Several days ago, Alberta Azerbaijani Cultural Society planted a tree in a park of Calgary, Canada, with a plaque at the bottom of it commemorating the victims of so-called “Khojaly Tragedy.” Also, a bench, carrying an identical plaque, was installed in the park.

However, according to Armenian media, the Calgary municipal authorities disallowed the anti-Armenian accusatory inscription from appearing on the plaques, with the latters simply reading “Khojaly Tragedy.”

As might be expected, the move drew fervent response among the country’s media, which hurried to dub it a victory of Azeri diplomacy.

In reality, though, the bench and the tree fall short of signaling the triumph of Azeri diplomacy – it’s much simpler: the items are a part of social program made available for private persons as well as organizations for $3500 and $500-$800 respectively. Thus, “the victory of Azeri democracy” came at a ballpark price of $4000.

Azeri propaganda continues misleading the international community and its own people by falsifying the essence and the history of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict: Baku’s sparing no money in spreading propagandist literature, releasing fake documents and photos to impose its version of the Khojalu events.

It’s public knowledge that Azeri ex-president Ayaz Mutalibov accused his political opponents with murders in Khojalu. In an interview, he stated, “Why would Armenians need to open fire after leaving a humanitarian corridor for people to escape – especially on the territory of Aghdam, where help was easily accessible. As Khojaly survivors assert, the move was orchestrated to prompt my resignation, by forces aiming to discredit the president.”

Much later, Azerbaijani journalist and human rights activist Eynulla Fatullayev said, “several years ago I met some refugees from Khojaly, temporarily settled in Naftalan, who openly confessed to me that, on the eve of the large-scale offensive of the Russian and Armenian troops on Khojaly, the town had been encircled [by those troops]. And even several days prior to the attack, the Armenians had been continuously warning the population about the planned operation through loudspeakers and suggesting that the civilians abandon the town and escape from the encirclement through a humanitarian corridor along the Karkar River. According to the Khojaly refugees’ own words, they had used this corridor and, indeed, the Armenian soldiers positioned behind the corridor had not opened fire on them…

Having crossed the area behind the Karkar River, the row of refugees was separated and, for some reason, a group of [them] headed in the direction of Nakhichevanik. It appears that the National Front Army battalions were striving not for the liberation of the Khojaly civilians but for more bloodshed on their way to overthrow A. Mutalibov [the first President of Azerbaijan] …”

So the bitter truth is: no amount of plaques and benches will make the international community believe in the Azeri-generated “Khojaly genocide” myth, no matter how much Baku is willing to splurge to show itself in a good light.