Thread to sum up my criticism of the reporting of German media on Azerbaijan's war on Artsakh, which includes portraying war criminals as victims who have to care for their families: https://www.rojavanews.net/item/1136-negligent-research-and-trivialization-of-war-criminals

Most reports trivialize the situation. The @tagesschau wrote on Monday, that the situation could at some point escalate into a war.
However, there is already a lot of footage showing fighting as well as utterly brutal drone- and artillery strikes. This is clearly a war.

(1/12)

Also, @tagesschau outweighs Turkey's involvement by saying Russia supports Armenia.

While technically, there is an alliance in the CSTO, Russia did nothing to support Armenia. Yesterday, Putin even said that there will no Russian involvement in Artsakh.

(2/12)

@derspiegel reports about Erdogan's auxiliaries at the front. However, the fighter it managed to contact is presented as a poor father who has to feed his family in a refugee camp, as fearful due to the war and as a rebel against Assad.

(3/12)

@derspiegel doesn't mention with a single word that these fighters are feared for murders, kidnappings, rape, expropriations, looting and displacement in occupied Efrîn and that the last operation against Assad ended in Turkey arresting the responsible commander.

(4/12)

@zeitonline and @SZ can't even be bothered to do basic research and write that the presence of Erdogan's auxiliaries is only an Armenian allegation.
The latter is so uninterested, that the Armenian capital Yerevan is written Erwin instead.

(5/12)

To @SZ, it's also unclear who started the war, despite previous pro-war demonstrations in Azerbaijan and a prepared offensive including the deployment of auxiliaries from Syria.

(6/12)

None of them mentions, that in case of Azerbaijan capturing Artsakh, the native Armenians would have to expect ethnic cleansing and even progroms.

I continue the article by explaining some background to the conflict and the ethnic history of Artsakh.

(7/12)

This includes "Kurdistana Sor" a region between core-Artsakh (around Stepanakert) and Armenia proper, where Kurds were expelled from along the Azeris of lower Karabakh.
Their return has to be made possible, but not with a war.

(8/12)

There also is the toxic nationalism of Azerbaijan, which led to the expulsion of pretty much all Armenians and is working on the full assimilation of other ethnic minorities like the Talysh, Lezgins and Udi.

(9/12)

For information about the Talysh people, I recommend to follow @_Tolysh and @Tolish_media
On the tragic story of the Udi, I've written a short thread:

(10/12) https://twitter.com/Gargaristan/status/1313869972268093441

I conclude the article by criticizing the pseudo-pacifist indifference of German media and politics regarding the war and the still quite favourable reporting on Erdogan's regional striving for hegemony - something that can be transfered to most of "Western" media.

(11/12)

What especially makes me angry is, that these journlists are getting paid for this absolutely insufficient work, yet it's the very same journalist community that looks down on (unpaid) activists like me, because don't try to act like I'm reporting unbiased.

(12/12)

*What I tried to say there: They have biased reporting, too, but they try to act like they're neutral.

The criticized articles:
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/bergkarabach-kaempfe-113.html

https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/bergkarabach-tuerkische-regierung-schickt-gezielt-syrische-soeldner-a-432ebced-23b0-4fdf-a566-ae830f96905d#

https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2020-10/krieg-kaukasus-aserbaidschan-armenien-bergkarabach-gandscha-beschuss-kaempfe

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/konflikte-russland-besorgt-ueber-hohe-opferzahl-in-berg-karabach-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-201004-99-824696