By BBC Monitoring
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's rare interview to a local private TV has been widely discussed in the country.
Many local outlets widely reported on the president's 12 February interview, but it has been largely criticised by independent journalists, foreign-based dissidents and ordinary Azeris, who found fault with both the interviewer and the interviewee.
Aliyev praises achievements
At the very start of the hour-long interview, Aliyev defended his rare contact with local media, saying that he "regularly" reports the work he and his government have achieved in his widely covered cabinet speeches. He added that he keeps up with local media reporting on domestic issues. He also said that he has always been open to and supported the local media.
Aliyev underscored the importance of his interviews with foreign channels, saying that he uses them as a platform to tell the truth about Azerbaijan.
The president praised the country's achievements under his rule. He particularly mentioned the ongoing reforms, the stable economy and military might. He accused the country's short-lived government in 1992-93 for the loss of territories in the Karabakh conflict in the 1990s.
Critical voices
President Aliyev was interviewed by Mirsahin Agayev, a well-known commentator of Real TV, a privately-owned channel with a strong pro-government editorial line.
Many criticised the president for choosing Agayev as an interviewer. Once a well-known commentator on ANS TV, the country's first privately-owned independent channel, Agayev has become an ardent supporter of the president.
ANS TV was taken off the air in July 2016 over its coverage of US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen following the failed coup in Turkey. Following ANS leadership's unsuccessful attempts to restore their broadcasting licence, Agayev came back on the air as the head of a new private broadcaster, Real TV, in 2018. He hosts a weekly programme in which he often attacks government critics, using swear words at times.
US-based Azeri journalist Sevinc Osmanqizi slammed the choice of Mirsahin Agayev as the interviewer. "Among so many journalists in Azerbaijan, is there not an honourable one [to do this interview]?" she said in a YouTube video. She said Agayev did not enjoy a good reputation and that he had used foul language. She also stressed that this was the first interview that Ilham Aliyev had given over the 16 years of his rule as president of Azerbaijan. In the video, Osmanqizi played voice messages she had received from Azeris via WhatsApp. One of the messages described things the president said in the interview as "lies from top to bottom".
Opposition activist Turqut Qambar said in a Facebook posting that Agayev was "a person who has lost his independence". His comment suggested that Mirsahin did not represent the Azerbaijani media. Qambar also said that there was nothing "new or hopeful" in the interview.
Opposition Azadliq daily commented that "Aliyev is not prepared to answer questions about our actual situation, while Mirsahin's right and courage to ask those kinds of questions were taken from him long ago".
The Meydan TV Facebook page published a video that showed Khadija Ismayil, a prominent investigative journalist, saying that she was unable to interview Aliyev despite yearly requests between 2008 and 2012. She said she had also sent Aliyev "specific thematic" questions to which she never received answers. "He does not seem to like my questions," she said.
A Facebook user made a sarcastic comment on a photo that showed Mirsahin interviewing Aliyev: "Which one is the journalist?"
Europe-based blogger Orduxan Teymurxan compared Aliyev to Hans Christian Andersen for "telling tales" in the interview.
"You [Aliyev] told tales under the name of an interview given to the most infamous journalist in the country… You are a taleteller like Andersen," foreign-based blogger Orduxan Teymurxan said on Facebook.
'Event of the day'
Meanwhile, pro-government media personalities praised the president's interview.
Rauf Arifoglu, the editor-in-chief of the privately-owned Yeni Musavat newspaper, said the interview was "a very positive event". He praised Aliyev's "good performance", adding that the president had a rich vocabulary.
Pro-government media expert Azar Hasrat called the interview the "event of the day" to be discussed for days to come.
He praised the interviewer's "professionalism" as a journalist and Aliyev for being "sincere and frank, as ever" and for giving "well-grounded and broad answers". He said it was a "very successful" and "necessary" interview. He dismissed the people who criticised the interview and the Mirsahin.
Satirical journalist Mirza Sakit commented on Hasrat's post, saying that "the day will come" when people would remind Hasrat about this post and the latter would try hard to persuade them that he never wrote it.
One user said that those who found faults with Mirsahin Agayev were jealous of his "successes". "Mirsahin is a personality who has his name engraved in Azerbaijani journalism with golden letters," the comment said.
In an editorial on pro-government news website Haqqin.az, Eynulla Fatullayev backed the president's opinion that he communicates with the media and the public via his speeches, in which he touches upon major issues of public concern. "What else can Azerbaijani journalists ask from the president?" Fatullayev said.
Fatullayev also praised the president for starting reforms and fighting corruption through the one-stop public service office, called ASAN Xidmat.
"For Azerbaijani society… the embodiment of the dream of a fair state is truly a top-down revolution. And the originator of this revolution is the president himself – the founder of the new e-management system," Fatullayev said.