Azerbaijan condemns Armenian leader’s visit to breakaway region

ANS TV, Baku
2 Sep 05

[Presenter] Armenian President Robert Kocharyan today attended
festivities in Susa [a town in Karabakh populated mainly by Azeris
until 1992] and Xankandi [Stepanakert] organized by the Armenian
community of Nagornyy Karabakh and devoted to the 14th anniversary
of independence from Azerbaijan.

[Passage omitted: reported details]

[Correspondent over video of Bahmanov] The head of the Azerbaijani
community of Nagornyy Karabakh, Nizami Bahmanov, has said that
[Karabakh separatist leader] Arkadiy Gukasyan is deceiving the
Armenian community of Karabakh by issuing such statements. First, if
living standards were high and there was prosperity in Xankandi, its
population of 120,000 would not have fallen to 70,000. Moreover, 50 per
cent of the 70,000 have left this town. Most of them are now in Russia
and other countries. What Gukasyan says is aimed at consoling people.

As for Kocharyan’s participation in the festivities, on the one hand,
the Armenian authorities attend peace talks organized by the OSCE
Minsk Group, and on the other, they do such things.

Kocharyan’s visit to Susa and Xankandi proves that Armenia is an
aggressive country.

[Passage omitted: minor details]

[Bilik Dunyasi news agency has quoted the head of the press and
information department of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Tahir
Tagizada, as saying that Kocharyan’s visit to Karabakh “runs counter
to the priorities of the peace process”.]