Baku, March 2, AZERTAC

A ceremony has been held at the Four Seasons Hotel Baku to mark the 95th anniversary of Azerbaijan State Information Agency AZERTAC.

The event was attended by participants of the meeting of the News Agencies World Council (NACO), heads and representatives of several foreign news agencies, state and government officials, MPs, media and NGO leaders.

Opening the event, Director-General of AZERTAC Aslan Aslanov, said “our event brings together very distinguished guests, acclaimed world media figures”.

“I would like to bring to your attention that this morning members of the News Agencies World Council and other high-level guests who are in Baku to attend celebrations of the 95th anniversary of AZERTAC had a meeting with the Azerbaijani President`s Assistant for Public and Political Affairs Mr Ali Hasanov.” “The meeting heard some fruitful ideas on the role and place of information in the modern world and key tasks faced by media organizations.”

“We also held the meeting of the News Agencies World Council. You probably know that the 5th World Congress will take place in Baku in 2016, and AZERTAC will chair the Congress until 2019. Once again I would like to thank my distinguished colleagues for their confidence and support.”

Mr Aslanov said: “The first news agency of Azerbaijan, AZERTAC marks its 95th anniversary at a very remarkable point of time, when in our globalizing world we witness fundamental transformation of the system of values in all spheres of life, changes in stereotypes, emergence of advanced information technologies and social media boom.”

“What AZERTAC has achieved so far, particularly in terms of integration into the global information system was possible thanks to our great leader Heydar Aliyev.” “We also feel this attention and care from distinguished President Ilham Aliyev, who is a friend of the media. Mr President has signed executive orders to rename the Agency, and confer honorary titles and give awards of the Republic of Azerbaijan to 13 employees on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the agency. This is a source of great happiness for us.”

He said: “AZERTAC is the only agency in the country and the region that produces news in 7 languages and video news in 5 languages. I am also very pleased to note that according to Socialbakers, the most popular provider of social media analytic tools of the US, AZERTAC’s Facebook page in Azerbaijani language ranks in the top five among the fastest growing media accounts and the first among news agencies. According to Socialbakers, AZERTAC’s Twitter and YouTube accounts constantly rank in the top five in "Media" category for Azerbaijan.”

“For 70 years, when Azerbaijan was part of the USSR, nobody in the world ever heard of our agency. But today AZERTAC is exchanging news with nearly 130 countries around the globe. Last year alone the agency produced and distributed 103,534 news stories and 8,331 video news items in Azerbaijani, Russian, English, German, French, Arabic and Chinese languages. In general, last year saw the publication of 7,203 news stories, 1,935 photos and 669 videos produced by AZERTAC on the websites of international and regional news alliances.”

“And it`s no coincidence that Baku has brought together leaders of the key media organizations and news agencies of the two continents, outstanding figures that shape the global information policy, and we are very happy that our efforts are yielding fruits. We are committed to enriching this tradition in 2016-2019 when the agency will hold the chairmanship of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) and the News Agencies World Congress,” said the Director General of AZERTAC.

Azerbaijani President`s Assistant for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov said Azerbaijan was seriously preparing to host the 5th News Agencies World Congress in 2016.

He praised AZERTAC`s role in creating the annals of Azerbaijani history, and promoting the country`s achievements in political, economic, cultural and other areas.

On the sidelines of the event AZERTAC signed cooperation deals with Turkish Anadolu Agency and Slovenian Press Agency (STA), and a memorandum of understanding with Romania`s national news agency AGERPRES.

The event featured demonstration of a documentary on AZERTAC`s anniversary, and a presentation of the Baku-2015 European Games.

The event ended with performance of Azerbaijani singers.