Azeris “have buried” their struggle for Karabakh – Armenian TV

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
31 Aug 04

[Presenter] Several Azerbaijani human rights and women’s organizations
defending the male members of the Karabakh Liberation Organization
[KLO, sentenced to prison for anti-Armenian rallies] have said that
with the Karabakh activists’ trial, the Azerbaijani court has buried
the struggle for Karabakh.

Some officials and mass media went as far as describing Ramil
Safarov who killed an Armenian officer during NATO exercises [in
Hungary in February] as a national hero, while at the same time an
Azeri court sentenced the [anti-Armenian] activists to five year’s
imprisonment for staging a protest at a NATO planning conference
[in Baku, in June]. A remark from [late Azerbaijani President]
Heydar Aliyev, who was elevated to a god-like status during his life
and posthumously, has even been brought up, when he reportedly said:
“Why are you constantly repeating: Karabakh, Karabakh? It is just a
land of stones and mountains.”

[Correspondent Aykaram Nahapetyan] The trial of the six Azerbaijani
KLO activists infuriated Azerbaijani society and political circles
alike. [Passage omitted: Azeri female human rights activists Novella
Cafaroglu, Saida Qocamanli and Leyla Yunus condemned the ruling.]

The Azerbaijani newspaper Novoye Vremya attacking [Azerbaijani
President] Ilham Aliyev, called him a pro-Armenian official. The
newspaper also suggested that the Azerbaijani government would not
fight for Nagornyy Karabakh, since Heydar Aliyev once said that
Azeris do not need Karabakh because Karabakh is a land of stones
and mountains.