AZERBAIJAN APPRECIATES MALAYSIA’S SUPPORT
Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia General News
March 25, 2008 Tuesday

Azerbaijan appreciates Malaysia’s support on the issue of
Nagorno-Karabakh region, currently under Armenia’s occupation.

Its ambassador to Malaysia, Tahir Karimov said Kuala Lumpur supported
the United Nations General Assembly resolutions on March 14, which
among others reaffirmed Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and called
for the immediate withdrawal of all Armenian forces from the region.

"We are very thankful for Malaysia’s support…Malaysia was among
those states that rendered unequivocal support to the just cause of
Azerbaijan" he told Bernama here today.

He said support from countries such as Malaysia all these years, had
made Azerbaijan more determined to solve the protracted conflict in
a peaceful way.

Following the 1992 occupation, Karimov said there were about one
million displaced people and refugees.

Karimov said that despite Baku and Kuala Lumpur having established
diplomatic ties in 1993, the Malaysian public had no much knowledge
about the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and the history of persecution
and oppression against the Azerbaijanis, at the hands of Armenians,
dating back to 1828.

He said since that year, many Azerbaijanis were killed or expelled,
adding that over 50,000 people were massacred between March 30-April 1,
1918 alone.

Karimov said to commemorate all the tragic acts perpetrated against
the Azerbaijani people and country since 1998, every March 31 would
be proclaimed "The Day of Genocide of the Azerbaijanis".

Located at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia,
Azerbaijan, a nation with about 8.6 million people, declared
independence from the then-Soviet Union in October 1991.

About 96 per cent of the Azerbaijan population is Muslim.