ARTE is Franco-German channel, and Turkish lobby in Germany works very effectively – Simon Karapetyan

On March 24, 2025, the program “28 Minutes” of the French TV channel ARTE showed a map of Turkey and the countries adjacent to it. Armenia was not on this map, instead “Azerbaijan” was written on the territory of Armenia. Following this scandal, the French TV channel apologized for showing the wrong map. Alpha News discussed this issue with Simon Karapetyan, vice-president of the Treasures of Armenia Association, who was among the first to notice the big mistake of the French TV channel and promptly contacted the editorial office for clarification.

“We know that the Turkish lobby in Germany works very quickly and effectively. There is a large diaspora of both Turks and Azerbaijanis in Germany, which cannot but have an impact. Especially since we hear Aliyev’s threats from Azerbaijan every day, attempts to intimidate us and impose something,” he noted.

According to him, Azerbaijanis, as a nation, lack a sense of self-esteem; their main value is money.

“Azerbaijanis do not hesitate to spread lies. They do this because they have no self-respect or dignity. The only thing they can lose is money. They have no respect or self-esteem to lose,” Karapetyan said.

The deputy editor of Le Figaro magazine, Jean-Christophe Buisson, and the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations in France also addressed this scandal, condemning it as unacceptable and describing it as “the embodiment of the pan-Turkic dream.”