Armenian MFA demands Pastinfo and any other media outlets that republished its material publicly refute information regarding Mirzoyan`s meeting with Azerbaijani delegation in the Emirates

ArmInfo. The Armenian MFA has  issued a statement  dismissing the information from the Pastinfo  agency regarding the meeting of the country's Foreign Minister Ararat  Mirzoyan with the Azerbaijani delegation in Dubai. They demanded that  Pastinfo and any other media outlets that republished this material  remove the publication and publish a clear refutation on behalf of  the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Thus, the press secretary of the  Armenian Foreign Ministry, Ani Badalyan, emphasized in her statement  that on April 7, the Armenian Foreign Ministry had received a request  from a journalist from the Pastinfo agency whether Mirzoyan had  recently made an undisclosed visit to Dubai (UAE), where he had  official or unofficial meetings, for example, with a colleague from  Azerbaijan.  Badalyan added that she unequivocally refuted this false  information both verbally and in a written response, recalling that  all working and official visits of the minister are publicly  publicized, and there were no undisclosed visits, including to the  UAE.

The press secretary of the Foreign Ministry also pointed out that she  informed the journalist that on March 28, Mirzoyan was returning from  Kazakhstan to Armenia on an Astana-Dubai-Yerevan flight.  "At the  same time, it was clearly indicated that there were no official  meetings or informal contacts with a representative of any country in  Dubai," Badalyan noted. According to her, despite the fact that the  Foreign Ministry clearly denied this information, Pastinfo published  an article with the headline: "Ararat Mirzoyan made a non-public  visit to Dubai." "In addition, the article contains false allegations  regarding the minister's unofficial contacts with the Azerbaijani  delegation during his stay in Dubai and his overnight stay in the  city. It is noted that the Foreign Ministry allegedly did not provide  an explanation on this matter, although such a question was not  raised at all. If it had been, the Foreign Ministry would have denied  the fact of the minister's overnight stay in Dubai. The allegations  that the Foreign Ministry allegedly first denied the fact of the  minister's presence in Dubai, and then confirmed it, are also  untrue," Badalyan noted.  She also noted that this article was  reprinted by a several other Armenian media outlets with the odious  headlines "The head of the Armenian Foreign Ministry had unofficial  contacts with the Azerbaijani delegation in Dubai at night."  "Considering the above and the provisions of the Law on Freedom of  Information, we demand that the Pastinfo agency and the media outlets  that reprinted the material remove the said publication and publish a  clear refutation on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by  distributing this publication.  In the future, we also expect the  verification of the veracity of such "materials" with the Ministry of  Foreign Affairs instead of simply reprinting them," Badalyan said.

In conclusion, the representative of the Foreign Ministry confirmed  that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been and will continue to  transparently cover Mirzoyan's visits and meetings, ensuring  accountability to all citizens of Armenia.