By Azernews

By Vafa Ismayilova

Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmat Hajiyev has strongly condemned attacks and threats by US-based radical Armenian lobby groups against The New York Times.

“We strongly condemn attacks and threats of radical/chauvinistic Armenian lobby groups of US against The New York Times as they did in France against TF1 crew. They attempt to stifle freedom of expression/free media. We may also not agree with some parts of reportage but we respect their work,” Hajiyev wrote on his Twitter account on 1 November.

Foreign mercenaries in Armenian army

In a different post on the same day, Hajiyev said that Reuters confirmed the presence of foreign fighters among Armenian troops.

“Presence of foreign fighters and mercenaries in the ranks of Armenia’s armed forces are reaffirmed in the reportage of Reuters. We have stated on multiple occasions that Armenia involves mercenaries from Lebanon and Syria along with PKK terrorists,” he wrote.

Hajiyev posted under his tweet the relevant Reuters report headlined “Despite Lebanon’s woes, Armenians spring to action for Nagorno-Karabakh”.

Fake profiles

Furhtermore, Hajiyev slammed the creation by Armenians of fake social media profiles on his behalf.

“Armenian propaganda machine creates such fake profiles on my behalf and then writes comments to MFA of Armenia. It is ridiculous,” he tweeted.

Hajiyev shared two pictures on Twitter, one of which turned out to be fake.

“See the difference. Photo 1: Fired by Armenia to Alasgarli village of Tartar region of Azerbaijan. I shared it as a photo of the day. Engine part of Armenian Smerch missile penetrates table and enters ground. Photo 2: Unsuccessful Armenian fake. They even forget to clean the spider net,” he wrote.