Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for the 2024 presidential elections in the United States, gave an interview to Tucker Carlson's "Tucker on Twitter" channel, which has a great influence on public opinion. Touching on Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, Vivek Ramaswamy voiced critical opinions about Azerbaijan and called what happened in Karabakh brutal. The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Twitter page published the part of his speech about Azerbaijan.
The highlight of this interview is that while answering Tucker Carlson's questions, the split screen shows Vivek Ramaswamy on one side, and on the other, buildings destroyed after a terrible explosion, city streets being bombed, and people running in panic.
The presidential candidate continues his accusations by saying, “What’s happening is an atrocity, people who are Armenians largely Christians [6-figure numbers 100-120,000] being driven back to their country from a region that has long been a place called home. But you hear endlessly about Russia’s incursion on Ukraine, and having to stand on the right side, that’s a separate point that I reject that Ukraine is inherently good anyway.”
Thus, he revealed what he really thinks.
Faktyoxla Lab. (Factcheking Lab.) has investigated the details of this interview, which was broadcast on Tucker Carlson's "Tucker on Twitter" program.
First, let's clarify the footage presented on the channel of a well-known, influential journalist like Tucker Carlson.
We noted that during the interview, the critical opinions voiced by both the presenter and the interviewer about Azerbaijan created by the footage presented in the background led to negative thoughts in the audience. The point is that the bombardment and destruction shots presented are frames of Armenia hitting two cities of Azerbaijan (Ganja and Barda) with ballistic missiles in 2020 and images of several residential areas that were destroyed after the strikes. Let us bring to the attention of the world-famous journalist that on October 4, 2020, at around 10 o'clock, the city of Ganja was fired with continuous rocket fire by the Armenian armed forces. In violation of the requirements of the Geneva Convention, the second largest city of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the city of Ganja with a population of more than 500,000, which is located outside the front zone, was attacked by rockets, innocent people were killed and dozens of civilians were injured in various degrees. A large amount of damage was done to the city's infrastructure and residential houses.
The footage presented in the interview was recorded on October 17, at approximately 01:00 am local time, after the Armenian Armed Forces shelled the city of Ganja with Scat ballistic missiles. (source: BBC) At that time, foreign journalists sent to the city reported that three loud explosions were heard in the city. According to the correspondent of RIA Novosti agency, the ballistic missiles fell in a densely populated area. At this time, a large number of different residential houses and other buildings were damaged (source: Al-Jazeera). Dojd channel reporter Vasiliy Polonsky said that there were no military facilities, including any important facilities, near the places where the rockets fell. As a result of the attack, 15 people were killed and 55 people were injured. source
Ganja, the second largest city of Azerbaijan, was subjected to rocket and heavy artillery attacks on October 4, 5, 8, 11 and 17, 2020. In total, 26 people were killed, 175 people were injured as a result of these terrible terrors, numerous civil infrastructure objects and vehicles were damaged. source
The former head of the terrorist organization in Karabakh, Arayik Harutunyan, admitted the mentioned war crime in his address to the Armenian people and stated that he wanted to put pressure on the Azerbaijani state by committing this terrorist act.
The other footage shown was taken during the terrorist attack in Barda, another large city of Azerbaijan. We present the video images of that terrorist act broadcast on the CNN Turk channel.
The consequences of the second terrorist attack committed on October 28 were more severe. On the same day, at around 1:00 p.m., the Armenian armed forces fired at the area of the city of Barda, where there is a dense movement of civilians and commercial facilities, with 72 9N235 bombs and a total of 144 bombs. 22 people were killed and more than 80 people, including 8 children and 15 women, were injured as a result of the firing of two cluster rockets. In addition, more than 30 civil infrastructure objects, more than 20 private residential houses belonging to civilians and 22 vehicles were particularly heavily damaged due to the impact of rocket attacks.
The region, including the city of Barda, was subjected to rocket and heavy artillery attacks on October 5, 8, 27, 28 and November 7. In total, 29 people lost their lives and 108 people were injured as a result of terrorism in Barda region. In addition, there was serious damage to the economy and residential buildings of the region. source
Thus, as false accusations against Azerbaijan were voiced in the program authored by the professional presenter and well-known journalist Tucker Carlson, the footage taken during the terrorist attack against two major cities of Azerbaijan was presented as an act committed by Azerbaijanis.
The reason for this biased approach of the author becomes clear after our research about him.
American conservative political commentator Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson was born in 1969 in San Francisco, US. He was the host of the political show "Tonight with Tucker Carlson" on Fox News from 2016 to 2023 and managed to gather a huge audience.
