Protest march to Garabagh ends on frontline

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
May 13 2004

On Saturday, about two hundred members of the Garabagh Liberation
Organization (GLO) organized a protest march to the Garabagh region on
the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the occupation of Azerbaijan’s
historic city, Shusha.

According to a correspondent of the AssA-Irada news agency who
also joined the protest, the marchers reached the contact line of
the Azerbaijani and Armenian military troops in Tazakand village of
Aghdam District. However, local police and military didn’t allow the
protesters to pass to the occupied lands. After GLO chairman Akif Naghi
said that the march was successful, the protesters returned to Baku.

Underlining that all political parties in the country, except the
ruling New Azerbaijan Party, have expressed their attitudes towards
the protest action, the GLO chairman said that representatives from
the foreign embassies in Baku did not observe the march. No incidents
were reported during the protest action which attracted one hundred
more people in the regions.

Protest in Moscow The Movement for Azerbaijan (MA) organized a picket
outside the Armenian embassy in Moscow to protest the occupation
of Shusha. Chairman of the MA Ilgar Gasimov told journalists
that during the 2-hour action about 50 protesters demanded
that the Armenian aggressors withdraw from the occupied lands of
Azerbaijan. The picketers also protested against the destruction of
Azerbaijani cultural and historical monuments in Shusha and against the
international organizations’ double standard approach to the issue. A
petition was forwarded to the Armenian embassy. The MA plans to hold
another picket on May 28, Independence Day, to protest against the
Armenian aggression. Azerbaijanis living in Moscow held the first ever
sanctioned protest action outside the Armenian embassy on February 27,
2004 on the occasion of the Khojaly massacre.