Lithuanian military journalist shows Armenia's atrocities

Lithuanian military journalist Ricardas Lapaitis has shown Armenia's atrocities throughout photographs.

His photo exhibition Justice for Khojaly opened its doors in Vilnius with the support of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Lithuania, Azernews reports.

At the opening ceremony, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Lithuania Tamerlan Garayev stressed that Khojaly genocide went down in history as one of the biggest tragedies of the 20th century. The tragedy is the bloodiest page in the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide carried out by the Armenian aggressors against the Azerbaijanis.

"There are tragedies in the history of every country. However, this is an event that the world has kept silent about. We thank the people, including Ricardas Lapaitis, who covered this tragedy. Do you know the number of those killed in Khojaly? I will not say the exact number, since dozens of people are still not found, their fate is unknown," said Garayev.

The ambassador expressed his gratitude to Ricardas Lapaitis for his high civil position and one of the few foreign journalists who in those years reported the truth about the Karabakh war and the Khojaly genocide.

He stressed that the Azerbaijani people liberated their lands after almost 30 years of Armenian occupation.

Ricardas Lapaitis shared his memories of the First Karabakh War, spoke about the consequences of the atrocities in Khojaly, as well as how he had to cover the realities of those events in the context of the anti-Azerbaijani information campaign.

Back in the years of the First Karabakh War, he was preparing objective reports from the front, helping to break through the information blockade of Azerbaijan and to bring the truth about the events to the world community.

The military journalist arrived in Azerbaijan immediately after the Khojaly tragedy, visited many places of hostilities, and he can rightfully be considered a veteran of the Karabakh War.

He was remembered by his comrades and colleagues as a brave warrior and a principled journalist, for whom honor and justice are above everything in the world. Recall that Ricardas Lapaitis was awarded by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev the Dostluq Order and the medal of the Republic of Azerbaijan "For Merit in Diaspora Activities" from the State Committee for Work with Diaspora.

In 2014, a documentary film "The Endless Corridor" was shot based on his memoirs - about a trip to the city of Aghdam in 1992, which tells about the Khojaly genocide. An international group of documentary filmmakers from 14 countries worked on the film for five years. The main director and producer of the film are Mindaugas Urbanavi?ius and Aleksandras Brokas (Lithuania).

The second producer was the winner of the prestigious "Grammy Award" Gerald Rafshun (USA). The film was dubbed in English by the famous British actor, Oscar winner Jeremy Irons.

The film was shown in more than a hundred countries around the world and translated into many foreign languages, and was awarded nominations at prestigious international film festivals.

In the film, Ricardas Lapaitis had the opportunity to talk with the survivors, learn heartbreaking stories about how the elderly, women and children of Khojaly escaped along the endless corridor from the bombing and massacre of Armenian militants, losing their relatives and friends.

The filmmaker also talks to the organizers and perpetrators of the genocide - the Armenian military commanders, who talk about their ruthless attack strategy.

Books, booklets, brochures and materials on the Khojaly genocide prepared by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, as well as CDs from the films "Endless Corridor" were also presented as part of the commemorative event.