Madrid, May 9, AZERTAC

The documentary “Objective Baku: How Hitler lost the battle for oil” has been screened in Madrid, Spain.

Organized by Azerbaijan’s embassy, the screening was attended by heads and staff of the diplomatic corps accredited in Spain, state officials, local media representatives, members of the general public and Azerbaijan’s diaspora representatives.

In his opening remarks, Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Spain Anar Maharramov noted that the Second World War years were a serious and terrible period both for Azerbaijan and for the entire humanity.

The ambassador said Azerbaijan still continued to suffer from war as a result of Armenia`s military aggression. “The armed forces of Armenia occupied the ancient Azerbaijani city of Shusha on May 8, 1992. As result of occupation, the city of Shusha and 30 villages of Shusha region were destroyed, 195 innocent civilians were killed, 165 were wounded and 58 persons still remain missing. More than 24,000 inhabitants of Shusha were subjected to ethnic cleansing,” the Ambassador said.

He said Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions of Azerbaijan, conducted ethnic cleansing against more than one million Azerbaijanis and committed serious war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied lands. Ambassador Maharramov quoted President Ilham Aliyev as saying: “The Azerbaijani people and the state of Azerbaijan will never resign themselves to the occupation of their lands and will use all possible means to restore territorial integrity on the basis of the norms and principles of international law.”

Ambassador Anar Maharramov also briefed the audience on the documentary "Objective Baku: How Hitler lost the battle for oil," which was produced by Arzu Aliyeva with important support from the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. He highlighted the history of Azerbaijan's oil industry and noted that oil had always played a very significant role in social, economic and political life of Azerbaijan since the 19th century. He pointed out the enormous sacrifices made by the Azerbaijani people both in the battlefield and home front in the World War II and underlined that out of 700,000 Azerbaijanis conscripted to the front around 400,000, which constituted around 10 per cent of Azerbaijan's total population then, perished fighting against the Nazis.

Then the event featured the screening of the documentary "Objective Baku: How Hitler lost the battle for oil," which was produced by Arzu Aliyeva with an important support from the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and which was aired on National Geographic in several languages in 2015.

Aygun Aliyeva

Special Correspondent