In 1991, he received a bachelor's degree in history, and after a while, he tried his luck by working for the Central Intelligence Agency. But for some reason, Carlson is not hired by the world's most powerful intelligence agency. After this rejection, he decides to try himself in journalism and this choice is successful.
On April 24 of the current year, information about his departure from Fox News, where he worked since 2016 and collected great ratings, is spreading. The reason for Carlson's dismissal is Fox News' payment of more than $767.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems after Carlson's baseless claim during the 2020 presidential election. The fact is that in November 2020, Fox News, which traditionally supports Republicans and then-President Donald Trump, broadcast a series of programs questioning the results of the vote in the weeks after the election. In these programs, continuous accusations were made that the voting machines produced by Dominion Voting Systems were making mistakes while counting the votes. A company specializing in ballot boxes and vote counting technologies complains to the channel based on this defamation and goes to court. In the end, the amount of compensation received by the winning company is considered to be the largest defamation fine in the history of the US. For this reason, it is assumed that the owner of the channel, multi-billionaire Rupert Murdoch himself fired him from the company. source
Until he left the channel, Tucker Carlson was remembered for his many scandalous statements, insulting opinions, and ultra-right-wing thoughts.
“Mr Carlson has constructed what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news – and also, by some measures, the most successful,” the New York Times wrote last year.
“The Fox News audience is primed and ready to believe whatever lies and vitriol the next eight o’clock hour host comes ready to spew.”
"Baltnews" published an article entitled "Sweaty, foggy and rat-like Tucker Carlson" and severely criticized the presenter.
CNN, a competitor to Fox, called Tucker Carlson an ultra-right extremist.
Some quotes from his speeches caused serious scandals. For example, "Why should our children die to ensure the territorial integrity of the Baltic countries, for example, Estonia?"
After the 2020 killing of George Floyd by police officers, he disparaged protesters as a "criminal gang."
Tucker Carlson harshly criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for constantly demanding money from the United States and accused the Ukrainian leader of "begging".
He repeated the statements of the Russian authorities about the presence of American biological laboratories in Ukraine and accused Washington of sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Tucker does not consider Russia to be an enemy of the United States and suggests that it join forces with Russia in the civil war in Syria against a common enemy. Tucker also strongly rejects Russia's interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
Four months after Tucker Carlson's resignation (23.09.2023), head of "Russia Today" company, Margarita Simonyan, an Armenian by nationality, immediately offered the American journalist a job. The Russian state channel "Rossiya 24" broadcasted an advertisement for the show of the American presenter Tucker Carlson, who is known for his extremely conservative views and sharp criticism of the West's support for Ukraine.
Tucker Carlson announced his desire to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin on the broadcast of "Sunday evening with Vladimir Solovyov" on the "Rossiya 1" channel. He asked to convey this information to the president. "It would be great," said Margarita Simonyan.
In June 2023, he opened a live broadcast on Twitter, created a 10-minute video link, and thereby announced that he will broadcast his programs on this platform. In the very first video, he blamed Ukraine for the destruction of the "Kakhovka" hydroelectric power station, insulted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, referred to conspiracy theories about "September 11" and "Jeffrey Epstein" and speculated about the existence of the other world.
And finally, referring to the scandal happening around the "Tucker on Twitter" channel, which he is currently the author of. As soon as this channel aired, his former partner Fox News accused Tucker Carlson on Twitter of violating the contract regarding the launch of the new "Tucker" show, Axios reported. According to the portal, Fox News threatened Carlson with severe consequences for starting his show on the social network. Thus, Tucker has no right to broadcast on any channel until 2024 and will have to face a huge fine if such a step is taken. Thus, Tucker Carlson, together with Vivek Ramaswamy, published baseless accusations against Azerbaijan on an illegal channel.
In June 2023, he opened a live broadcast on Twitter, created a 10-minute video link, and thereby announced that he will broadcast his programs on this platform. In the very first video, he blamed Ukraine for the destruction of the "Kakhovka" hydroelectric power station, insulted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, referred to conspiracy theories about "September 11" and "Jeffrey Epstein" and speculated about the existence of the other world.
And finally, referring to the scandal happening around the "Tucker on Twitter" channel, which he is currently the author of. As soon as this channel aired, his former partner Fox News accused Tucker Carlson on Twitter of violating the contract regarding the launch of the new "Tucker" show, Axios reported. According to the portal, Fox News threatened Carlson with severe consequences for starting his show on the social network. Thus, Tucker has no right to broadcast on any channel until 2024 and will have to face a huge fine if such a step is taken. Thus, Tucker Carlson, together with Vivek Ramaswamy, published baseless accusations against Azerbaijan on an illegal channel.
