AzerNews, Azerbaijan
May 20 2004

Armenians again mislead world community

The Wednesday reports by the Arminfo agency concerning the speech by
Pier Garton, the European Union’s (EU) rapporteur on South Caucasus,
in Yerevan have sparked concern in Azerbaijan.

According to Arminfo agency, Garton allegedly opposed Baku’s ruling
of Upper Garabagh, which is capable of meeting its demand for food
independently, and demanded that borders be opened and Turkey
recognize the Armenian genocide.

Commenting on the issue, political analyst Mubariz Ahmadoghlu,
chairman of the Center of Political Innovations and Technology, told
AssA-Irada that this was the latest deception of the Armenian press.
“Some Azerbaijani press reports on the opinions voiced by the EU
rapporteur are incomplete and I regret that they believed the
Armenians’ misinformation,” Ahmadoghlu said. The political analyst
noted that Armenians were also disappointed by the Armenian press
reports on Garton’s opinions, as the EU rapporteur called on Armenia
to give up the idea of the ‘Armenization’ of Upper Garabagh.
Ahmadoghlu added that another issue raised by Pier Garton during his
visit to Armenia was the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from
the territory of Upper Garabagh and the re-opening of a rail link
between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Matin Mirza, press secretary of the
Foreign Ministry, also underlined the necessity of studying the
opinions of the European parliamentarian. “We will see if he has
really expressed any opinion saying that he doesn’t consider Upper
Garabagh an integral part of Azerbaijan. We may find out the truth
through our representative in the European Union. However, we don’t
consider it convincing at the current stage. The fact that Pier
Garton has voiced such an opinion doesn’t seem convincing.” The press
secretary underlined that if the Armenian mass media reports are
confirmed, the Azerbaijani government would protest to the European
Parliament.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress