Azernews.Az

BAKU – A German reporter says he had to leave the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhchivan on Thursday after heading there to make a report, allegedly over being pressured by the local authorities.

Michael Ludwig, Moscow correspondent of the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reportedly claimed that he had to leave the Nakhchivan autonomous republic because he was not allowed by the local authorities to work freely and was being followed.

"I was going to travel to all regions of the autonomous republic, meet the locals and enquire about their living standards and problems, and write an article based on the findings," Ludwig told the Baku-based Institute for Reporter Freedom and Security. "Though I did show the accreditation card provided by the Azerbaijani foreign ministry, deputy head of the Shahbuz region’s Executive Authority told me that I also had to be registered at the Supreme Assembly [of Nakhchivan]."

Ludwig claimed that even after he had been registered by the Supreme Assembly, he was not allowed to do his job. The journalist said that after he had approached the local department of the foreign ministry, they provided him with an attendant, who was regularly informing someone over the phone about his whereabouts and whom he was meeting with.

"People were refusing to talk to me because they were afraid of the attendant. First, they [the local authorities] tried to arrange my meetings with the people who had received prior instructions. In the Sharur region, the attendant pressed the car driver not to speak to me in Russian."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said that when Ludwig was accredited by the ministry, he did not indicate which Azerbaijani regions he would visit.

"According to the rules of accreditation, a foreign journalist must indicate in his application which regions he or she would visit, because Azerbaijan is facing a serious situation, it is in a state of war with neighboring Armenia," Polukhov told Radio Liberty. "This requirement is also meant to provide journalists’ safety."

The enclave of Nakhchivan is separated from the rest of Azerbaijan by arch-foe Armenia. Since a brutal war between the two countries in the early 1990s, Armenian troops have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, defying international law.