Sahbaz Khuduoglu: "Activity of Chap Evi printing house does not pose any threat to the government of Azerbaijan, while its shutdown may affect the image of our country"

The due statement was made by Shahbaz Khuduoglu, editor-in-chief of the Ganun magazine and co-founder of Elmar Guseynov's fund, commenting on the inspections, carried out in the Chap Evi printing house and the publishing house of the Ganun newspaper.

He said the printing house had repeatedly undergone both chronometric and paper inspections by tax officials, but added that this time the tax officials, who came to the printing house, hindered its normal operation for a day and were obliged to leave the office only after the interference of the Ministry of Taxes.

He noted that official inspections in the Chap Evi house were launched only after that.

He said for a definite period the printing house located in the same building with the tax officials.

"There were cases when they requested help from us and we gave them the necessary book or any other printed production for temporary yse, as everyone knew that we print law books as well. This time, one of our workers issues such a book to one of the tax officials, in a hope for soonest return. Yet, this case was taken as a reason for accusations that we do not issue cash vouchers to customers. This accusation is also absurd because Chap Evi does not deal with selling. We print newspapers, magazines and books, which are sold by the publishing house".

He noted that Chap Evi printing house printed not only opposition but also state newspapers.

He reminded that the printing hose issued a book about the like and activity of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, wrote by Milli Medjlis deputy Fazail Agamaly.

He noted that this fact proves that the printing house does not choose its customers for political views

According to him the version of attempt to put pressure on independent printing houses aiming to make them move to the office building of a single publishing house, controlled by the government, is more likely.

"This is done to control independent printed production, which would enable to stop the activity of such printing houses any time.

But this is not a right tactics. The situation around the Chap Evi printing house, created under support of foreign organizations as a printing house, not depending on the government, is controlled by the embassies of the USA, Norway, France and other countries. Therefore, we hope that the problems of the activity of the Chap Evi printing house will find their fair solution", he concluded.

/Day.Az/