Azeri media claim that Matthew Bryza has called Armenian journalists
‘idiots’
ArmInfo
2007-06-11 21:40:00
One more scandal is developing around the US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk
Group Matthew Bryza.
Azeri media say that during a speech on ATB TV channel Bryza refuted a
report by Amenian media and did that in a very tactless and provocative
way. He reportedly said that those who had made that report were
idiots. The sources do not specify what report Bryza meant but one can
guess from their comments what they are hinting at. They say that "last
week Armenian media said on behalf of Bryza that Azerbaijan has
occupied some territories of Nagorno-Karabakh."
During a press-conference in Yerevan last week a journalist asked if
the co-chairs, who kept talking about occupied Azeri territories, knew
that there were also Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian territories
occupied by Azerbaijan. Bryza said that the co-chairs knew that but at
the moment they were discussing principles and he would prefer keeping
details secret as making them public would mean showing
disrespect for the negotiating parties.
This is not the first scandal around Bryza. Earlier, the US Department
of State ignored Bryza’s assurances to AzeriTag that it would make no
more changes to its report and made them.
From time to time Bryza appears with some "details" of the peace talks.
By the way, during the same press-conference in Yerevan Bryza said that
the reports that he makes some details public are
ridiculous. Everybody knows everything, don’t they? he wondered.
It seems that Bryza does not see any difference between statements by
political experts and parties to the negotiating process.
This time Bryza will most probably refute the report again and will say
that the Azeri journalists have misunderstood him. He will also
reiterate that he is optimistic about the prospects of the talks. But
he did make that insulting statement. Of course, his words might have
been distorted but he is a diplomat and must speak in such a way as to
exclude any possibility of anybody presenting his words as insult. But
why is Bryza so often misunderstood by journalists? Perhaps, the
problem is not with journalists?