Armenians Become Victims of Azerbaijan's Hired Fake Journalists: CivilNet

Azerbaijani state-affiliated Baku.TV published a video on August 16 titled "Baku.TV in Armenia: Local Environmentalists Revealed the Whole Truth. EXCLUSIVE." According to CivilNet, the video discusses Armenia's mining industry and its "disastrous impact." The report features comments from Armenian interlocutors, including residents of Kapan and Kajaran, as well as Inga Zarafyan, the president of the EcoLur information NGO.

How did Azerbaijani journalists end up in Armenia and create a report? It turns out that the people speaking in the report have fallen victim to a deception. Susanna Martirosyan, the head of the Kapan-based "Rainbow" NGO, told #CivilNetCheck that two individuals approached them in the street, presenting themselves as bloggers—one was the operator who spoke in Armenian, while the other was a journalist, a Russian girl with a microphone, who spoke in Russian. Martirosyan recounted that she was curious about what kind of blog they were representing, but those individuals gave evasive answers, stating they were simply asking questions. Consequently, she answered questions about the community, also addressing the impact of the mine on the community.

The report also includes words from Inga Zarafyan. However, she was not randomly filmed outside; rather, extensive efforts were made to obtain her commentary. Zarafyan told #CivilNetCheck that on July 29, she received an email from a person named Natalya Khokhlova, who claimed to be from the Russian publication bloknot.ru, requesting an interview regarding the environmental situation in Armenia. “During the interview, I spoke about climate risks, issues concerning Lake Sevan, and the blockade by Azerbaijan. Natalya Khokhlova showed particular interest in the mining industry,” Zarafyan noted, emphasizing that in that part of the interview, she provided Khokhlova with transparent official data regarding the state of the mining sector in Armenia, which later appeared in Baku.TV's report.

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