In early February, it became known that the procedure for foreigners entering Artsakh was changing. Now the information about the people who applied to the Artsakh authorities for entry permission will also be passed to the Russian peacekeepers.

Media.am will recall two cases when well-known foreign media journalists were banned from entering Artsakh. We will also talk about how the entry procedure has changed.

Audience criticism

In his message dedicated to the Freedom of the Press Day, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan considered freedom of the press one of the most important achievements of Armenia. He stressed that Armenia attaches importance to “guaranteeing the uninterrupted activity of the media, access to information, especially in the conflict zones.”

During the second Artsakh war, however, there were obstacles to the activities of the media.

Foreign media had to receive accreditation from two foreign ministries to work in Armenia and Artsakh. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, more than 600 international journalists who applied during the war received their credentials. Only one case of suspension of credentials was registered, which referred to Russian journalist Ilya Azar.

This is not the first time Azar has covered Armenia and Artsakh. He was in Artsakh during the April 2016 war. And during the 2018 revolution, he published detailed reports from the demonstrations in Yerevan, which were read by tens of thousands of people. These reports presented the atmosphere of the demonstrations through the stories, opinions of the participants, as well as the impressions of the author.

During the war of 2020, Azar left for Artsakh and started writing similar style reports from there. In the article “Война у южных ворот” published on October 7, Azar talked to the people in Shushi and Lachin and shared their stories. Thus, a man from Gyumri told Azar, “They [the Armenian authorities] are deceiving people. They sent 18-year-old soldiers to fight only with machine guns. [They say] ‘Sorry, there are no bullets, sorry, there is no tank.'”

This article became Azar’s most-read report about Armenia: It has been read about 260,000 times on the website “Новая газета.” Armenian users of social networks severely criticized Azar, accusing him of being biased and presenting the situation wrongly.

It is important to remember that at that time Armenian society outside of Artsakh was receiving very little information from official sources, mainly slogans such as “We will win.” And local journalists worked in conditions of state-censorship, audience-censorship and self-censorship.

The day after the publication of Ilya Azar’s article, it became known that he had been deprived of his credentials. “Новая газета” wrote that Azar was contacted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and demanded that he remove the report that caused the public protest, which he refused to do.

In a conversation with Media.am, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Naghdalyan said that Ilya Azar had entered Artsakh without permission. He had passed the accreditation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia (and could work in the territory of Armenia) but had not applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh for a permit to work in the territory of Artsakh. “We told him that he should also have the accreditation of the Artsakh side [․․․], but he went there without applying. Journalists cannot go to a war zone in any country without permission, it is internationally accepted procedure,” said Anna Naghdalyan.

“Новая газета” in its turn noted that the Armenian side made it clear to Azar that the real reason for depriving him of accreditation was the article “Война у южных ворот” which received a negative public response.

According to Azar, he has also been banned from entering Azerbaijan since 2011 due to his previous visit to Artsakh.

Entry refusal without explanation   

Another journalist who was refused entry by both Armenian and Azerbaijani side was Joshua Kucera, Caucasus editor of Eurasianet.org.

On October 30 Kucera wrote, that his application for accreditation was refused by authorities in Karabakh without any explanation. Artsakh MFA did not provide any reason in response to our request also. 

Eurasianet.org editor had visited Artsakh before. He told Media.am that he had notified the Azerbaijani side about the visit because otherwise, he would have trouble getting into Azerbaijan afterward. 

President Aliyev’s advisor Hikmet Hajiyev noted that there was no objection regarding the visit because Eurasianet.org showed respect to “to the laws and territorial integrity of the country”. Despite that Azerbaijan denied entry to Kucera during the war.  

Commenting on entry refusals from the Armenian and Azerbaijani side, Kucera noted: “It is a petty power play by both sides, the only result of which is that independent journalism is made more difficult.”

Russian peacekeepers will be notified of entry permit applications

In February 2021, the procedure for foreigners to enter Artsakh, including foreign journalists, was changed.

Journalists must apply to the Artsakh Foreign Ministry for permission, as they did before. But now the Foreign Ministry will also provide information about those applications to the Russian peacekeepers.

In recent days, information has been circulating on social networks that even foreigners who have received visas have difficulties or are unable to enter Artsakh. Journalist Neil Hauer wrote that he had talked to a group of journalists who, although having all the required documents, could not enter Artsakh. Documentary filmmaker Seda Grigoryan wrote on Facebook that the Armenian-foreign group had difficulties, as they had to negotiate with peacekeepers at checkpoints several times for the entry of foreign citizens.

In a conversation with Media.am, Artak Nersisyan, Head of the Information and Public Relations Department of the Artsakh Foreign Ministry, mentioned that the difficulties at the checkpoints are not systemic. “Information on these applications is also passed to the peacekeeping forces of the Russian Federation, the main purpose of which is to ensure unimpeded and safe entry of foreign citizens with entry permits to the territory of the Artsakh Republic,” Nersisyan said. “This mechanism is being implemented, and steps are being taken to improve this mechanism.”

Karine Ghazaryan

* The article has been changed. The previous version mentioned that the editor of Eurasianet.org website Joshua Kuchera applied to the Azerbaijani side for permission to enter Artsakh. This information was incorrect. The correction was made on February 17.