| Azg | |
| Type: | daily |
| Format: | A3[1] |
| Founder: | Hakob Avedikian |
| Chiefeditor: | Hakob Avedikian |
| Foundation: | 1991 |
| Language: | Armenian |
| Headquarters: | Hanrapetutyan Street, Building 47, 3rd Floor, Yerevan, Armenia |
| Circulation: | 3,000[2] |
| Circulation Date: | 2009 |
Azg (Armenian: Ազգ, "Nation") is a daily newspaper published in Yerevan, Armenia since 1991.[3] [2] Its founder[2] and editor-in-chief was the veteran Lebanese-born Ramkavar activist Hakob Avedikian.[4] who in the 1980s had served as the editor-in-chief of the Ramgavar party's Zartonk daily in Lebanon.[2]
Azg was prominent during the 1990s. Published by the Democratic Liberal Party of Armenia (Ramkavar-Azatakan) Party—financed from the Armenian diaspora party ADL—its circulation regularly exceeded 30,000 by 1993,[5] that increased to 42,000 the following year. According to Edik Baghdasaryan, Azg served as "a good school for many journalists" during this period.[6]
In 1996, the newspaper was temporarily suspended by the government of Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Its office was ransacked, and editors and journalists were beaten.[7] The ownership of the newspaper was transferred to a newly split pro-government branch of the Ramkavar Party called Mission of the Ramgavar-Azatakan Party (MRAP), which was formed after a split in the ranks of the opposition Ramgavar-Azatakan Party. The founders of "Azg", who also own and publish the newspaper, consequently found themselves completely cut off from the newspaper. As well, the Ministry ordered the state-run printing house, Parberakan, to stop printing Azg until told otherwise. On 27 April 1996, a new eight-page newspaper, using the name and logo of Azg, was printed by Parberakan, but without the participation of Azg editors, who disassociated themselves from the new version.[8]
After Ter-Petrosyan's resignation as president, the newspaper was supportive of Robert Kocharyan who became president in 1998. In 1999, it was described as Armenia's "most authoritative daily."[9] The circulation of Azg dropped to 10,000 copies and later on to only 3,000 in 2003[10] and remained the same as of 2009.[2]
Since 1999 Azg was available online at various times in six languages: Armenian, Russian, English, Turkish,[2] Arabic and Persian.Azg also published a periodical cultural supplement called Azg-Mshaguyt (in Armenian Ազգ-Մշակույթ)