“I am happy that we will receive honest and fair information from our journalists, who will tell us what Azerbaijan is like today,” the head of the International Center for Human Development, Tevan Poghosyan, said at the “Armenia-Artsakh-Azerbaijan: Bad peace, or a good war? Armenian and Azeri journalists’ impressions” panel.
He said that the Azeri journalists visited Dilijan in Armenia, and Shushi and Karvachar in Artsakh. According to Tevan Poghosyan, it’s good that they saw Artsakh for themselves, too. But Tevan Poghosyan does not believe that they will tell their compatriots about what they say. He thinks that there was a prepared text. Tevan Poghosyan believes that the purpose of human diplomacy is that changes will be made in the way people understand things. The positive side of this visit is that it was organized between the three sides- Artsakh, Armenia, and Azerbaijan- with the presidential institution. But the state institutions organized this visit without any third parties. “I think everything will be clearer when the ministers meet in Bratislava. We will understand from statements made after that whether or not they are prepared to continue.”
Co-founder and Chief Editor of the Mediamax news agency Davit Alaverdyan said that he did not experience any hatred, but he did feel that people thought of him as their enemy. “Since this was the first time that many people had seen Armenians, they would say out loud that they haven’t seen a living Armenian… Armenian journalists have not visited Azerbaijan in 18 years. The simple fact that the ice was broken can be seen as a major accomplishment. The other achievement is that journalists from Artsakh were able to visit Baku on behalf of Artsakh and return alive and healthy.”
Davit Alaverdyan believes that Baku is a developing and impressive European city. But he does not believe that the conditions in other cities are as good. When asked if Azerbaijan is prepared to make compromises, Davit Alaverdyan said, “They are prepared for the idea of compromise, but they are not at all prepared, and even feel physical pain when they think about the independence of Artsakh. They say that they will give Artsakh as much freedom as possible- its own security forces, police, investments, schools, and more. And when we would smile, they were surprised. We told them that we are smiling since all of that is already taking place in Artsakh.”
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According to Davit Alaverdyan, hatred toward Armenians is a unifying ideology for Azeris. Regarding the visit of Azeri journalists to Armenia, Davit Alaverdyan said, “I saw their reactions for myself. They understood that the myths they’ve heard about Armenia and Artsakh are false. The most important myth is that they believe the people of Armenia and Artsakh are half-hungry, which makes them prepared to get rid of not only Artsakh, but the rest of Armenia for a piece of bread. They believe that we will appeal to them in a few years for help.”
Tatev Harutyunyan
