By Anna Karapetyan, Prague
Recently the Jerusalem Post published a feature story obviously paid-for and shameful for Jew-author and newspaper about alleged Armenian anti-Semitism in its OPINION column. It is also obvious that this was NOT for ‘domestic use’, this was directed at international community with the aim of shaping and propagating an anti-Armenian agenda.
The Azeris tried hard to do the same in Russia with the same examples, but failed. Now they continue their inflammatory efforts, so this feature story in the OPINION column sadly has not been the first and will not be the last episode of well-known Azerbaijani “caviar diplomacy”.
However, we were bitterly surprised that such a reputable media outlet as is the Czech Český Rozhlas Plus translated the piece into Czech and introduced it as an ARTICLE, giving to the counterfactual, fabricated nonsense strong value.
We wrote a thoroughly substantiated letter to the editor-in-chief of the Český Rozhlas Plus Šabata, the program director Patricie Polanská, the Ombudsman, but received no answer. Today we drew the attention of the CEO of Český Rozhlas Mgr. René Zavoral and demanded the REMOVE of Hate Speech and Defamation from Český Rozhlas website as Český rozhlas should NOT allow itself to become a cheap tool in Azeri propaganda machine against Armenia.
Below we publish the letter from 30.01.2020. addressed to Petr Šabata.
---
Dear Mr. Šabata,
It is with great anger and utmost frustration that I have read an article you published on your website – written by author-translator and reporter Jakub Rerich – which was translated from an OPINION piece in the Jerusalem Post (JP), alleging Armenian ‘anti-Semitism’ and a so-called role of Armenians in the Holocaust.
The author of the JP opinion piece, whose unsubstantiated claims you have thus given further press coverage, is very well-known for lucratively being paid by the Azerbaijani authoritarian regime. The aim is clear: to deliberately sow distrust and animosity between Armenians and Jews, the latter of whom by the way, have seldom paid attention to the author’s ‘opinions’ for a very long time now. Varžapetyan-Feller, the head of the Jewish community of Armenia, is already fed up at the number of times she has had to publicly announce that there never was and never can be anti-Semitism in Armenia.
It has unfortunately become normalised to read different kinds of blatant distortion of history and nuanced hate speech in the Azeri and Turkish press, or in Opinion Columns commissioned and paid for by them. However, it is utterly unacceptable and condemnable that these groundless and dangerously ill-founded stories find themselves in reputable and influential democratic mass media outlets.
How is it that Český rozhlas have begun to behave in complete contradiction to the elementary rules and fact-checking demands of true and balanced journalism, and have decided to disseminate this hate speech? As your colleague – who for long years worked alongside you as a broadcaster with Radio Free Europe – I wonder how you could allow yourselves to publish a translated, completely fabricated, one-person opinion piece backed by dirty money as an article on behalf of Český rozhlas-Plus? And not just that, but to publish an article from Česky Rozhlas-Plus under a title that even the author of the disgusting opinion piece did not dare to do?
How could you possibly blame Armenians for a role in the Holocaust?
Armenians, despite being such a small nation, sent almost 600,000 fighters into the battlefield against fascism – and every second one of them gave up their life for that cause. Not to mention the fact, that this Armenian commitment included active combat against the Nazis on the territory of the Czech Republic. Look up who the ‘Eagle of Moravia’ was during WWII in the Jan Kozina operation.
Unfortunately, the Armenians know full well what it means to be killed for their ethnicity and nationality, and many, facing imminent threat of death saved thousands of Jews across the whole of Europe. Charles Aznavour’s family was just one of the many examples, amongst others. Ara Yerecyan, an Armenian doctor in Hungary saved 400 Jews alone by employing them at his hospital. The Armenians overcame their own Armenian Shoa-Holocaust – the Armenian Genocide – from 1915 to 1923 at the hands of the Ottoman Empire just a couple of decades before the Jews did. The crucial difference is that the Germans have recognised and accepted their sin, whereas Turks continue to deny the Genocide. The Azeris have accompanied them as perpetrators of Armenian massacres in the Caucasus and continue to attack Armenians until this day, using corrupt people to mask their crimes. I do not think that Český rozhlas would like to add itself to that disgraceful list.
The Jerusalem Post has already printed a response: “The Armenian Anti-Semitism? The truth is different” by Prof. Yoav Loeff, PhD. You can find the article at the following link. https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Armenias-antisemitism-The-truth-is-different-615588?fbclid=IwAR160ZA-XXxGAkXI_qxHA4IJO4l8QYhB0k-2XHW37Crdd9PgIk50zaeD7Lc
However, your readers of course will not see it as your reporter will ignore it. He has done his job. I am far from blaming him for being paid as well, I guess (I hope) that this is just lack of professionalism. What I ask you for now is, as a minimum, to remove this shameful piece from your website as soon as possible.
Sincerely yours,
Anna Karapetyan, PhD fellow, Charles University
Web-editor-in-chief
Co-founder of “Caucasus-Eastern Europe International Information Center”,
Co-founder of “Orer” European Armenian Magazine based in Prague