It ranks among the most read and trusted news portals that determine the news “stream” of the Azerbaijani media. Today Axar.az turns 10 years old. Although 10 years is a small number for history, a human life is a big number for the successful works that he will reveal in that life. It is not an easy task for a news portal to gain so much support and trust from readers in 10 years. On this occasion, we congratulate the Axar.az team. It should be noted that the chief editor of Axar.az, Anar Niftaliyev, differs from other editors with his unique discipline and business acumen.
Publika.az presents an interview with Anar Niftaliyev:
– What makes you work so hard?
– I think everyone has a mission in life. When I came to Akhar.az, I thought how can I be useful to our country? One thought in my mind has not given me peace all the time: for example, our soldier is awake day and night in the trench, so what am I doing? We understand well what role information plays in the destiny and national strategy of countries. That is why we must work day and night without sleep on the information front. This is the reason. In addition, I am a tidy person, I cannot sleep if the site is not tidy.
– In the media community, editors are seen more in the image of a boss, especially in recent times this impression has expanded. But in addition to editing, you also write, whether it’s news or editorials…
– I even sweep the room – I say seriously.
– Is it love of work or character…
– Both of. This year is the 32nd year of my journalistic activity. So far, I have worked in 27 editorial offices. However, I have been working at Axar.az for 10 years since its inception. I have many articles and news during the day. Some are unsigned or published with different signatures. This is because I always want to remain a journalist. This is how we learned from our teachers. God bless Shirmammad Huseynov, he wrote until his death. He is an example for us.
– I mean, the editorial office you worked with the most was Akhar.az. What made you stay here for 10 years?
– To be honest, when I first started working, I estimated that I would be able to stay for a maximum of 1-2 years. But now we are celebrating our 10th anniversary. The main reason for my long-term stay here is our CEO Aynur Jamalgizi and his personal attention, companionship, sensitivity, being behind us, and his patronage, never missing his moral support. Secondly, to a large extent, I can express my thoughts and feelings here. If a person can express himself in one place, why should he leave there? Whenever I can’t express myself, I’ll probably leave.
– What is the meaning of the signature “Sheikh Teymur” that you use in your writings?
– Hopefully, I will answer this question when we are 20 years old.
– You always say that Axar.az is your third child. Is there jealousy between your children?
– It happens a lot, they are always dissatisfied. After all, girls are more jealous. In 2014, we celebrated our 1st anniversary. Yesterday we shared our pictures about it. My children were small then. Sometimes I feel bad when I look at pictures. It was as if my children were neglected. However, Akhar.az is smaller than my children. After all, a parent pays more attention to a small, cradled child.
– How did 10 years pass?
– When we look at the past, when we remember what happened in the editorial office, our work process, conflicts, and happy days, we see that 10 years is a very long time. However, when one thinks for a moment without recalling memories, one considers it as a very short time. This is not a short time for our independent media. Akhar.az has seen the support, care and love of readers since the first day of its creation. We worked day and night to turn that first support and respect into love. Let’s become an information space that readers want to see, read and rely on. Why do I write so much? Our generation has seen a lot. We are students of the 90s. The whole movement was before our eyes. We participated in these movements, we were in the squares. And most of those who write now are children who did not live those times. Unfortunately, most of the representatives of our generation do not write. Our generation’s failure to write breaks the chain of events. It creates a very serious problem in conveying the processes to the younger generation. That’s why I have to write. As a person who has seen those events, I can make comparisons more successfully. No matter how much I talk to the children, I see that they cannot imagine what they did not see, like us, who experienced those events. Because they have only read about bread queues, they have not witnessed them. We have seen our own tanks that came to “take” Baku, the displacement from Bibiheybat to the Navahi post – IDPs sleeping under old Soviet trucks for weeks and months, and the horror of the occupation of Shusha. Therefore, it is difficult to express the happiness of even one family returning to Fuzuli, Lachin, and Zangilan. Those who experienced those events have more opportunity to understand the current history with its greatness.
– Akhar.az is already in the top three in the Azerbaijani media. Does your leveling up so much upset others? Do you feel it?
– Of course! Not everyone has worked, but wants to eat, drink and walk. This is especially true for editors. There is even a strange jealousy towards me and our editorial office. I always say, well, you’re doing your best and expecting your site to be one of the best? It is impossible. Either you will work day and night without interruption and will not leave this information trench and speak your mind, or you will go for a walk and not know about the trench. We are people who follow world media. We see how they conduct this information war. We cannot leave the trench even for a moment. We have an Azerbaijani version with the Arabic alphabet, and a Persian section. They didn’t happen by accident. There is no Persian section in Azerbaijan even in “Azertaj”. This surprises me a lot. We can be proud of this at 10 years old, but I really want to lose this status soon. I want all of our sites, especially the leading ones, to create these versions. This is our national goal. Sites that are still edited by our generation must implement these projects, they know why I say this. If we don’t, the next generation never will.
– What do you see the need to improve in our media?
– I would like us to get rid of unprofessionalism, to get rid of the thought alien to the profession, such as dragging readers into the swamp with meaningless shows or household news, and to be able to give our readers what they deserve; Let’s live with the thesis of “what I was able to give the reader today” rather than “what I gained”.
Then – in our media, there is a tradition of cutting the newsrooms to the neck of the editors. I wish all editors, including Akhar.az, not to depend on editors so much. The energy of the youth, the different approach combined with the experience is amazing. Dependence on individuals should be completely eliminated. Of course, our independent media is young and that is the reason for this dependence. But more time, there should be editorial strategies – then this problem will disappear.
– In these thoughts, it seems as if you want to leave Axar.az “headless”…
– This year is the 10th anniversary of Axar.az and my 50th anniversary. I was thinking that this year I should step back a bit, give the main burden of the site to the young people, and I will write my own articles. I will participate in the work of the site as a general consultant. But unfortunately, the potential candidate to make this dream come true has not yet arrived.
Nazrin Javadzadeh
#sweep #room #Anar #Niftaliyevs #10yearold #crib #secret #signature