Turan news agency, Baku, in Russian
18 Nov 04

Bulgarian embassy denies journalist of Armenian descent barred from
Azerbaijan

Baku, 18 November: The Bulgarian embassy in Azerbaijan has no
information about the incident involving Bulgarian citizen Eduard
Papazyan, a source at the Bulgarian embassy said while commenting on
a report by the Armenian news agency Arminfo about the deportation of
a Bulgarian journalist named Eduard Papazyan from Baku airport last
night.

Armenian sources insist that Papazyan was accredited among Bulgarian
journalists and arrived in Baku from Istanbul to cover a qualifier
[as published, actually a friendly] between Azerbaijan and Bulgaria.

The diplomatic mission is unaware of the incident and does not know
anyone by that name, the embassy source told Turan.

The press service of the Association of Football Federations of
Azerbaijan [AFFA] has also denied the Armenian report. The head of
the press service, Mazahir Suleymanzada, said that a total of eight
Bulgarian journalists were accredited to the match and there was
no-one named Papazyan among them.

According to the Arminfo report, the Bulgarian ambassador to
Azerbaijan, Ivan Palchev, allegedly took measures to ensure
Papazyan’s normal arrival in Baku.