Artem Yerkanyan in the “Heydar Aliyev” Museum in Baku. Artem Yerkanyan confirmed that they have held a number of meetings in Azerbaijan, the information of which is not a subject to disclosure. According to him, there were meetings with journalists and representatives of non-governmental organizations. Armenian journalists also visited the Armenian church in Baku.
The Armenian political observer, and commentator on the “Shant” TV channel, Artem Yerkanyan, who recently visited Azerbaijan, considers the reciprocal visits of Armenian and Azerbaijani journalists to be unprecedented. Yerkanyan stated this in an interview with the correspondent of the local branch of Sputnik, summarizing the results of his trip to Azerbaijan.
According to Yerkanyan, Armenian journalists repeatedly have had the opportunity to communicate directly with ordinary Azerbaijanis.
"Par example, when the seller at the store found out we were Armenian, it was a shock to him, but there was no negative attitude towards us," Yerkanyan said.
The observer stressed that even when they met with representatives of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh and expected a much firmer stance on some issues, everything turned out to be the opposite – the Azerbaijanis mood was constructive.
Artem Yerkanyan confirmed that they have held a number of meetings in Azerbaijan, the information of which is not a subject to disclosure. According to him, there were meetings with journalists and representatives of non-governmental organizations. Armenian journalists also visited the Armenian church in Baku.
Talking about the ensuring of the security of the Armenian journalists in Azerbaijan, Yerkanyan noted that everything was at a high level in this respect - Armenian journalists had up to 12 - 13 bodyguards.
However, this is not Yerkanyan's first visit to Azerbaijan. He was there in 1995 and 2001 as well. The journalist has told, that his grandmother was born in Baku and her brother was killed in 1990. It is unknown to this day, whether there is a grave of her brother or not.
The brother of Yerkanyan's grandmother was quite famous in Azerbaijan, he was a man of art. When they understood this, the Azerbaijani colleagues of Yerkanyan promised to try to find some information and provide it to him.
“Summarizing my conclusions about the visit, I would like to say that the purpose of the trip was to build bridges of trust. Indeed, for our countries different things are understood under peace,. For us, peace is the absence of war. For them - the withdrawal of the Armenian forces from Karabakh. But if bilateral visits, help less people to die at the border, then this process could start to take a much more permanent character.”, mentioned Yerkanyan.
Източник: https://ru.armeniasputnik.am/politics/20191124/21196923/Kogda-uznali-ch…