The BBC Russian Service is trying to cover the war from both sides. The task, of course, is not an easy one, and it is not surprising that periodically these materials cause protests or bewilderment in one of the belligerent countries. But this is a special case.

On October 22, an article by Marina Kataeva from Stepanakert was published on the service website.

“The BBC Russian Service team returned to the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh to find out how people live in the conditions of the declared ceasefire,” reads the beginning of the article. The journalist writes about the suffering of the Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh in the difficult conditions of the war. Then she describes the work of the local Ombudsman Artak Beglaryan.

The article also tells about Beglaryan's concern for the Azerbaijani prisoners of war:

 “Beglaryan also knows about captured Azeri servicemen and even visited one of them in the hospital. The ombudsman, according to him, also visits the morgue to make sure that the killed Azerbaijani prisoners of war were not subjected to torture before being killed.”

Such an unexpected revelation of the Ombudsman Beglaryan could not go unnoticed. The Telegram channel Девичья башня wonders: what is this, the result of poor knowledge of the language by the authors of the BBC Russian Service or the confession by the Ombudsman that the Armenian side is killing Azerbaijani prisoners of war?

Crimes against prisoners of war are a gross violation of human rights and one of the most important topics of the mass media in the current phase of the war. We believe that the relevant authorities in Azerbaijan should raise the issue of clarifying the situation, at least, with the BBC.

Translator: Gulnara Rahimova

 Press Klub