ARMENIAN TURCOLOGIST: ARMENIAN AND TURKISH JOURNALISTS GAIN INFORMATION ABOUT EACH OTHER FROM RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE AND AZERBAIJANI
mass media

ArmInfo
2009-12-21 17:32:00

ArmInfo. Armenia and Turkey have shortage of information about each
other. The surveys held in 2009 demonstrated that both Armenian and
Turkish journalists gain information about each other mainly from
Russian-language and Azerbaijani mass media, Armenian turcologist
Artak Shakaryan said at today’s press-conference.

Touching on the visit of Turkish journalists to Armenia, Shakaryan
pointed out that this visit provided them no opportunity to express
their viewpoint on the bilateral Protocols. According to him, the
Turkish journalists intended to tell Armenians that to open the border
with Armenia, Turkey needs at least a symbolic gesture by Yerevan in
the Karabakh peace process, like the Moscow Declaration 2008.

"Armenian-Turkish process and Karabakh peace process are going on in
parallel, but the first one is moving faster than the second one,
and probably Ankaka wants to send out a signal that it wants the
Karabakh peace process to be accelerated",- said Shakaryan.

He called that this was the second meeting of Armenian and Turkish
journalists after the meeting in Bursa, Turkey, on October 13-14. He
added that such events will also be held in 2010. Shakaryan expressed
hope that in 2010 a joint information center will be set up for
Armenian and Turkish journalists, and pointed out that the main
obstacle in this project is the lack of sponsors. He added that the
Turkish journalists, that visited Armenia, have already published
around 30 articles on this topic, and he thinks that they have
really managed to plausibly present the opinion of the Armenian
public about the current processes without distorting the words of
Armenian officials.

To recall, the delegation of Turkish journalists representing such
leading mass media of their country as CNN Turk, Milliyet, Sabah,
Hurriyet, NTV, Cumhuriyet, Aksam paid a visit to Armenia on 17-20
December. The event was part of the Eurasia Foundation’s project aimed
at development of impartiality of the two countries’ mass media. Under
the project, the Armenian and Turkish journalists held the first
meetings in Bursa on October 13-14. They analyzed the Armenian-Turkish
relations and the ways of their normalization. To note, the meetings of
both countries’ journalists were organized by the Eurasia Partnership
Foundation and Turkish center GPOT with the financial support of the
Norwegian Government and USAID. In course of the visit to Armenia,
the Turkish journalists also visited Tsitsernakaberd Memorial dedicated
to the Armenian Genocide victims and laid flowers at the eternal flame.