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Azg (daily)

Azg
Typedaily
FormatA3[1]
Founder(s)Hakob Avedikian
Editor-in-chiefHakob Avedikian
Founded1991
LanguageArmenian
HeadquartersHanrapetutyan Street, Building 47, 3rd Floor, Yerevan, Armenia
Circulation3,000[2] (as of 2009)
Websiteazg.am

Azg (Armenian: Ազգ, "Nation") is a daily newspaper published in Yerevan, Armenia since 1991.[3][2] Its founder[2] and editor-in-chief was the veteran Lebanese-born Ramkavar activist Hakob Avedikian.[4] who in the 1980s had served as the editor-in-chief of the Ramgavar party's Zartonk daily in Lebanon.[2]

Azg was prominent during the 1990s. Published by the Democratic Liberal Party of Armenia (Ramkavar-Azatakan) Party—financed from the Armenian diaspora party ADL—its circulation regularly exceeded 30,000 by 1993,[5] that increased to 42,000 the following year. According to Edik Baghdasaryan, Azg served as "a good school for many journalists" during this period.[6]

In 1996, the newspaper was temporarily suspended by the government of Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Its office was ransacked, and editors and journalists were beaten.[7] The ownership of the newspaper was transferred to a newly split pro-government branch of the Ramkavar Party called Mission of the Ramgavar-Azatakan Party (MRAP), which was formed after a split in the ranks of the opposition Ramgavar-Azatakan Party. The founders of "Azg", who also own and publish the newspaper, consequently found themselves completely cut off from the newspaper. As well, the Ministry ordered the state-run printing house, Parberakan, to stop printing Azg until told otherwise. On 27 April 1996, a new eight-page newspaper, using the name and logo of Azg, was printed by Parberakan, but without the participation of Azg editors, who disassociated themselves from the new version.[8]

After Ter-Petrosyan's resignation as president, the newspaper was supportive of Robert Kocharyan who became president in 1998.[9] In 1999, it was described as Armenia's "most authoritative daily."[10] The circulation of Azg dropped to 10,000 copies and later on to only 3,000 in 2003[9] and remained the same as of 2009.[2]

Since 1999 Azg was available online at various times in six languages: Armenian, Russian, English, Turkish,[2] Arabic and Persian. Azg also published a periodical cultural supplement called Azg-Mshaguyt (in Armenian Ազգ-Մշակույթ)

  1. ^ Melikyan, Ashot. "Print Mass Media and News Agencies' Market" (PDF). Yerevan: Media Initiatives Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Armenia: Newspapers: Journalists/Columnists/Editors". European Stability Initiative. Archived from the original on 1 September 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  3. ^ "Azg". Yerevan Press Club. Archived from the original on 1 September 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  4. ^ Hakobyan, Tatul (2 July 2009). "Old Ramgavars join forces in Armenia". The Armenian Reporter. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  5. ^ Herzig, Edmund; Kurkchiyan, Marina (2004). Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity. Routledge. pp. 187, 189. ISBN 9781135798376.
  6. ^ Krikorian, Onnik (26 May 2002). "Q&A with Edik Baghdasarian". Eurasia.Net. Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  7. ^ Payaslian, Simon (2011). The Political Economy of Human Rights in Armenia: Authoritarianism and Democracy in a Former Soviet Republic. I.B.Tauris. p. 168. ISBN 9780857731692.
  8. ^ Reporters Without Borders (1 May 1996). "Ownership of independent newspaper "Azg" transferred to pro-government political party". IFEX. Archived from the original on 2 August 2014.
  9. ^ a b Freedom House. "Armenia 2004 Report". Archived from the original on 14 April 2015.
  10. ^ Azadian, Edmond Y. (1999). History on the Move: Views, Interviews and Essays on Armenian Issues. Wayne State University Press. p. 117. ISBN 0814329160.

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