Another proxy battle between Azerbaijanis and Armenians is playing out in the US as the Azerbaijani Diaspora community tries to put the kibosh on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) plans to air an Armenian-made documentary on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
In an October 20 letter to the network's management and ombudsman, two American-Azerbaijani groups charged that the film, "A Story of People in War and Peace" by Armenian journalist Vardan Hovhanisyan, offers a slanted take on the 1988-1994 Azerbaijani-Armenian war over Karabakh.
“[T]his documentary about the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict … would present a rather perverted interpretation of controversial history to the PBS viewer[s],” wrote the Azerbaijani-American Council and Azerbaijan Society of America.
The film tells the post-conflict story of Karabakh via the retrospective of Hovhanisyan’s own experiences as a war reporter and prisoner. The Azerbaijani Diaspora groups claim the film ignores the plight of ethnic Azeri victims of the conflict and is meant to sway public opinion in the US. “As PBS is a publically [sic] funded service based on taxpayer contributions, we appeal for your common sense to cancel the broadcast of this documentary,” the letter reads.
The tussle marks an increase in Azerbaijani attempts to match the political and PR efforts of well-oiled Armenian Diaspora lobbies in the US. In the past, Azerbaijani groups have pressured such US corporate heavyweights as Google and Microsoft on Karabakh-related issues.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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