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Lithuanian journalist: â€œMilitary criminals must be punishedâ€

25 February 2010 12:48 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Viktoriya Dementyeva-APA. A roundtable on â€œKhojaly Genocide - political, legal and psychological aspectsâ€ was held at the Strategic Research Center under the President of Azerbaijan. Adviser to the Chairman of Economic Committee of the Lithuanian Parliament, historian - ethnographer Imantas Melyantas and editor of â€œLazdiyay starâ€ newspaper Richaydas Lapaytis delivered lectures at the event.
Lapaytis said that his visit to Azerbaijan coincided with the anniversary of Khojaly tragedy. He noted that he was in Nagorno Karabakh 6 times and met with desert commanders, soldiers: â€œPeople waited for help, but Europe has paid no attention to it. The duty of journalist is to note crimes against humanity. That time Armenian Diaspora worked well and everybody spoke about Armeniansâ€™ tortures. But we, journalists did our best to gather facts, because facts do not disappear. Military criminals must be punishedâ€.

Melyantes noted that Lithuanian community had been under Armenian propaganda for a long time and it is possible to change these ideas gradually: â€œI was also under Armenian propaganda in 1989. That propaganda was so powerful that we didnâ€™t think about whether this information true, or false. But after sometime we understood that we were mistaken. I learnt the issue and there appeared a contradicting view in Lithuaniaâ€. Melyantes noted that views on this issue have been changed after receiving factorial materials to public within last 2 years.