Azerbaijani independent newspaper ‘‘Zerkalo’’ closes after Rauf Mirkadirov’s arrest
One of the few independent Azerbaijani newspapers, "Zerkalo", is now closed for indefinite time. Editor in chief of the newspaper Elchin Shikhli told the Azerbaijani news agency "Vesti.az."
Elchin Shikhli also noted that he had had telephone talks with Aflatun Amashov, the chairman of the Press Council, however the conversations did not lead to any result.
According to the well-known journalist, even if a businessman offered him 20,000 manats (about 20 thousand euros) today - it would not be a solution to the problem. "From my point of view, it would be a temporary solution to the problem, but it cannot be final. For example, 50 thousand manats can provide me with two months issue of the newspaper. And then what?" wonders the editor.
Editor of the famous newspaper also said that he would try to keep the site of the newspaper working. "But frankly speaking I have no money for it, too," said Elchin Shikhli.
According to the editor-in-chief, now they, he and the team, need to stop, take a breath and relax. "I'll be looking for all sorts of options to start all over again. There are some plans. We’ll see what happens," he said.
Rauf Mirkadirov, columnist of Azerbaijani newspaper "Zerkalo", was arrested on April 18 in Ankara on charges of expiration of documents. On April 19 Mirkadirov was deported to Azerbaijan, where he immediately was arrested and put in custody by the MNS on suspicion of treason. On April 21 the court in Baku sanctioned his arrest for three months. Mirkadirov is accused of the cooperation with special services of Armenia; specifically he is accused of making the transfers of the state secret information, including those about the dislocation of Azerbaijani Armed forces to Armenia during 2008-2009.
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