Baku/25/08/17/Turan: The New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) criticized the detention of Mehman Aliyev, head of the independent news agency Turan, and called on Azerbaijani authorities to immediately release him.
"Azerbaijan must stop this politically motivated persecution of Mehman Aliyev and the Turan news agency," said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova. "Authorities have systematically jailed journalists and squeezed out independent media outlets by abusing the criminal code," she said.
In turn, the Co-chairman of the US Helsinki Commission, Senator Ben Cardin expressed concern over Aliyev"s detention. "I am extremely worried. Azerbaijanis deserve freedom of the press and thought," he wrote in his microblog.
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Dieser, also wrote on his Twitter that he is very concerned about reports of Mehman Aliyev"s detention. --06B--
Politics
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Voting in the early elections to the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan began at 8:00. Voting is taking place at 6,478 polling stations throughout Azerbaijan, including the lands liberated from occupation. 990 candidates are competing for 125 seats in the unicameral parliament.
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Armenia is not against the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group, but does not consider it appropriate to discuss this issue now. "In the context of peace, we consider it possible to make a decision on the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group. When peace is an established fact, the existence of such a format may raise questions," Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference today. "The whole question is about the timing, we need to understand how effectively and correctly to turn such topics into a subject of discussion right now," the Armenian Prime Minister added.
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He expressed his willingness to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the border between the two countries. "A meeting with Ilham Aliyev could take place at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. I am open to such a format," Pashinyan said at a press conference today. According to Pashinyan, Armenia recently presented another proposal for a peace treaty to Azerbaijan.
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On August 31, Azerbaijan observes a "day of silence" before the Sunday’s early parliamentary elections for the unicameral Milli Majlis. All electoral campaigning is prohibited 24 hours before the voting. The early elections were initiated by the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party. This decision was motivated by the overlap of the scheduled elections in November with the global UN forum - the COP20 climate conference taking place in Baku.
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