Armenia's president handpicked the 20 journalists who will travel with him to Bursa to watch a Turkey-Armenia football game” and he excluded representatives of media outlets that are critical of his administration, the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review has learned.
Armenian President Serge Sarkisian is expected to arrive in Bursa around 4 p.m. local time on Wednesday. According to information the Daily News gathered from press circles in Armenia, Sarkisian was selective in choosing the journalists: He did not include representatives of media outlets that oppose his policies.
Despite the lack of accreditation and the financial shortcomings, more than 50 Armenian journalists also arrived in Bursa. The same sources also said that journalists of Armenian origin from the world's leading media organizations tried to acquire accreditation for the match in Bursa through the Turkish embassies in their countries but were unsuccessful as a result of complications with the Turkish Football Federation.
It is not only journalists from the diaspora who are having trouble with accreditations. Many Turkish journalists have also been denied because tickets for the match are not on sale. For security reasons, most of the tickets were handed out to select groups, such as students from the police academy. And many of the members of the Turkish press who have been accredited have not yet received their entrance papers.
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