Azerbaijani Media Protest Visit of Armenian Officers
Baku Today, Azerbaijan
Sept 3 2004
Media in Azerbaijan released a statement protesting visit of Armenian
officers to Baku to attend training to be held within NATO
Partnership for Peace Program on September 12, 2004.
The statement considers visit of Armenian officers who occupied
Azerbaijan’s almost 20 per cent of territory as a stab against
independence of Azerbaijan.
“Letting the officers of occupational forces in the training
facilities of Azerbaijan, letting them train together with our
soldiers means disrespect towards the military interests of the host
country and playing with the nerves of the Azerbaijan nation,” reads
the statement.
“We think that admission of the Armenian forces to Baku is insult to
Azerbaijani nation, which lost thousands of its sons, aggravates a
political situation in the country, causes mass protest, and creates
ground for infringement of existing stability and unpredictable
negative consequences.”
“Considering all of the above mentioned, we, undersigned media
representatives of Azerbaijan categorically condemn planned visit of
the Armenian militants to Baku. We declare that as a sign of the
protest and not being beyond our professional activity, on Saturday,
September 4th, as an action of protest electronic media will suspend
its broadcast for three hours and newspapers will publish the first
pages empty.”
The statement further reads: “Depending on development of events we
reserve the right to broaden our protest activities even further and
to suspend our activity for longer term. This statement is available
for other media representatives to join.
ANS Group of Companies, Vahid Mustafayev, President
Ayna-Zerkalo, Elchin Shikhli, Editor-in -Chief
Yeni Musavat, Qabil Abbasoglu, Deputy Editor-in-Chief
Azadliq, Qanimat Zahidov, Editor- in-Chief
Azer.Net Group of Companies, Ramin Iskenderov
Echo, Rauf Talishinski, Editor-In-Chief
Iki Sahil, Vugar Rahimzadeh, Editor-in-Chief
525-ci, Rashaf Majid,Editor-In-Chief
Sharg, Akif Ashirli