Friday, March 13, 2015

Nicholas Lazaredes — Ukraine crisis: Inside the Mariupol base of the controversial Azov battalion


Another Western article reports on the swastikas and Waffen SS symbols in the Azov Battalion — and then minimizes it, finally glorifying the heroic fighters for the Motherland.
The first thing you notice as you walk through the corridors of the Azov battalion's base in Mariupol are the swastikas. 
There are many — painted on doors, adorning the walls and chalked onto the blackboards of this former school, now temporary headquarters for the Azov troops.
It is a confronting sight and when I query the young soldier assigned to show me around he is quick to correct me, pointing out that the symbol is in fact a "modified swastika" — more like the letter N crossed with a straight line.
 
When I point to another symbol of the Third Reich etched on the wall, that of Hitler's "SS", he simply shrugs and says: "We are nationalists, but we are not Nazis."
The Azov battalion is a highly controversial Ukrainian paramilitary group that has drawn much criticism for its links to the far right.
 
The imagery it has chosen to adopt hardly helps to allay concerns, but for my young guide it is a non-issue. 
"Some journalists prefer to present us as Nazis. They look for any chance to discredit our regiment," he said.

What this means is that the neo-Nazi penetration is no longer possible to conceal, so it has be to be admitted and then explained away.
That the extent of it. The rest of the article is about the patriotic defenders of Ukraine against alleged Russian aggression.
Dancer had his last "brush with the enemy" less than a month ago on the eastern outskirts of Mariupol, near the village of Shyrokine, when his unit came under attack by rebel forces who he claims were mostly Russian. 
"I was deployed as a spotter and I saw Russian military equipment with Russian flags and Russian car tags through my binoculars," he said. 
"There were T-72 tanks, Russian armoured vehicles and Russian troops.
"They were real professionals, not volunteers. Regular volunteers can't fight like that."
For all the supposed Russian soldiers and equipment, still no pictures.

Australian Broadcasting Company
Ukraine crisis: Inside the Mariupol base of the controversial Azov battalion
Nicholas Lazaredes in Ukraine

4 comments:

Magpie said...

I once read that in the Bad Godesberg SS officer academy, lockers would not lock: they lacked keys. The idea, supposedly, was that fellow officer trainees had to trust each others' honesty and decency, as honesty and decency were supposed to be hallmarks of SS officers.

I've also read that Reinhardt Heydrich, the second man in the SS, was a very brave and patriotic young man, who volunteered to pilot fighter planes, although that wasn't his duty and it was an extremely dangerous job.

Honestly, although propaganda can turn a monster into a hero, I could still believe all that: By most accounts, serial killers, too, are very nice, otherwise unremarkable people. A few of them may even be very good-looking young women, who like playing with dogs.

After all, wasn't Hitler known for feeding rats from his own meager meals?

Tom Hickey said...

After all, wasn't Hitler known for feeding rats from his own meager meals?

Accounts of people close to Hitler report that he was kind and personable. He was also a strict vegetarian.

There is a problem with demonizing the opposition. It goes too far and becomes caricature. Then it becomes possible to mount a defense by showing contradictory evidence.

Instead, it should be recognized that history is complicated, and it is more than the theory of great men would suggest. In addition, great men (and they were mostly male) are also complicated, often paradoxically so.

I think we have to recognize that now Nazism and Fascism are something quite different from what it was in the context of the interim years between world wars and WWII. Then there was a range of aspects, some that most would regard and positive and some that many would regard as negative.

The problem is there are many now throughout the world who regard the latter as positive rather than negative. for them, the use of symbolism is positive, whereas it evokes horror in those who view it as negative.

This is what we are confronting now in rightist extremism in many countries, which attaches itself to rightist politics that are not necessarily extreme but rather anti-illiberal and authoritarian, manifesting as nationalism, patriotism, exceptionality, and xenophobia.

If some people were just displaying Nazi insignia for some effect without the dark implications being intended, I would label it only bad taste. But when the dark intentions are implicit or expressed, as they often are as revealed by context, then there's a problem for both the specific targets and also liberals in general, since it is a challenge to the foundations of liberalism.

Magpie said...

Lazaredes and the ABC should be ashamed of producing that piece of crap, particularly being a staff in a publicly-owned medium.

Note this: Lazaredes remarks on the Nazi symbols at the start; where are the photos? No photos.

Okay, maybe he is the only reporter who doesn't believe photos and images are important. Maybe his camera's battery was flat.

Then, he adds brief profiles of the Azov people. Fair enough: the public needs to see them as human beings, which is what they are. Here, however, photos become all important, how come?

Finally, the coup de grace: where are the profiles of the Russian separatist rebels? Where are their photos? Aren't they human beings, too? Isn't this something readers should know?

Do you see the asymmetry in the treatment of the subject? Does he provide any evidence he considered the other side of the news?

How can one explain that?

One possibility is that Lazaredes is not a very good journalist and the ABC has no competent editors.

Personally, I doubt that's the case.

So, what on earth explains this asymmetry?

Tom Hickey said...

Not so subtle propaganda to dull the sharp edge this is taking as the public becomes more aware through the Internet.