Azerbaijani media outlets send appeal to Russian Foreign Ministry
By Trend
Azerbaijani media sent an appeal to the Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova, says a message of the Press Council of Azerbaijan, released June 5.
"Dear Maria Vladimirovna!
"As you know, on June 1, at a briefing of the Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Artyom Kozhin, staff reporter of the Trend News Agency Artyom Sokolov asked about the statements of the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan about the 'necessity' of participation of representatives of the separatist regime created in Karabakh in the talks for settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.Answering the question, Kozhin said: 'In general, loud statements that do not fit onto the appropriate rails, in particular laid by the OSCE, are probably not constructive. I would say so.'
"But to our surprise, in the transcript of the briefing published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the answer of Kozhin is presented as follows: 'Your loud statements that do not fit onto the appropriate rails, in particular laid by the OSCE, are probably not constructive. I would say so.' Consequently, the word 'in general' was replaced by 'your', thus, the answer allegedly related to the question of the reporter, and not to the statement of the Prime Minister of Armenia.
"Kozhin's words are the reaction of the Russian Foreign Ministry to the statement of the Prime Minister of Armenia Pashinyan during his visit to occupied Nagorno-Karabakh. The question of the reporter of Trend pursued to find the position of Russia. We reasonably believe that the urgency of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and Russia's sensitive attitude to this issue, as well as the possibility of a diplomatic scandal with Armenia, forced the Russian Foreign Ministry to commit gross falsification. Thus, the Foreign Ministry of Russia not only distorted the response of the Russian diplomat, which corresponds to the true essence of the negotiation process, but also tried to shift all responsibility onto the reporter, who asked quite a correct and relevant question.
"This case is puzzling and is a blatant example of the distortion of the official position of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair country. While the new government of Armenia makes totally unfounded and unconstructive statements, such a distortion can cause disarray and confusion in this issue and aggravate the already extremely difficult situation in the conflict zone.
"The statement of the Armenian side on the participation of the unrecognized separatist regime in the negotiations contradicts the whole 20-year concept of the negotiation process, which was developed within authoritative international organizations, first of all the UN and the OSCE. By the way, at the meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov on May 15 in Paris, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs personally stated the groundlessness of such position of Armenia.
"Azerbaijani journalists highly appreciate the Russia-Azerbaijan friendship and, to the extent of their capabilities, make every effort to preserve and deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries. We believe that the good-neighborly relations between our peoples serve for the prosperity of our region, strengthening security and stability in the South Caucasus. Of course, Russian and Azerbaijani diplomats have a great merit in all these achievements.
"Therefore, we are perplexed how an organization with centuries-old traditions, which has created many positive examples in the history of diplomacy, such a serious and respected state agency as the Russian Foreign Ministry, which should serve as an example to other political organizations, can settle for such a garbling, which opened the way for various insinuations. An attempt to deny the obvious truth, to turn a journalist into an instrument of falsification, to lay the blame on him for everything that is happening, is at least incompetent and undiplomatic. Such a step in diplomatic practice is totally unacceptable.
"We believe that, this case does no credit to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Therefore, the Foreign Ministry of Russia should eliminate falsification and restore the truth. We express our conviction that, the strange form and the substance of the transcript of the briefing should not cause irreparable damage to long-standing friendly and partnership relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, and we hope that in the future such misunderstandings will be excluded from the relations between our countries," the statement says.
1. The Press Council of Azerbaijan A. Amashov
2. State Information Agency AZERTAC A. Aslanov
3. "Azerbaijan" Newspaper B. Sadigov
4. "Khalg gazeti" Newspaper H. Hasanov
5. "Baku worker" Newspaper R. Hajiyev
6. "Yeni Azerbaijan" Newspaper, Kh. Mammadov
7. "Ses" Newspaper B. Guliyev
8. "Iki sahil" Newspaper V. Rahimzadeh
9. "Kaspiy" Newspaper I. Huseynov
10. "Kaspi" Newspaper I. Guliyev
11. "Sherg" Newspaper A. Veliyev
12. "Olaylar" Newspaper Y.Oguz
13. "525-ci gazet" Newspaper R. Majid
14. "Palitra" Newspaper N. Aliyev
15. "Azernews" Newspaper S. Mikailova
16. “Khalg jebhesi” Newspaper E. Mirzabeyli
17. "Adalet" Newspaper A. Abbas
18. "Baki Kheber" Newspaper A. Guliyev
19. "Yeni Musavat" Newspaper R. Abbasov
20. "Bizim Yol" Newspaper B. Gaziyev
21. Trend News Agency I. Huseynov
22. APA News Agency V. Abishov
23. Azadinform Information Agency N. Niftiyev
24. Report News Agency M. Aliyev
25. Haqqin News Portal E. Fatullayev
26. Qafqazinfo News Portal E. Seyfullayev
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