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, daily Baku Today reported. (03 Sep 2004)
“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.
The statement was signed by:
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
