“USA DOES NOT RECOGNIZE KARABAKH AS PART OF AZERBAIJAN”

Azg/arm
22 Dec 04

A new map drawn in the US and depicting Nagorno Karabakh as an
“arguable territory” and not an Azeri region captured the attention
of two Baku newspapers who responded in yesterday’s issues.

In an article titled “Azerbaijan Without Karabakh?” Zerkalo wrote
that the map was drawn by the US National Geographic Center. Besides
Nagorno Karabakh, there are other states as well bearing the indication
“arguable territory”, namely, the West bank of the Jordan river,
Northern Cyprus, Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia. The paper noted that
the map weighs 5 kg and costs $165.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry is going to charge its embassy in
Washington with a mission to find out how Nagorno Karabakh happened
to be of other color than Azerbaijan in the American map and was
labeled as an “arguable territory”.

Another Baku newspaper,Yeni Zaman, wrote that the USA are the next
country after Armenia that is directly aiding the Armenians of
Karabakh. According to the paper, American annual aid to Karabakh
will amount to $3 million by 2005.

The paper notes that still in 1970s the CIA top-secret documents
“considered Nagorno Karabakh a historic Armenian territory, and
Karabakh systematically attempted to legally unite Armenia”.

The Yeni Zaman referred to CIA report which named Nagorno Karabakh
“an Armenian cultural and religious center” in 1988. The report
highlighted the fact that “Karabakh was a semi-independent unit for
centuries and was ruled by Armenian rulers even in times when other
Armenian regions were under Turkish and Persian yoke”.