Chingiz Mustafayev
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. (January 2008) |
Chingiz Mustafayev (Azerbaijani: Çingiz Mustafayev) (August 29, 1960- June 15, 1992) is a national hero of Azerbaijan, he was one of Azerbaijan's most noted journalists, even though the corpus of his work spans less than a year. With no formal journalistic training, he created a video anthology of the Karabakh war - documenting the brutality of a war that ultimately cost his own life.
He was the man behind the TV camera, who filmed the scene of Khojaly Massacre in 1992. To make the footage Chingiz had to travel on an army helicopter, and despite coming under fire he managed to film the evidence of the Khojaly Massacre showing hundreds of dead bodies strewn across snow-covered fields.[1] The pictures are accompanied by the sound of Chingiz’ – no stranger to the sight of corpses – sobbing uncontrollably as he filmed.
Azerbaijan's official media had covered up the fact that the town had been wiped out and women, children and the elderly had been slaughtered. But his film was the irrefutable evidence that there had had been a full-scale massacre, in perpetration of which Human Rights Watch and Russian Memorial society blamed the Armenian forces.
In the course of eight months, Chingiz shot 18 documentaries about the war in Karabakh, leaving behind a substantial historical archive. Today Chingiz is known for his patriotic work, he is considered to have risked everything to expose the truth.
On 15 June 1992, aged not quite 32, Chingiz himself was hit, while filming an exchange of fire between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces near the village of Nakhichevanik. According to his brother Vahid Mustafayev, he was fatally wounded when a shell exploded right beside him and a splinter from the shell severed one of his major arteries. By the time Chingiz was delivered to the hospital, he died of blood loss. His last moments were captured on his own camera.[2] On the other hand, some sources claim that details of his killing were not available and that before his death he reportedly was gathering data alleging that the Armenian attack against civilians in Khojaly was a provocation by the Azerbaijani National Front to force the resignation of Azerbaijani president Ayaz Mutalibov. [1]
ANS CM 102 FM the first Radio Broadcasting Company in the Caucasus was called in his honor and the slogan of this station is “We are fated to struggle”. Many organizations and foundations were named after him.
A foundation has been established in honour of Chingiz Mustafayev by ANS for the purposes of arranging journalist contests in various nominations, its called; Chingiz Mustafayev Foundation (Çingiz Mustafayev adına Fond in Azerbaijani).
[edit] Background
His family is described as a rather average and ordinary Azerbaijani family. His father was a military man involved with missiles and rockets in the USSR. His mother was from the city of Shaki; they were married when she was 19. Chingiz was the oldest child, born in 1960, in 1962 they had another child Seyfulla Mustafayev. Six years later in 1968 the third child was born, Vahid Mustafayev.
