INTERVIEW WITH NKR NA PRESS SERVICE HEAD

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
28 June 05

As we have already informed, on the eve of the parliamentary election
the press centre of the NKR Central Election Committee was set up to
provide overall and objective information on the poll. Our interview
with the head of the press service of the NKR National Assembly Michael
Hajian who temporarily assumed the responsibility for organizing the
press centre is on the functions, logistics, role and importance of
the press centre. NVARD OHANJANIAN: “Mr. Hajian, both the Karabakh and
foreign monitoring missions and the mass media stated that the centre
did a considerable work of providing information. Our readers already
have some idea of the work done by the centre. Would you please give
more details about it” MICHAEL HAJIAN: “The press centre was to cover
both the poll and the CEC activities. However, the main focus was on
the coverage of the election mainly. We were to provide objective and
overall information on the poll not only to the journalists but also
the observers. I cannot give an absolute evaluation of how successfully
we did our work. There may have been shortcomings but, on the whole,
the problem seems to have been solved. The work was done on the
spot. In the morning of June 14 the computers were brought. Technical
support was provided by the specialists of Karabakh Telecom, who were
busy at the centre for three days. The NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs
aided considerably with information. It should be noted that the team
of the centre was divided into technical, information and service
departments. Although the group too was set up on the spot but it
was a team, and I am thankful to the young specialists, particularly
the translators, who were not experienced enough in this kind of
work but did their best. I also want to point out the work of the
administration of the government, the foreign ministry and the staff of
the House of Officers.” N.O.: “It is interesting to know the reaction
of the international observers and mass media to the creation of the
centre.” M.H.: “From the very first moment we sought to provide overall
information to foreign and local mass media equally. As we have already
stated there is a prevalent form of providing information – Media Kit –
a selection of various documents, which contains overall information
on the organizations related to the conduct of elections. Besides,
we compiled a lot of information from the Internet on the reaction of
the world to the poll in Nagorno Karabakh. The opinion was sounded by
both the observers and the mass media that the press centre managed
to duly arrange a considerable number of things. Someone said he had
monitored the election in Kazakhstan and had not seen such a level,
or another person said when Tbilisi was receiving Bush, there was not
such a level of provision of information. Imagine that the reporter
of an opposition paper of Armenia said to me, “Mr. Hajian, you put
us out of our business”, that is to say, they cannot find faults
to write about.” N.O.: “What is the response of the world to this
event of utmost legal and political importance for Karabakh?” M.H.:
“It may sound exaggerated but the world seemed to have left aside all
their concerns and focused on Karabakh. Except for the Azerbaijani
newspapers, all the international news agencies commended the event,
and it aroused particular interest among both the observers and
the mass media.” N.O.: “Besides, interviews, press briefings, press
conferences were held at the press centre. How about this?” M.H.:
“The briefings were mainly given by CEC Chairman Sergey Nassibian. At
the press briefings given once every three hours we gave information
to the visitors of the press centre and the international community
on the results of the poll, particularly, the turnout of voters. In
fact, it was the press release of the CEC via the press centre. All
the information was available in three languages, starting from
the documents to the briefings and press conferences. There were, of
course, shortcomings. We lacked quality interpreters. As to the press
conferences, about a dozen were held by the monitoring delegations
of Armenia, Russia, USA, UK, Czech and Croatia.” N.O.: “Mr. Hajian,
never have this many journalists been invited to the elections in
Karabakh…” M.H.: “Yes, more than 70 journalists arrived on the poll,
the majority represented various international mass media. It should
also be emphasized that the Azerbaijanis learned about the important
event in Karabakh through BBC; it was pointed out that the election
corresponded to the standards of democracy. There may have been
shortcomings but the thing that mattered was the level of democracy
that Karabakh displayed to the world.” N.O.: “In your opinion, how
important is the creation of a press centre to our country?” M.H.:
“I think that the CEC which is the final authority in the conduct
of elections should have a press centre but there is no need for
such a volume. There needs to be a nucleus where the work with
information could be done. Generally, I think, Karabakh should have
a centre for information. It could be organized after the centre of
the kind in Yerevan, which, independent from its status, whether it
is governmental or non-governmental, will fulfill the functions of
accumulating, analyzing and spreading information, organizing press
conferences and briefings, conferences, seminars and other events.”

NVARD OHANJANIAN.
28-06-2005