Azerbaijan's AzerTAc News Agency celebrates 95 years since establishment

March 1 marks the celebration of 95 years since the establishment of AzerTAc, the official Azerbaijan state news agency.

Photo credit: (c) azertag.az

AzerTAc was established on March 1, 1920, being the first news agency of Azerbaijan.

The abbreviation of the name, AzerTAc, has its origin in the former name of the agency ? the Azerbaijan Telegraph Agency ? from a period when the telegraph was the only means for broadcasting the news.

In the 95 years of its history, the name of the Azeri news agency changed a few times. For 70 years, in the Soviet Union period, AzerTAC acted as a branch of the TASS agency. After Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence in 1991 the news agency resumed its historic name ? AzerTAc, being granted, through a decree, the status of state agency. At the same time, AzerTAc opened bureaus in other countries for the first time in its history.

Aslan Aslanov, AzerTAc Agency Director General
Photo credit: (c) AZERTAC / AGERPRES Archive

Starting with 1995, the activity of the news agency and its technical equipment improved. AzerTAc currently has own bureaus in 21 countries, supplies news items in seven languages ? Azerbaijani, Russian, English, French, German, Arabic and Chinese and video news items in five languages. AzerTAc also has a Facebook page in Azerbaijani.

AzerTAc exchanges news with approximately 130 countries worldwide. In 2014 solely, the agency produced and broadcast 103,534 news reports in Azerbaijani, Russian, English, German, French, Arabic and Chinese, as well as 8,331 news items in video format.

AzerTAc is a member of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), the International Islamic News Agency (IINA), the Association of the National News Agencies of...