Laura Baghdasaryan: Azerbaijani authorities seek to destroy the people"s diplomacy

Yerevan. 22.04.14.Turan-ArmInfo : "Proclaiming me as Mata Hari, the Azerbaijani authorities seek to put an end to people's diplomacy ". This opinion was expressed by the director of the research center "Region" Laura Baghdasaryan , commenting on Azerbaijani Prosecutor charges that it was through her ​​that Azerbaijani journalist Rauf Mirkadyrov collaborated with Armenian intelligence.

"We have worked on a permanent basis in a format of NGO in various projects with the Baku Institute of Peace and Democracy since 2005. I think that all in Armenia and Azerbaijan are well aware of what we have been doing all these years, as all our activity was always in sight. We always try to find common ground among the societies of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. So for me personally it is a complete surprise that my name appears in serious allegations of treason," said the director of Region.

Baghdasaryan stressed that if a "the espionage by Mirkadyrov" was known by MNS in 2008-2009, why this activity in Baku is announced only now in 2014. In her opinion, the answer to this interesting question will reveal everything about motivation of the case fabricated against Mirkadyrov. The social activist emphasized that today in Azerbaijan there are very interesting discussions about the true reasons for the arrest of the journalist. And the chief of the discussed theories is a theory according to which Mirkadyrov just became persecuted by the authorities whom he always criticized.

"Rauf was one of the authors of our project. He participated in online conferences on our website publicdialogues.info. I am very afraid that now our partners in Azerbaijan in the face of the Institute for Peace and Democracy might also suffer. Anyway, now our peacekeeping activities can be given up. Since our partners and newsmakers in Azerbaijan can now be afraid to deal with me - a woman "working for Armenian special services," summed Baghdasaryan .-02D-