Media

Home page

Media

Azerbaijan State News Agency marks 96th anniversary

01 March 2016 10:03 (UTC +04:00)

AZERTAC, founded by the Government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic on March 1, 1920, functioned under various names during the Soviet period.

The Agency restored its historical name after Azerbaijan regained state independence. From March 3, 1995 to January 17, 2000, the agency bore the name “State Telegraph Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers”, and then was renamed “Azerbaijan State Telegraph Agency”. On 26 February 2015, Azerbaijan State Telegraph Agency (AZERTAC) was renamed Azerbaijan State News Agency (AZERTAC) following Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s order.

Along with the official government information, AZERTAC wires in Azerbaijani, English, Russian, French, German, Arabic and Chinese languages the round-the-clock news covering all spheres of life in Azerbaijan including politics, economy, culture, sports, health, environment and others.

AZERTAC has international cooperation agreements with TASS (Russia), Anatolian News Agency (Turkey), Xinhua (China), AGERPRESS (Romania), Ukrinform (Ukraine), BELTA (Belarus), Tanjug (Serbia), BTA (Bulgaria) and ANSA (Italy), IRNA (Iran), and other information agencies.

AZERTAC is one of the founders of the Association of the National News Agencies of the Commonwealth of Independent States (ANIA), the Union of the Turkish Speaking News Agencies (TKA) and the Black Sea Association of National News Agencies (BSANNA).

In 2008, AZERTAC became a member of PulseAsia

AZERTAC has bureaus in the US, UK, France, Germany, Austria, Baltic states, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, Turkey, Georgia, Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, China, Japan, Spain, Romania, Italy, Sweden as well as provinces of Azerbaijan.

Gubad Gasimov (14.07.1921-1928), Mikhail Sinitsin (1928-1930), Vasily Khaldeyev (1937-1938), Yefim Gurvich (23.05.1942-1958, 1962-26.12.1986) , Khasay Vazirov (07.1958-09.1962), Rafiq Zeynalov (26.12.1986-06.26.1988), Azad Sharifov (10.10.1988-03.04.1992), Fikrat Sadigov (03.04.1992-06.08.1992), Vagif Rustamov (06.08. 1992-26.08.1994) and Shamil Shahmammadov (22.01.2000-30.10.2002) have been previous director generals of AZERTAC.

Aslanov Aslanov is the current director general of AZERTAC.