Azerbaijan’s Lider TV reporter Anar Hasanov was fired from his job because of the question he had posed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and with respect to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).

Hasanov, speaking to RFE/RL, confirmed that he had been fired, but did not wish to provide details.

This Azerbaijani journalist had asked Lavrov: “What will be Moscow’s position if antiterrorist operations were to be launched at the occupied territories, and the occupying forces were to be destroyed? Would Moscow overlook this? Or would it interfere in Azerbaijan’s internal affairs?”

And, in response, the Russian FM had stated as follows: “From the viewpoint of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, it is not exclusively an internal affair of Azerbaijan.”