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Deputy Chairman of Mountain Jews Community in Azerbaijan: â€œThe reports that Jews underwent violence in Sumgayit are falseâ€

11 February 2009 15:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Lachin Sultanova â€“ APA. â€œThe reports that Jews underwent violence in Sumgayit are false,â€ Deputy Chairman of Mountain Jews Community in Azerbaijan Semyon Shaleyev told APA. He said that after the Internet reports they had contacted the Jews living in Sumgaiyt. They were told that no incident occurred there, Shaleyev said there were not many Jews in Sumgayit. There was a small Jewish Community in Sumgayit, all the members of the community know one another and everybody was contacted. Shaleyev said the report caused anxiety in Israel and he had contacted all the synagogues in Baku.
â€œNo unpleasant incident occurred in connection with Jews in Sumgayit, or any other part of Azerbaijan,â€ he said.

Shaleyev said Chairman of Mountain Jews Community Semyon Ikhilov was in Israel. He said Chairman of State Committee on Work with Religious Associations Hidayat Orujov phoned Ikhilov and Ikhilov told the state official that the community had not received information about violence.

Chairman of DEVAMM Haji Ilgar Ibrahimoglu, who is mentioned in the false news of Armenians, also made a statement. The statement says that Armenian media made another provocation against Azerbaijan.
â€œThere is no need to comment on the Armenian provocation. Armeniansâ€™ fancies are unlimited. They act in Goebbelsâ€™ technique: â€œThe bigger the lie, the more it will be believedâ€. Thatâ€™s why we could even not react to their provocations. But as there are attempts to stir up discord between Azerbaijanis and Jews, to show â€œArmenian oppressionâ€ again, and cast shadow on Azerbaijanisâ€™ fair position on the massacre in Gaza, we decided not to keep silence.

As a member of civil and believing society, I deem it duty to remind several simple truths. Azerbaijani People have a culture of tolerance, for many centuries, based on Islamic ideology. The Jewish people, as other peoples living in our country, are esteemed and dear people for us. It was so for many centuries and will be so in future. Regarding the developments in Gaza, it is a crime against humanity and not related to the Jewish people. The Jewsâ€™ protest all over the world against the crimes in Gaza could be an example for it. Today solidarity with the Gaza victims is a work of all honest people in the world and Jewish people are also among themâ€.

Addressing the Azerbaijani media, Ibrahimoglu urged to give news without comments and to demonstrate united position.

Armeniaâ€™s Panarmenian agency spread disinformation, quoting the azertopnews, about the attacks against Jewish families in Sumgayit and then other Armenian sources also spread this â€œinformationâ€ quoting Panarmenian.

Panarmenianâ€™s continuous disinformation against Azerbaijan aims to bring this subject to agenda on the eve of anniversary of the 1988 February events organized by Armenians. Of course, the Armenian special services tried to introduce Azerbaijan as an intolerant country and to show Sumgayit as a source of national-religious extremism. Undoubtedly, the Armenians also aim to damage the high-level relations between Azerbaijan and Israel and normal cooperation between the Azerbaijani and Jewish Diasporas.

The Armeniansâ€™ attempts show that they try to take maximum advantage form the disinformation policy like in 1988.

The site azertopnews created by the Armenian special services is shown as a â€œAzerbaijani news portalâ€. The site showed APA and several others of Azerbaijani media organizations alongside with some separatist Internet portals as its official source. APA officially denies these claims and says that it faces with the plagiarism, which is impossible to be prevented on Internet.