ArmenPress
Feb 23 2005

KLO ACCUSES AZERI JOURNALISTS OF ADVERTISING KARABAGH ARMENIANS

BAKU, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS: The Karabagh Liberation
Organization (KLO), an extremist group in Azerbaijan, has accused a
leading journalists Eynulla Fatullayev of advertising in favor of
Karabagh separatists. The KLO criticism followed an interview by
Fatullayev to Azerbaijani newspaper Yeni Musavat on 22 February.
Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the Monitor magazine and prominent
journalist, spent 11 days in Nagorno Karabagh, visiting places in the
occupied districts of Nagorno Karabagh, talking to Armenians and even
Azerbaijanis there. She said to the daily she came back with pleasant
impressions.
She traveled to Karabagh from Yerevan on February 12 , visiting
Stepanakert, Shushi, Lachin and Agdam and actually was the first
Azerbaijani to visit Agdam after the truce. “I was treated well in
Agdam and Shushi , but the attitude towards me was aggressive in
Lachin. The Armenians living there attacked me, saying that this is
their land and wondered about the aim of my visit. However, my
security was arranged very well. I asked them who they are and they
said they are refugees from villages of Agdara District, which is
under Azerbaijani control. There are also Armenians from Yevlakh and
Baku in Lachin,” she said.
She also interviewed Karabagh leader Arkady Ghukasian and the
mayor of Stepanakert and met met some Azerbaijanis in Askeran, where
a dozen of them are still living.
She said Armenian journalists were keen on her views about the
ongoing processes in Karabagh. “I said that the switch from the
police regime to a semi-civil society had taken place in Karabagh and
free polls were held, the opposition won, the media was free and
there was political rivalry. Political freedom is stronger there than
in Armenia. At all meetings, they wondered about public opinion in
Azerbaijan. My impression of the meetings with the Karabagh political
leadership is that they are ready for horizontal relations with
Azerbaijan,” she said. “My observation is that they (Karabagh people)
hate the Azerbaijani authorities, not our people,” she said.