(на русском — https://miaban.ru/themes/rus-arm/ntv_25-10-2018/)

Muslim Magomayev (1942 – 2008) was a famous singer in ex-USSR of Chechen origin, was born in Azerbaijan and his first teacher in Baku in music was Armenian Susanna Mikaelyan. Together with the composer Armenian Arno Babajanyan (1921 — 1983) and Russian poet Robert Rozhdestvensky (1932 — 1994) they were a great «triumvirate» in culture and worked together for almost 30 years. There songs people love till nowadays.

Armenians always respect Muslim Magomayev. However in the concerts in Moscow in the memory of Magomayev last years the organizers are ignoring the name of Arno Babajanyan.

Another cynical and poisonous falsification was also in the new film «Muslim Magomayev. Return» made by director Tatyana Mitkova.

The Coordination Council of the Russian-Armenian organizations on October 25, 2018 issued an Appeal to the NTV television channel and film director Tatiana Mitkova in connection with the lies in her film.

Quote from the Appeal, translated from Russian (full 2-page text in Russian — https://miaban.ru/themes/rus-arm/ntv_25-10-2018/).

Muslim Magomayev has performed the concerts for about 30 years, and almost all the years he sang Arno’s songs, but the name of Arno Babajanyan in an almost hour-long film presented to a multi-million TV audience is mentioned only for few seconds (from the 35th minute). And finally with a negative «result».

From 35:43 Tatyana Mitkova says: “So they created a lot of songs, and suddenly the day came when Arno stopped the relationship — once, and that’s all. In the anniversary interview he did not even mention Muslim. What was it? Most likely — the Karabakh echo. Magomayev did not understand this and did not accept. Never.»   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xop9FsLzMCM&t=35m

This connection to Karabakh is an absolute and cynical lie. Muslim always respected Arno, who was older on two decades, and this feeling was mutual. Arno Babajanyan suddenly died in 1983. The so-called “Karabakh events” began in 1988 — after Gorbachev had announced glasnost (publicity) in 1985-1986, after which the people of Artsakh (Karabakh) raised the question of correcting the mistaken and illegal decision of the Communist party in 1921 to transfer the Armenian Karabakh to Azerbaijan and about his self-determination by referendum. It was in 1988, five years after the untimely death of Arno.

…

It is not difficult to guess where the legs of this lie grow from. For three decades, it continues shameless Armenophobia by Baku authorities. Any track of Armenians in culture and memory is destroyed: with claws of lie they are scratching the truth in history, the inscriptions on monuments and the naming of various objects, they exterminate the gravestones and entire cemeteries, thousands of khachkars and other monuments of world significance, lies are being implanted in textbooks, books on history and films, citizens of other countries are arrested only because they are somehow connected with Armenia and Artsakh, killers of Armenians are glorified, hundreds of people from different countries are recorded into the so-called black lists, people are persecuted, and especially journalists who express their own opinions.

The Russian media has been silent about this brown racist phenomenon in Azerbaijan, that is openly elevated to the rank of state policy for 30 years. But it is not allowed to anyone to replicate a lie among the Russian public. The lie in the film by Tatiana Mitkova insults the cultural heritage of Soviet history, the honor and dignity of both prominent names: Arno Babajanyan and Muslim Magomayev, as well as hundreds of thousands of fans of their joint oeuvre.

It was not enough for Mitkova to express her own opinion («Most likely — the Karabakh echo«), she reinforced this slander, brazenly attributing it to the Singer himself («Magomayev did not understand this and did not accept. Never.«)

In this regard, we demand from Ms. T. Mitkova and NTV channel:

• to bring a public apology in connection with the admission of slander in the film, which has repeatedly appeared on TV,
• to remove the words of lie from the film,
• to provide identical airtime for showing a film on Arno Babajanyan and the true history of the creative collaboration of two geniuses of music — this is how one can restore the truth and good name by giving the TV audience the correct information about the facts of history.

Appeal is signed by 25 Armenian organizations in Russia.