“OUR PRIME AIM WAS TO PRESENT OUR COUNTRY”
Nvrad Ohanjanian

Azat Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
23 May 2006

The Committee of Tourism of the government of Moscow held a tourism
expo in Moscow on May 11-13. NKR was represented by the NKR Tourism
Development Agency. On May 19 Sergey Shahverdian and Davit Ishkanian,
Tourism Development Agency, gave a press conference to provide details
on the expo. Sergey Shahverdian said the stand of Nagorno Karabakh
Republic, which was considered one of the best, gave information on
this country through photos and products made in NKR. On May 13 the NKR
representatives made a presentation on Nagorno Karabakh Republic. “The
presentation was appointed at 11 in the morning, but several minutes
before the presentation a group of Azerbaijanis, apparently students,
entered the hall. We asked the security services for help to avoid any
incidents. During the opening of the presentation by Albert Andrian,
the special representative of NKR to Moscow the Azerbaijanis started
an action of protest.

Namely, they took off their shirts and stood with t-shirts on with
writings against our people’s victory and achievements,” said Sergey
Shahverdian, adding that this sight confused the participants of the
presentation. Despite the protest of the Azerbaijanis, the presentation
passed normally and ended with a tasting of Karabakh wines. After
the presentation the organizers of the expo gave a diploma to the
NKR representation. “The Azerbaijanis, who were trying to prevent our
presentation, did not even imagine that their protest would produce
the opposite impression, a positive impression on the participants,”
said Sergey Shahverdian. He says beginning with the first day of the
expo the Azerbaijani embassy was making attempts at having the NKR
stand closed, but as soon as they failed, they started demanding
to replace the sign on the stand “Nagorno Karabakh Republic” with
“Nagorno Karabakh.” This demand was turned down by the organizers of
the expo. Davit Ishkanian said this is the fifth participation of
NKR in similar Armenian and international expos: once in Yerevan,
three times in Arab and European tourism expos in Beirut. “The NKR
government, namely the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of
Territorial Management and Development of Infrastructures contributed
to the participation of NKR in the expo. We are grateful to Karabakh
Telecom for financial support, Artsakh Alco and Karabakh Gold for
the products to display,” said Davit Ishkanian. He thinks that
participation in such events is important, for these, first of all,
have a political context. Sergey Shahverdian says after the Russian
government banned import of Georgian and Moldavian wines, the wine
producers of Karabakh have an excellent opportunity of exporting
their production to Russia. This circumstance should spur the NKR
government agencies and companies to take practical steps. “Unlike
product expos, tourism expos are important in the sense that the
country is presented. Our prime aim was to acquaint present Karabakh
and its political situation to travel agencies and visitors,” he said,
adding that in Moscow the representatives of Karabakh made arrangements
with travel magazines, as well as a Russian TV company and people
related with tourism. In answer to the question if the Karabakh issue
was discussed by the participants and visitors of this event, Sergey
Shahverdian said presently there are a number of people in Russia,
who are well aware of what goes on in Karabakh, therefore there is
no need for propaganda among these people. “The only problem they
are interested in is whether there are skirmishes at the front line
of the Karabakh-Azerbaijani conflict. We gave them true information,
assuring that there are no skirmishes, and safety of travelers
is guaranteed, and tourists can visit and see Karabakh,” said
S. Shahverdian.