An international filmmakers' team detained in Armenia left the country

All the four members of an international TV-journalists' team from Finland, Estonia and Lithuania detained in Yerevan airport on March, 10, returned from Armenia without getting visas.

Andrius Brokas, executive producer of the team, told a reporter of "Caucasian Knot" that the team had been withheld in Yerevan airport for about 28 hours after which its members were deported from the country without any explanations.

There appeared information in Armenian mass media that the team had been sent to Armenia with special instructions by Andrius Brokas who "worked for the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan". Some of its authors also stated that the purpose of Brokas team's arrival had been collection of secret data and materials. There was such a statement, in particular, in "Times.am" and some other media.

Commenting on these declarations Brokas remarked that the accusations were "quite absurd and an undisguised provocation". "Last spring we did have a contract with the Azerbaijani party on organizing tours of "Notre Dame de Paris" misical. We have carried out a lot of projects of this kind in Baku as well as the capitals of Poland, Finland, Lithuania, India and other counties. Our collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan was only limited to that".

As for the present international project "Peaceful Caucasus", the producer said that it was devoted to the conflict in the region. According to him, film shooting was financed by independent European cinema funds and a consortium of British, Lithuanian, Estonian and Finnish companies was participating in it.

"A number of episodes which will form the basis of the documentary have been already shot in Azerbaijan. The core of the film is analyzing Karabakh conflict through the fates and views of similar categories of people from both sides, they are refugees, military men, politicians and peacemakers. These were shot by our colleagues in Azerbaijan but it is still impossible to do it in Armenia for the above mentioned reasons", Brokas said adding that he was extremely surprised and indignant at the Armenian party's actions.

"No secret was made of this tour. The Armenian party had been informed on the purposes, route and schedule of the group and the persons we were going to interview in good time. Absolutely the whole program of the visit was transparent for Armenia. My colleagues and I find it difficult to understand why making the World community aware of the position and opinion of the residents met such a negative reaction of Armenia. Is interviewing famous public persons the same thing as collecting secret data? I consider it non-stochastic and symptomatic that it was Armenian security services that were dealing with the problem. This demonstrates the level of the journalists' freedom and limited right of getting information in the country", our interlocutor said.

Brokas thinks that the detention of the group manifests the authorities' position, not the one of the whole Armenian community. "Being journalists we are seeking to express the Armenian citizens' opinion and in spite of all the difficulties we will find the way to do it", the producer said.

Meanwhile, there are still no comments from the Armenian authorities on the reasons of the international filmmakers team's deportation.