Official tolerance to visits to Karabakh aimed at defeatist peace – Azeri daily

Yeni Musavat, Baku
31 Jul 06

The Azerbaijani authorities’ recent tolerance to some visits from
Azerbaijan to Armenia and Nagornyy Karabakh is part of their policy
to prepare the people for defeatist peace, the opposition daily Yeni
Musavat has said.

"Some NGO representatives, human rights activists and journalists have
recently increased their visits to Armenia and Nagornyy Karabakh. The
authorities, which previously organized propaganda against such
cases, have started to show tolerance to such visits. For instance,
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has recently said that such visits
are necessary as it is high time to put an end to mutual hatred. It
seems that a rise in the number of visits to Armenia and Nagornyy
Karabakh is part of the authorities’ policy to prepare the people for
defeatist peace," the daily said, commenting on the recent visit of
the chairperson of the Azerbaijani National Committee of the Helsinki
Citizens’ Assembly, Arzu Abdullayeva, to Karabakh.

However, the paper also added that Abdullayeva’s position on Karabakh’s
direct participation in the peace talks was against Azerbaijan’s
official stance. The paper quoted Regnum news agency as reporting
that Abdullayeva said this at the meeting with the separatist leader
of Karabakh, Arkadiy Gukasyan, on 30 July.