AZERBAIJANI LOBBY IS MORE ACTIVE IN GERMANY - SAYS GERMAN JOURNALIST
12:37 | December 24,2014 | Politics
Barbara Oertel, Foreign Policy Editor at Tageszeitung Daily, visited
Armenian for the fourth time this year.
She has managed to get acquainted with the country's sights and
study Armenians.
"Armenia has great potential for development but several factors
hinder that development. Those include the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
Armenian historical monuments left in Turkey and the Eurasian Economic
Union, which I doubt that will give anything good to Armenia," says
Barbara Oertel.
The German journalist wants to learn Armenian. She already knows
Russia and often reads Russian newspapers and follows the work of
Russian TV companies.
In reply to the question whether freedom of speech and expression is
protected in Germany, the journalist said, "According to the index
of freedom of expression, Germany always takes middle positions
in the rankings of a leading company. By and large, I can say that
freedom of expression is honoured in Germany but we fight for its
protection every day. Attempts are made to undermine the right to
freedom of expression for some economic reasons. Some companies and
politicians try to pressurize journalists and newspapers if they do
not like the article written by them. No matter who is in power, our
aim is to regulate the power and become counterbalance to it. We want
to identify and show the problems in order to change something. If
there is on open wound, we point at it," said Barbara Oertel.
She perfectly understands the political aspects of the post-Soviet
countries and says they frequently speak about the Armenian Genocide.
The German journalist stresses that some counties adopt draft
resolutions to recognize the 1915 Genocide in order to receive the
votes of Armenians living in their country. At the same time, she
notes that Azerbaijani lobby is very active in Germany and spends
large amounts of money which cannot be said about the Armenian lobby.
Barbara Oertel has never been to Azerbaijan.
http://en.a1plus.am/1203133.html
From: A. Papazian
12:37 | December 24,2014 | Politics
Barbara Oertel, Foreign Policy Editor at Tageszeitung Daily, visited
Armenian for the fourth time this year.
She has managed to get acquainted with the country's sights and
study Armenians.
"Armenia has great potential for development but several factors
hinder that development. Those include the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
Armenian historical monuments left in Turkey and the Eurasian Economic
Union, which I doubt that will give anything good to Armenia," says
Barbara Oertel.
The German journalist wants to learn Armenian. She already knows
Russia and often reads Russian newspapers and follows the work of
Russian TV companies.
In reply to the question whether freedom of speech and expression is
protected in Germany, the journalist said, "According to the index
of freedom of expression, Germany always takes middle positions
in the rankings of a leading company. By and large, I can say that
freedom of expression is honoured in Germany but we fight for its
protection every day. Attempts are made to undermine the right to
freedom of expression for some economic reasons. Some companies and
politicians try to pressurize journalists and newspapers if they do
not like the article written by them. No matter who is in power, our
aim is to regulate the power and become counterbalance to it. We want
to identify and show the problems in order to change something. If
there is on open wound, we point at it," said Barbara Oertel.
She perfectly understands the political aspects of the post-Soviet
countries and says they frequently speak about the Armenian Genocide.
The German journalist stresses that some counties adopt draft
resolutions to recognize the 1915 Genocide in order to receive the
votes of Armenians living in their country. At the same time, she
notes that Azerbaijani lobby is very active in Germany and spends
large amounts of money which cannot be said about the Armenian lobby.
Barbara Oertel has never been to Azerbaijan.
http://en.a1plus.am/1203133.html
From: A. Papazian