US EMBASSY IN ARMENIA SAYS THAT BRYZA WAS NOT REFERRING TO ARMENIAN JOURNALISTS

ArmInfo
2007-06-12 22:00:00

The US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza was not referring
to Armenian journalists, the US Embassy in Armenia says in response
to the request of an ArmInfo correspondent to comment on the report
by Azeri media that Bryza has called Armenian journalists idiots.

To remind, Azeri media claim that during a speech on ATB TV channel
Bryza refuted a report by Armenian media and did that in a very
tactless and provocative way. He reportedly said that those who had
made that report were idiots. The Azeri sources do not specify what
report Bryza meant exactly but one can guess from their comments
what they are hinting at. They say that "last week Armenian media
said on behalf of Bryza that Azerbaijan has occupied some territories
of Nagorno-Karabakh."

To note, during a press-conference in Yerevan last week a journalist
asked if the co-chairs, who kept talking about occupied Azeri
territories, knew that there were also Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian
territories occupied by Azerbaijan. Bryza said that the co-chairs
knew that but at the moment they were discussing principles and he
would prefer keeping details secret as making them public would mean
showing disrespect for the negotiating parties.

So, it is not clear who Bryza referred to if not Armenian
journalists. It may so happen that the Azeri journalists provoked
Bryza to use the insulting word.

In this context, we have remembered the well-known phrase from
Dostoyevsky’s Idiot: "Beauty will save the world," which in this
particular situation and in relation to the Nagorno-Karabakh peace
process can well be changed into "Tolerance will save the world"
and referred to Bryza.