On 23 November, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Azerbaijan confirmed the exchange of journalists which took place on 17-21 November.
“Azerbaijani journalists visited Armenia, Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region, including Shusha city. Armenian journalists met with Azerbaijani colleagues, NGO representatives, academic circles, as well as Azerbaijani community of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region. They also visited Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious shrines in Azerbaijan,“ said the Azerbaijani MFA spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva.
From November 17 to 21, exchange of journalists took place: media representatives from Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh visited Azerbaijan, while media representatives from Azerbaijan visited Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The programme was prepared and implemented under the coordination of the Personal Representatives of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and with the involvement of the relevant agencies of Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan,” said the Armenian MFA spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan. She also added that “this initiative should be viewed as a pilot project within the framework of confidence-building measures [to create] favorable conditions for furthering the peace process.”
The Azerbaijani news agency „Turan“ also revealed the names of the journalists who participated at the exchange. Azerbaijan was visited by Shant TV columnist Artem Yerkanyan, editor-in-chief of Mediamax news agency David Alaverdyan and journalist of the Karabakh Public Television Edgar Elbakyan. On the Azerbaijani side, the chief editor of the news agency Trend Elchin Valiev, the correspondent of 1news.az website Elshan Rustamov and the correspondent of "Vestnik Kavkaza in Azerbaijan" Orkhan Yelchuev visited Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
“This project was [being] prepared for six months,” Yerkanyan told Armenian Radio Free Europe. He also described it as “unprecedented” that Baku allowed a Karabakh TV employee into the country and did not prevent the three Azerbaijani journalists from proceeding to Karabakh from Armenia. “What matters is not what we were told there or what questioned we asked there but what kind of comments and reactions there will be after our visit,” he added.
The head of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh Tural Ganjaliyev also embraced the initiative that took place. "We have always supported and encouraged dialogue and peaceful coexistence between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan. We view such visits and meeting from this point of view. The visit of Azerbaijani journalists to Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia and Armenian journalists to Azerbaijan was very important for the negotiation process. Continuing this process can lead to progress. If Azerbaijani and Armenian communities are offered meetings and mutual visits as part of this process, we are ready for this meeting and dialogue and we support this proposal,“ he said.
