AZERBAIJAN STATE TELEGRAPH AGENCY TURNS 89
Baku, 28 February (AZERTAC). On March 1 Azerbaijan State Telegraph Agency, AZERTAC, turns 89.
Established by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, AZERTAC is today the only state news agency spreading information both within the country and beyond its borders.
Thirty five years of AZERTAC`s 89-year long history coincided with the nationwide leader Heydar Aliyev`s years in power. It is the nationwide leader`s attention that allowed AZERTAC to expand its foreign relations and rapidly integrate into the world`s information space.
Having several times changed its name during the Soviet era, the agency returned its historic name - AZERTAC - after Azerbaijan regained its state independence.
To date, AZERTAC has signed cooperation agreements with Anadolu Agency (Turkey), ITAR-TASS (Russia), Xinhua (China), Ukrinform (Ukraine), BTA (Bulgaria), ANSA (Italy), IRNA (Iran), AGERPRES (Romania), Tanjug (Serbia), BELTA (Belarus), Moldpres (Moldova), ATA (Albania), MTI (Hungary), MENA (Egypt), PETRA (Jordan), ANTARA (Indonesia), MONTSAME (Mongolia), Yonhap (Korea), and LETA (Latvia).
In 2004 AZERTAC was elected a member of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), and in 2008 joined the European Alliance of Press Agencies (EANA).
At the 13th OANA General Assembly held in Indonesian capital Jakarta in December, 2007, AZERTAC was elected one of six bureau members of the organization`s Executive Committee.
AZERTAC is also a founding member of the CIS National News Agencies Association, Union of the Turkish Speaking Countries News Agencies (TKA), and Black Sea Association of National News Agencies (BSANNA). Moreover, since 2008 AZERTAC is a member of AsiaPulse, the consortium of Asian news agencies.
In late April-early May, 2008 Baku hosted the 7th meeting of TKA General Assembly, and AZERTAC has been holding the organization`s rotating presidency since then.
In September 2008 AZERTAC hosted the 30th OANA Executive Board Meeting on “News for everybody in the globalizing world”. The event marked the first time heads and senior officials of national news agencies of over 20 countries gathered in Baku. At the same time, it was the first time heads of OANA and EANA came together at an event.
AZERTAC is operating on a 24-hour basis, sending to and receiving accurate, prompt and unbiased news from over 80 countries worldwide in Azerbaijani, English, German and Russian languages. The agency`s news bulletins cover all spheres of life, including politics, social matters, economy, science, culture, health, sport and ecology. AZERTAC produces about 60,000 news and 3,000 photo news per year. The agency`s URL, which is visited by around 10,000 people from around the world each day, was placed on the webpage of the Information Center of the United Nations Office in Geneva.
AZERTAC has bureaus in Turkey, Russia, the USA, France, Germany, Austria, Iran, Ukraine and Georgia, in Central Asia and Kazakhstan, as well as in all regions of Azerbaijan.
Today AZERTAC has gained even more opportunities to expand the scope of its work, and this was possible thanks to attention from President Ilham Aliyev who is successfully continuing the political course, national development conception of the nationwide leader.
AZERTAC`s staff has been making every effort to raise the awareness of the world community about new successes of and truths about Azerbaijan, which is firmly moving forward on the path towards rapid development.
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