Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2
Trend:
As Azerbaijan respects foreign media's professional interest in visiting to the occupied territories, foreign media must also respect the laws and rules in Azerbaijan, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, told Trend June 2.
He made the remarks in connection with the visit of representatives of the foreign media to Azerbaijan's occupied territories.
"Armenian lobby organizations, located in Armenia and Europe, by paying all the expenses, organized the illegal visit of the representatives of some international media to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan," said Hajiyev. "Thus the Armenian side wants to deceive the international community about the true causes of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, in particular, trying to hide its responsibility for the tensions on the contact line since April 2."
Despite the illegal visits of some media representatives to the occupied Azerbaijani territories, a positive dynamics is observed in this issue, noted Hajiyev.
He said that recently, Ukraine's national TV channel ICTV and the Polish Public television have officially appealed to Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry with a request for obtaining permission and appropriate accreditation to visit the occupied territories for realization of professional journalism activities.
"Expressing respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and laws of Azerbaijan, the Public Television of Poland and Ukraine's national TV channel ICTV said the visit will not serve for promotion of the illegal regime established in Azerbaijan's occupied territories by Armenia," explained Hajiyev.
"Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry considered the appeals of both TV channels in accordance with the existing rules and issued them the corresponding accreditation that permits the foreign media representatives to be engaged in journalism activities in the entire territory of Azerbaijan," added the spokesman.
Hajiyev also noted that previously, the media agencies, which are being guided in their activities by the principle of respect for domestic laws and international law, visited Azerbaijan's occupied territories as well on the basis of accreditation issued by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.