Baku, June 4 AZERTAC

Director of Press Operations of Baku European Games Operations Committee (BEGOC) Jayne Pearce has hailed AZERTAC`s contribution to the promotion of the inaugural European Games as an official media partner. “It’s wonderful to have a national media partner who promotes and spreads accurate information about the Games,” said Ms Pearce as she visited the headquarters of AZERTAC to update the agency`s employees, who were accredited to cover Baku 2015, on a variety of issues, including the coverage, transportation and access to venues of the Games, which start on 12 June.

AZERTAC and BEGOC signed a partnership agreement last month under which AZERTAC became the Official News Agency of the Baku 2015 European Games.

With a team of over 50 journalists, photographers and cameramen providing extensive coverage of the Games, AZERTAC will be the single largest Azerbaijani media organization at Baku 2015.

Its text and photographic content will be available in seven languages. In addition, AZERTAC will produce a video news stream which will be available in Azerbaijani. All this content will be available via a dedicated Baku 2015 section on the agency’s website.

Ms Pearce hailed AZERTAC`s role in highlighting preparations for the Games. She said they were happy that AZERTAC became the official news agency of Baku 2015.

Editors-in-chief Elman Gadirov and Yashar Guluzade said AZERTAC focused its resources on promoting the inaugural European Games to both domestic and international audiences.

The event also featured a question-and-answer session with Ms Pearce, who then had a meeting with the agency`s Director General Aslan Aslanov. He applauded BEGOC`s assistance to AZERTAC as an official media partner. “AZERTAC is making its contribution to the promotion of the inaugural European Games through the world`s biggest news alliances and our partner news agencies in more than 130 countries.”

Mr Aslanov expressed confidence that “helped by BEGOC, AZERTAC will make its contribution to promoting the brand of the European Games internationally”. He also said he believes that Azerbaijan “will excellently host this high-profile sporting event”.

Ms Pearce said BEGOC attaches particular importance to its partnership with AZERTAC.

There will be a total of 20 sports at Baku 2015: 16 Olympic sports and four non-Olympic sports. Almost 6,000 athletes from across Europe will be representing their nations over 17 days of competition.

Twelve of the sports will offer qualification opportunities for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Baku was awarded the Games by the European Olympic Committees in December 2012.