Turan news agency, Azerbaijan
Feb 26 2009
Popular Azeri website’s owner still unknown
An independent Azerbaijani news agency has said that the new owner of
the popular website Day.az, which resumed operations on 26 February
after an abrupt shutdown on 18 February, is still unknown.
On 26 February Turan news agency quoted an unnamed "well-informed"
source as saying that "[the director of Trend news agency, Ilqar]
Huseynov, is involved in resuming the site’s work as a technical
manager but not as the owner. The owner’s name is still unknown".
The source was quoted as saying that "MP Anar Mammadxanov’s
confirmation about the sale of Day.az to the director of Trend news
agency is wide off the mark. Ilqar Huseynov has not bought and had no
plans to buy Day.az".
Asked for a comment on "such strange behaviour and conflicting
statements by Mammadxanov", the source said that "the MP wants to look
as a successful businessman, who sold his assets profitably, however,
the real situation seems to be completely different".
The source added that Huseynov had enough media resources and that it
was illogical to acquire one more site, which would compete with the
already available project Trend.
Meanwhile, the opposition Yeni Musavat newspaper quoted Mammadxanov as
saying that the talks over the sale of the website had been under way
for two months.
"There is major contradiction between a statement made by Mammadxanov
yesterday [25 February] and his words a week ago," the paper said.
Yeni Musavat added that in an interview with the paper on the day of
the website’s shutdown, Mammadxanov ruled out political motives behind
the incident, saying that it would resume operation on 25 February.
In an interview with Yeni Musavat, the director of Turan news agency,
Mehman Aliyev, said that this plight of the website was not
accidental.
"I have received information and it confirms that the theory we put
forward earlier in connection with the website’s closure is completely
true. Undoubtedly, this was because of [Russian Prime Minister]
Vladimir Putin’s request. As you know, fairly serious reports on
Putin’s [alleged] involvement in arms transfer to Armenia, the lack of
Russia’s interest in the Karabakh problem resolution and Russia’s
[alleged] involvement in [Azerbaijan’s Air Force chief] Rail Rzayev’s
murder, were posted on the website. This caused for such a decision
being adopted," Mehman Aliyev said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress