SAME AZERBAIJAN WHICH PROMISED SOVEREIGNTY TO KARABAKH

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR)
08 Oct 04

Azerbaijan demands applying sanctions against the foreign companies
working in the territory of Nagorni Karabakh. They will not be allowed
to do business in Azerbaijan. This is what the Azerbaijani newspapers
have been writing about recently. The vice foreign minister of
Azerbaijan Araz Azimov mentioned,` Azerbaijan cannot overlook the
illegal use of the natural resources in the` occupied
territories’. Among the companies on the black list of theforeign
ministry of Azerbaijan may appear as well the Lithuanian company which
prints the postal stamps of the Republic of Nagorni Karabakh. The
state company â=80=9CAzermarka’ of the Azerbaijani Ministry of
Communication and Information Technologies managed to make the Postal
Union warn all over the world that the stamps of Karabakh are not
legal and valid. The Baku newspaper Day.Az writes, â=80=9CSoso
Pavliashvili who took part in the celebration of independence of `NKR’
announced about his peacemaking mission and although the Ministry of
Culture of Azerbaijan boycotted him, he is going to visit Baku again.’
Member of parliament of the Milli Mejlis Anar Mamedkhanov said in this
reference, `Peacemaking is a good thing. But first I would like Soso
Pavliashvili to conciliate the Georgianswith the Osetians and
Abkhazians. Let him start his peacemaking activities with this. I
would like to advise him to sing in the concert in Sukhumi devoted to
the day of Abkhazian independence from Georgia to prove that for him
his nationis above everything.’ At the same time, the Conference of
Non-Governmental Organizations of Azerbaijan appealed to the
international organizations to cancel the consultation `The activity
of the youth in the areas of confrontation: human rights, democracy
and cooperation’ which will take place in NagorniKarabakh on November
15-19. The consultation is organized by the International Panarmenian
Fund. The statement of the Conference points out `the illegality of
holding this undertaking in the territories of Azerbaijan occupied by
the Karabakh separatists.’ The Conference of Non-Governmental
Organizations of Azerbaijan involves more than 400 organizations of
the country. They even threaten to take legal action against the youth
organizations which wanted to visit Karabakh. And the leader of the
so-called Committee for Liberation of Karabakh Akif Naghi
characterized the upcoming visit of the Armenian parliamentarians to
Baku as the essential problem of Azerbaijan. According to him, before
the settlement of the Karabakh problem they will not stop struggling
against the visit of the citizens of the aggressor country of
Armenia. In particular, the Committee is going to start a new campaign
of protest against the Armenian parliamentarians who intend to
participate in the seminar of the NATO parliamentary assembly in
Baku. At the same time, A. Naghi characterized the consistent wish of
the Armenians to visit Baku as a provocation. According to him,
similar actionsare dictated by their aim to involve Azerbaijan in a
conflict with international organizations, thereby causing
tensions. Baku also reacted to our information on adopting the law on
ombudsman by the Karabakh parliament. The head of the press centre of
the Azerbaijani foreign ministry M. Mirza told the Baku newspaper
`Echo’, `The following can be said in this situation: generally, all
the institutions created and to be created in NKR have no legal basis
for factual existence. That is to say, in fact they do not exist as
either they, or their ` state’ have not been recognized by anyone in
the world.’ Extremism in Azerbaijan is already practised on the level
of the president. This statement was made by the vice speaker of the
National Assembly of Armenia Vahan Hovhannissian during his press
conference. The vice speaker is worried by the anti-Armenian moods in
Azerbaijan. `Quite recently the road Kirants – Voskepar has been
bombed. I do not think that Mr. Aliev would dare to make a direct
order to start war, but an uncontrolled spark may cause fire.’
According to Vahan Hovhannissian, the diplomatic task of Armenia today
is `to prove that we recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan
but it has no relation to the problem of Nagorni Karabakh.’ The
president of Azerbaijan stated at the UN that NKR is a persisting
source of threat for peace and security in the region. Ignoring the
four resolutions of the UN Council for Security, trying to maintain
the results of the military aggression and remaining unpunished,
Armenia actually fulfilled a policy of illegal mass settlement of
Armenian population in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. According
to him, the situation is aggravated by using these territories for
illegal circulation of drugs, transportation of weapon, illegal
economic activities, smuggling, terrorism. He stated that the
aggressors of Armenia and the Karabakh separatists try to involve
foreign companies in illegal business thereby exploiting the natural
resources of the occupied Azerbaijani territories. The president of
Azerbaijan appealed to the UN members to make their citizens and
companies respect international law and stop their illegal activity in
the territory of our country. He also mentioned that Armenia falsifies
the history of the Azerbaijani region of Nagorni Karabakh,
appropriates its cultural and architectural heritage. According to
him, Thereligious and historical monuments of Azerbaijan were ruined,
plundered and the ancient manuscripts, as well as other valuable
objects were stolen. In his address at the 59th session of the General
Assembly of the UN the foreign minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanian
stated that we would like to deal with an Azerbaijan which recognizes
its place and acts according to the international law, andnot with the
country whose policies, actions and statements threaten the fragile
peace and stability in the region. In the post-Soviet territory
Azerbaijan was the first to introduce the practice of torturing people
for their nationality, to involve mercenaries and international
terrorists in the army, and to ignore the international law, mentioned
Vardan Oskanian. Azerbaijan managed to get rid of Armenians in
Nakhijevan who formed more than the half of the local
population. There is not a single Armenian there. In the Soviet years
more than 400 thousand Armenians lived in Baku, Sumgait and at other
places in Azerbaijan. Today there is not a single Armenian there. The
Azerbaijani attempt of extermination of a nation was a success,
continued the foreign minister of Armenia. According to him, ten
years ago Azerbaijan used mercenaries and international terrorists to
`fight’ against the Armenian men and women defending their land. The
terrorists were defeated and the Armenians won. Mentioning that the
Armenians overcame the confrontation with a victory after their
peaceful claims for self-determination had been met with swords,
Vardan Oskanian emphasized that the Armenians had occupied those
territories 2000 years ago and not in the recent ten years, as the
Azerbaijani president insists. Azerbaijan excludesthe mediation of the
international community directed at blocking drug businessrun in its
territory. Azerbaijan also nullifies the efforts of the EC and other
monitoring groups which try to visit the region and see themselves
thousands of ruined historical and cultural monuments, said the
minister. If in the past century Armenians and Azerbaijanis were
obliged to live side by side, in this century we obtained the right to
decide our fate and thereby we may decide ourselves to coexist
peacefully, said the foreign minister of Armenia.

NAIRA HAYRUMIAN.
08-10-2004