Euronews: We are very interested to do story in Azerbaijan

Euronews made a documentary about the self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh Republic. How did this idea, about making such a documentary came up to you? Was this a Euronews initiative?

Euronews always seeks to cover the major stories of our times on location. We always strive to get access into the most difficult locations. The frozen conflict of Nagorno Karabakh and especially the lives of the people there is such a story. We also covered the recent football match between Armenia and Turkey. We also wanted to go into Nagorno Karabakh to do a report on how the people there live and what their hopes are for a peaceful  settlement. Our condition was that we do this story solely on the basis of our editorial guidelines and journalistic values. One of our crews managed to get to the frontline.

The material is dedicated to Nagorno-Karabakh. Mostly, the video features the Armenian side of the story, the Armenian president's interview, and also a few words from the people who currently live in Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia are the two sides of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. But in your material there are no Azeris, and no Azerbaijani part of the story is presented. What is the reason? Don’t you think that in order for material to be "fully covered", and balanced,  there must be both sides of the story presented?

The purpose of our story was to have a report from the frontline, focusing on the people whose lives have been held up by the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and this is what the report is about. We did not get into the political or historical aspects of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict because we know how sensitive this matter is. Had we chosen to do so, we would have obviously included Azerbaijan’s view on the matter.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has sent a letter of protest against your documentary to the Euronews office. Is Euronews going to answer the letter? If so, then when? The request was actually about removing the video from your Euronews website. How will the channel react?

We have read that Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry have sent us a letter, but we have not received it so far. When we receive it, we will review it and answer it promptly.

Now, since Azerbaijan is one side of the conflict, does the Euronews plan to listen to the other position on this issue? Do you plan to talk to the Karabakh Azerbaijanis who have become IDPs due to ethnic cleaning?

We are very interested to do the same story from Azerbaijan, with the people who live next to the frontline and whose lives were uprooted by this conflict. We are ready to go as soon as the government grants us this access, but with the same condition we posed to the Armenian government :that the editorial angle and content of the report will be solely based on our editorial values and guidelines. We very much hope to be able to do this report as soon as possible.


T. Teymur
/Today.Az/