Prof. Amir Aliyev, Head of the Azerbaijani Public Union “Human Rights Promotion Center,” has sent a letter to The Guardian in response to the international media outlet’s recent coverage of Alexis Pazoumian’s documentary Black Garden.

Aliyev said he considered it important to respond because Azerbaijani experiences should not be excluded from discussions about the history of the conflict, The Caspian Post reports.

He emphasized that the voices of people who were displaced, as well as the victims and survivors of the Khojaly massacre, also deserve to be heard.

He said he asked The Guardian to provide space for these voices and to take into consideration the facts and perspectives that were missing from its coverage.

The letter reads as follows:

"To the Editor,

The Guardian’s coverage of Alexis Pazoumian’s documentary, Black Garden, raises serious concerns. It omits key facts, including Armenia’s occupation of internationally recognized Azerbaijani territories and the displacement of more than one million Azerbaijanis.

Our main concern is that the review, published on The Guardian’s website on August 31, 2026, goes beyond discussing the film and presents The Guardian’s own account of the conflict. Referring to Azerbaijan’s Garabagh region as “Nagorno-Karabakh,” the review describes a “decades-long territorial dispute” in which a “largely Armenian population fought against countless military campaigns from the Azerbaijani army.”

The film presents one perspective. However, when a major international media outlet provides historical context in its own voice, that context must be accurate. Garabagh was and remains internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. In its 2015 judgment in Chiragov and Others v. Armenia, the European Court of Human Rights found that Armenia exercised effective control over the territories concerned in the case.

The four UN Security Council resolutions adopted in 1993 reaffirmed Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and called for the withdrawal of occupying forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

In line with The Guardian’s commitment to fair and accurate reporting, we ask you to publish this letter in your Letters section, giving recognition to Azerbaijanis who experienced displacement and violence, including the victims and survivors of the Khojaly tragedy, whose voices also deserve to be heard.

We also encourage The Guardian to consider fact-based documentaries by Azerbaijani filmmakers to ensure that both perspectives are represented.

We welcome direct contact from the author and are ready to provide documented research and first-hand information. Balanced accounts are particularly important as Azerbaijan and Armenia work toward reconciliation."