Media Review for December 21

The main topics of today's media are the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and the current situation in Karabakh after the end of the war.

The global contribution of Azerbaijan to the fight against coronavirus, the commentary of Russian President Putin on the Sumgayit events, the need for close strategic cooperation with Turkey, doubts about Russian peacekeeping are topics of today's media.

The newspaper Azerbaijan writes about the fight against the pandemic and the global contribution to this fight by Azerbaijan. Since March 11, 2020, since the WHO announced the coronavirus pandemic, over 76 million people have been infected worldwide. More than one and a half million people have died.

The authorities are taking measures to issue benefits to the unemployed in 190 manats, create modular hospitals, increase the number of laboratories, and invite foreign doctors. In addition, Azerbaijan has provided financial and humanitarian assistance to over 30 countries. As already noted, vaccination in the country will be free of charge.

The Azpolitika.info website comments on the playing of the Sumgayit card by Russian President Putin. These events took place on February 27-29, 1988.

Putin calls these events the beginning of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. This is no coincidence, since Russia is trying to present Azerbaijan as guilty in this conflict.

Putin is trying to present the conflict as ethnic, overshadowing the territorial claims of Armenians. Armenians and Azerbaijanis are presented as "eternal enemies" who will not be able to peacefully coexist, which will create conditions for Russia to rule in the South Caucasus.

The website Redaktor.az writes about the need to strengthen the strategic alliance of Azerbaijan with Turkey. The second Karabakh war showed that Turkey provided Azerbaijan with both political and moral support. Maybe this is something that worries someone in the West, but it should not affect the foreign policy of Azerbaijan.

Pakistan has also shown itself to be a true friend of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan was openly supported by other Turkic states, the author notes.

The website Modern.az presents a view of the activities of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh, expressing serious doubts about the peacekeeping mission of the Russian Federation.

 For example, Putin does not speak about the withdrawal of the Armenian Armed Forces from the territory of Azerbaijan and believes that the issue of the status of NK should be left for the future. It also seems rather suspicious that Russia insists on the presence of the Lachin corridor connecting Armenia with NK.

Azerbaijan can expect surprises. The Nagorno-Karabakh issue, with the intervention of Russia, could not find its final solution. The arbitrary actions of the Russian peacekeepers regarding the map of Azerbaijan, rumors about the issuance of Russian passports to the Armenians of NK - all this reinforces the suspicion that Russia's goal in Karabakh is not a peacekeeping mission at all. –0 -----