STATE DEPARTMENT REVISES MISSTATEMENT REGARDING NAGORNO KARABAGH

ArmRadio.am
20.04.2007 12:16

The US Department of State has revised the mistaken assertion, within
the Armenia section of its recently released annual human rights
report, that, "Armenia continues to occupy the Azerbaijani territory
of Nagorno-Karabagh and seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories,"
reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

The amended language, released this week, has been posted on
theDepartment’s website. It reads as follows: "Armenian forces
occupy large portions of Azerbaijan territory adjacent to Nagorno-
Karabakh. Armenian officials maintain that they do not ‘occupy’
Nagorno-Karabakh itself." The Azerbaijan section, which included
nearly identical language, has yet to be revised.

"We take note of the fact that the State Department has responded
to our concern that the report’s mischaracterization of Nagorno
Karabagh’s status would be detrimental to the U.S. government’s role
as an impartial mediator of the Minsk Group negotiations," said
ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "We remain concerned that
the amended text continues to fall short of accurately describing
the situation, as well as by the fact that the Azerbaijan section of
the report continues to make incorrect assertions, thus making its
text inconsistent with the State Department’s own revision of the
Armenia section."

ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian, in an April 3, 2007 letter to Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice, expressed the Armenian American community’s
profound concern that, "such statements fundamentally misrepresent the
well-documented reality in the region, contradict the Department’s
previous human rights reports, and undermine the credibility of the
United States as an impartial arbiter destined to a leadership
role in the OSCE Minsk Group peace process." He added that,
"These unprecedented assertions are both factually inaccurate and
counter-productive to our government’s aim of reaching a durable
resolution to the Nagorno Karabagh conflict. To say that Nagorno
Karabagh is an Azerbaijani territory and that Armenia occupies Nagorno
Karabagh and other territories is to ignore the very fundamentals of
this conflict. These statements only serve to send the wrong message
to the Azerbaijani side and further complicate the peace negotiations."