Ethnic Azeris picket Armenian embassy in Moscow over Karabakh

ANS TV, Baku
27 Dec 04

[Presenter] The Movement for Azerbaijan continues its protests on the
13th anniversary of Xankandi’s [Stepanakert] occupation and on the
occasion of 31 December – Day of Azerbaijani Solidarity Worldwide.

[Correspondent over video of protesters holding posters and the
Azerbaijani flags] The Movement for Azerbaijan held a protest outside
the Armenian embassy in Moscow today. The Russians born in Baku have
for the first time joined the action.

[E. Rustamov, captioned as representative of the Movement for
Azerbaijan, on the phone] As was planned, the picket started at 1500
[1200 gmt] and ended at 1600 [1300 gmt] Moscow time. Although 30
people were registered [words indistinct], about 50 people joined the
action. The action was mostly aimed at informing the public about the
Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani lands. The ethnic Azerbaijanis in
Russia also expressed solidarity with their compatriots living in
Azerbaijan.

[Correspondent] The protesters adopted a resolution at the end of the
action and submitted it to the Armenian embassy.

[Rustamov] The picket mostly demanded that the four UN Security
Council resolutions [on immediate withdrawal of the Armenian armed
forces from the occupied Azerbaijani lands] adopted in 1993 be
accepted unconditionally and an end be put to Armenia’s aggression
policy. The resolution was submitted to a representative of the
Armenian embassy on behalf of the picket and the protest ended.

[Correspondent] Other protests which the Movement for Azerbaijan is to
stage will continue in London tomorrow and in Canada on 29
December. To recap, the protests started from Turkey’s Istanbul.

Baxtiyar Salimov, ANS.