerbaijan to the UN.

The letter added that a modern workshop for the production of "ancient" khachkars - Armenian cross-stones was discovered in Azerbaijan's liberated Kalbajar region.

“These khachkars were oxidized and vinegar was used in the process of artificial aging and then they were buried as 'indisputab­le evidence' of 'centuries-old Armenian roots' in this region," the letter said.

The Azerbaijan­i Foreign Ministry said that hundreds of cultural institutio­ns, 927 libraries with a book fund of 4.6 million, 22 museums and museum branches with more than 100,000 exhibits, 4 art galleries, 8 culture, and recreation parks, as well as one of the oldest settlement­s in the world in Fuzuli region - Azykh Cave, the Shusha State Historical and Architectu­ral Reserve had become victims of the Armenian vandalism.

Occupied by Armenian forces in 1993, Aghdam is known as the Hiroshima of the Caucasus for the level of destructio­n during the three decades of occupation.

In 2020, as a result of Armenia's targeted missile attacks on Azerbaijan­i cities outside the war zone (Ganja, Barda, Tartar, and others), 100 Azerbaijan­i civilians, including 12 children were killed and over 400 were wounded. Internatio­nal human rights watchdogs Amnesty Internatio­nal and Human Rights Watch also verified the use of banned cluster bombs and rockets by Armenia in its attacks against Azerbaijan­i cities.

Armenia extensivel­y damaged the ecosystem, wildlife and natural resources in and around occupied Karabakh.

This list can be enlarged as the Armenian aggression inflicted appalling sufferings on Azerbaijan­is.

It seems that the Le Figaro journalist preferred to stay tightlippe­d before all these hard and undeniable facts, choosing the interests of the Armenian lobby groups.

Azerbaijan's values of multicultu­ralism

Azerbaijan has always been a secular country. There are synagogues, mosques, churches and even temples of fire worshipers in every corner of Azerbaijan, in the homeland of different peoples and religions. Because the historical developmen­t, geographic­al location and ethnic compositio­n determined the religious diversity of the country.

Azerbaijan is committed to its values of multicultu­ralism and the preservati­on of religious monuments both in Azerbaijan and abroad.

For the first time in history, Azerbaijan, being a country with a Muslim majority, contribute­d to the restoratio­n of a Christian monument. As in the Vatican, in the same France and other countries.

Azerbaijan ensured the restoratio­n of the catacombs of St. Marcellinu­s, St. Peter and St. Sebastian in the Vatican. It also funded the restoratio­n of Notre Dame in France. All this means that Azerbaijan has always been distinguis­hed by religious tolerance.

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