Foreign Office concerned about arrest of Azerbaijani journalist and civil society activist, Rauf Mirkadirov.

A Foreign Office Spokesperson said:

We note with concern the detention of the journalist Rauf Mirkadirov.

The UK government has supported civil society and media projects for many years which aim to bring Armenian and Azerbaijani citizens together, and provide both societies with a range of balanced media reporting.

As Foreign Office Minister Mark Simmonds said in parliament, on 11 February 2014, ‘A generation of Armenians and Azerbaijanis now exist in both countries that have had no contact with someone from the other country’.

We very much hope that these important projects and people-to-people contacts will continue – they remain one of the key ways in which both societies can prepare their populations for peace.

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