AZERBAIJAN WANTS AL-JAZEERA PROGRAMMES ON KARABAKH OFF THE AIR – OFFICIAL

Ekho, Baku, in Russian
20 Sep 06 pp 1,4

An Azerbaijani official has said that Baku will try to persuade
Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV not to broadcast programmes about separatists
in Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagornyy Karabakh, the daily Ekho
has said.

The head of the press and information policy department of the
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Tahir Tagizada, told Ekho in an
interview published on 20 September: "If Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV
confirms information about its plans to broadcast a reportage about
separatists in Nagornyy Karabakh in the near future, we will bring to
their notice the fact that such a step is unacceptable to our country
and will propose taking the programme off the air."

Tagizada said that the Azerbaijani embassy in the United Arab Emirates
is now dealing with the issue as the country has no embassy in Qatar.

The paper also quoted the chairman of the working group on
Azerbaijani-Qatari interparliamentary ties, MP Fazil Qazanfaroglu, as
saying that the TV channel’s wish to broadcast a series of programmes
about the life of Karabakh separatists was "obviously" based on
commercial interests. "It is not connected with a special negative
attitude on the part of the TV channel towards our country," he said.

Qazanfaroglu added that it was no secret that Armenians spend large
amounts of money on their propaganda campaign in the world.