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Scandal between Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations in international exhibition in Tehran

25 October 2010 23:25 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran. Suleiman Farzaliyev â€“ APA. The 17th International Festival and Exhibition of Press and News Agencies started today in Tehran, APA reports.

The event, hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Irshad of the Islamic Republic of Iran, will last a week. â€œHÉ™ftÉ™iÃ§iâ€ (Within a week) newspaper of Baku State University, APA, and "Trend" information agencies represent Azerbaijan in the event.

Chief of the Islamic Irshad and the Press Council of the Ministry of Culture, Deputy Minister Mohammad-Ali Ramin, who declared the exhibition opened, said that this event is hosted 17th time and cause for extension the integration amongst media representatives of the different countries. According to him, 700 booths and 2400 journalists represent Iran in this yearâ€™s exhibition: "If last year 44 people from 28 foreign countries were represented, this year 175 media representatives and 250 guests from 55 countries attend the exhibition."

Chief of the Islamic Irshad of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Minister of Culture Mohammad Husseini said that they intend to multiply a number of countries participating in the exhibition.

Shortly after the opening ceremony a scandal between the delegations of Azerbaijan and Armenia, which participate in the exhibition, took place. Causal scandal was as a thematic mark "Artsakh" as a symbol of the history of Nagorno-Karabakhâ€™s monuments as well as pictures, map, and national flag of â€œNagorno Karabakh Republicâ€ in the booth of Armenia.

Firstly the delegation of Azerbaijan demanded from Armenian journalists to stop the self-will. As the opposite side turned down to do it the exhibition organizers were informed about it. In this case, the Armenian journalists said that the picture of the history of Nagorno-Karabakhâ€™s monument, represented as a symbol of "Artsakh", had been hung up by event organizers themselves: "Therefore, we thought that we can display the national flag and a picture of the map of Nagorno-Karabakh." In response to it, the event organizers stated that within the preparatory process the above-mentioned picture had been submitted to them by Armenians and immediately demanded from Armenians to remove the infamous picture.

Of note, during the controversy one of Azerbaijani journalists discarded the â€œMap of Nagorno-Karabakh" from Armenian booth.

The Turkish journalists demonstrated the solidarity with their Azerbaijani counterparts and stipulated to abandon the exhibition together with Azerbaijani colleagues if the organizers donâ€™t stop Armeniansâ€™ self-will.