Pundit says foreign envoys misinformed about situation in Azerbaijan

Zerkalo, Baku
15 Sep 04

For the first time in the whole history of the exercises within the
framework of the Partnership for Peace programme, its organizer and
sole founder NATO has come across a major organizational problem.

[Passage omitted: Azerbaijan did not want to see Armenian officers
in the country]

In the meantime, the former presidential aide on political issues
and now independent expert, Vafa Quluzada, has appealed via Zerkalo
newspaper to all ambassadors accredited to Azerbaijan. Its essence
boils down to the fact that NATO, equally the USA and the bloc’s other
member countries, possesses insufficient information, if any at all,
on the current public mood in Azerbaijan.

The pundit thinks that many European ambassadors to our country are
surrounded by well-off and respectable people who provide distorted
information about the situation in our country.

“Naturally, they [ambassadors] mislead their chiefs, and the latter
are made to think that Azerbaijan is ready to give away Karabakh and
Lacin, including other districts under occupation. Not to mention the
fact that the overwhelming majority of the Azerbaijani people would
be allegedly unruffled by the visit of Armenian military officers. At
the same time, nobody says that the Azerbaijanis detest Armenia for
it occupied their lands in tandem with Russia and that the blood feud
between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been continuing for many years.

“Actually, ambassadors are not being informed but misinformed. There
is allegedly stability in Azerbaijan, the leadership controls the
situation, and hence, Armenians can be invited here. In turn,
the ambassadors feed this distorted information to the world
community. They cannot see that Azerbaijan is like a powder keg
that can explode any time. So far it only gives an impression of an
absolutely peaceful place,” the expert said.

He believes that the abovesaid factor served as a reason for the
current extremely unfavourable situation around the NATO exercises
in our country.

[Passage omitted: First time Armenians were permitted to attend
the exercises]

“It has to be made clear that Azerbaijan and Armenia can be side by
side within NATO only after the conflict has been settled between
them and the occupied lands have been liberated,” the expert said.

Expressing his attitude towards the visit of Armenian officers to
our country, Quluzada described this as a crime.

“The hostile country should not have access to information on the
situation in our country,” Quluzada said.