BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 19 - Azerbaijan’s Press Council has accused some Turkish media outlets and social-media accounts of misrepresenting the country’s school-uniform rules as a blanket ban on the hijab and of turning an education policy dispute into a religious confrontation.
The council issued the statement on Oct. 19, according to reports by APA and Report.
It said some Turkish publications and online accounts had taken Azerbaijan’s requirement for a standard uniform in general-education schools out of context, portraying it as pressure on Islamic values. The council rejected that characterization and said domestic education regulations were being politicized.
Call to Verify Information and Correct Errors
The council also alleged that old, unrelated or falsified photographs and videos had been used in coverage of the dispute. It said radical comments by individual figures were being presented without justification as the position of Turkish society as a whole.
According to the statement, some platforms had also given space to calls advocating the violent alteration of Azerbaijan’s constitutional order or the illegal seizure of power.
The council urged Turkish newsrooms, journalists’ associations and influential users of digital platforms to verify information about Azerbaijan through reliable sources, avoid publishing images outside their original context and promptly correct or retract false claims. It also called for an end to insulting language, defamation and hate rhetoric directed at Azerbaijan and its people.
The statement said the “One Nation, Two States” principle reflects equal cooperation and brotherhood between two independent countries and should not be used to justify interference in either country’s domestic or foreign policy.
The council said its appeal was intended to protect trust between Azerbaijan and Turkey and pledged to continue opposing disinformation and attempts to use media coverage to damage bilateral relations.
Source: Vesti Baku