Azerbaijani news agency stops work after apology to Ilham Aliev

The presidential administration of Azerbaijan has stated that the agency attributed to Ilham Aliev an aggressive phrase directed towards Armenia. Media experts have linked the termination of the work of Internet resources of the APA holding with authorities' fears to disrupt negotiations on the Karabakh conflict.

Access to all the Internet resources of the APA media holding is closed since evening on August 1, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

According to several employees of the agency who preferred to remain anonymous, the work of the websites was suspended after one of the publications on August 1 distorted the meaning of Azerbaijani president's statement on the Karabakh conflict. Several hours later, the editorial board posted a refutation formulated by presidential administration and apologized.

The presidential administration has stated that the APA had distorted the words of Ilham Aliev about the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, said at the ceremony of handing keys to apartments and cars to veterans, families of those killed in the Karabakh conflict and disabled people. The head of the state did not utter the phrase "we'll put Armenia on the knees," says the refutation, published on August 1 at the request of the presidential administration on the website "Haqqin.az".

The decision to close the APA could indeed be connected with the sharp discontent of the country's leadership with the distortion of President Aliev's words, Mekhman Aliev, the director of the "Turan" news agency, believes.

"The distortion of the words of the President of Azerbaijan to the extent that could disrupt the emerging positive prerequisites for a new situation at negotiations could be regarded by the country's leadership as a provocation; and, therefore, it was decided to close this holding," Mekhman Aliev has concluded.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 3, 2018 at 10:07 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.