Chingiz Mustafayev


Chingiz Mustafayev was an independent Azerbaijani journalist, posthumously bestowed the state order National Hero of Azerbaijan. Mustafayev, with the medical degree and no formal background in journalism save for a year of on the job training, created a video record of the early stages of the Nagorno-Karabakh War, most of the documentary had to be shot from the frontline which ultimately was the cause of his abrupt death due to mortar wounds.

Biography

He was the man behind the video camera, who filmed scenes of atrocity in the Khojaly Massacre of 1992. In order to document the massacre, Mustafayev traveled via an army helicopter which at most time came under heavy enemy fire. He was able to film that which gave evidence to the massacre which showed hundreds of dead bodies strewn across snow-covered fields of Khojaly. The film at times were coupled with commentaries by a sobbing and emotional Mustafayev as he described the carnage he had seen as he filmed.
Azerbaijani's official press tried to cover up the fact that the town had been wiped out by Armenian forces. Human Rights Watch and the Russian Memorial society attributed the carnage to Armenian forces.
According to his brother Vahid Mustafayev, during the span of eight months Mustafayev had shot and is credited for about 18 documentaries about the war in Karabakh, leaving behind substantial historical documentation.

Death

On 15 June 1992, while filming an exchange of fire between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces near the village of Nakhichevanik, Mustafayev was felled by mortar fire. According to his brother Vahid Mustafayev, he was fatally wounded when a shell exploded right beside him and shrapnel from the shell severed one of his major arteries. By the time Mustafayev was airlifted to the hospital, he had died of blood loss. His last moments were captured on his own camera.
ANS CM 102 FM the first Radio Broadcasting Company in the Caucasus whose motto was "We are fated to struggle" has renamed the station in his honor.
A foundation was established in honour of Chingiz Mustafayev by ANS for the purposes of arranging journalism contests in various areas. Azerbaijani radio station ANS CM 102 FM also renamed after him and carries his slogan Döyüş alnımıza yazılıb.

Background

The Mustafayev family is described as the typical Azerbaijani family. His father was in the military and was working on missiles and rockets in the USSR. His mother hailed from the city of Shaki; Married when she was 19, Chingiz was the oldest child, born in 1960 and he had two brothers, Seyfulla Mustafayev, born in 1962, and Vahid Mustafayev, born in 1968.

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