It is often said that the first casualty of war is the truth. This certainly seems to be the case in the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, known as Artsakh in Armenian, where videos and images being used by the Azerbaijani state as propaganda have been revealed as fakes.
This is hardly surprising as in terms of media freedom Azerbaijan is ranked as the 168th freest out of 180 countries, meaning that press freedom in the country is virtually non-existent. The state has direct control over 90% of the information citizens see and hear.
In one video highlighted by critical viewers, it was noticed that a man acting as if he was a news reporter and hiding from an alleged bombardment was seen in another video playing the part of a soldier. Quite which of the cases is true, if any, and which one is not, is yet to be verified. Clearly, however, there is a fake propaganda dimension to at least one of the videos.
Another example of the alleged fake news put out by Azerbaijan involves an image of an unexploded rocket that appears to have pierced the ground.
The image was made public by Hikmet Hajiyev, an assistant to the Azerbaijani president. In the text accompanying the image, he states:
"Proof of Armenia's deliberate [sic] and targeted attack against critical civilian infrastructure of Azerbaijan. Missile landed in close proximity of energy block in Mingachevir. But did not explode. Peace enforcement must continue to bring Armenia to its senses and responsibility."
Proof of Armenia's delibarate and targeted attack against critical civilian infrastructure of Azerbaijan. #Missile landed in close proximity of energy block in #Mingachevir. But did not explode. Peace enforcement must continue to bring #Armenia to its senses and responsibility. pic.twitter.com/QlyVuLLnXB
— Hikmet Hajiyev (@HikmetHajiyev) October 4, 2020
The validity of the image was seriously undermined though after inspection by Mike Mihajlovic, an engineer, defence technologies specialist, and former United States army officer who examined the images. He stated that they were almost certainly fake on the grounds that the asphalt was drilled, not cracked open as would happen with a high velocity impact, there is no debris surrounding the impact site, the rocket motor had no combustion marks, and the fact there was a piece of wood keeping the rocket in place.
‼️‼️ÖƒÕ¸Õ¿Õ¸Õ·Õ¸ÖƒÕ« Õ¡Õ½Õ¿Õ¾Õ¡Õ®Õ¶Õ¥Ö€Õ¨ https://t.co/BZagCW1Ve3
— Alice Sharafyan (@sharafyan_a) October 4, 2020
He then added that the angle of the impact did not make sense. He explained:
"At a first glance, the 'impact 'angle is [approximately] 55 [degrees]. Unguided rocket flight trajectory is different than for artillery shells because it is propelled flight."
@MihajlovicMike
— Ô´Õ¡Õ¾Õ«Õ© 🇦🇲🇬🇷🇨🇾🇷🇸🇮🇳 (@Davit_arm) October 4, 2020
Can you analyze these images?
Thank you https://t.co/SRp45OAdhh
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region has been ongoing since September the 27th and has already resulted in hundreds of deaths. A short lived ceasefire was broken after just a few hours and it is feared that things could get much worse before they get better.
While no one suggests that only Azerbaijan would involve itself in fake news, this is an inditement of how far they are willing to go to create false propaganda that could enflame an already deeply troubling situation.
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