US BASED LOS ANGELES TIMES DISREGARDS AZERBAIJAN’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY
APA
Feb 9 2010
Azerbaijan
Washington. Isabel Levine – APA. The US based Los Angeles Times
disregarded the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
According to APA’s Washington DC correspondent, the newspaper is
planning to hold a Travel and Adventure show, where "the Republics
of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) will be represented.
The tourism offices of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh will share a large
"Welcome to Armenia" booth in the Exhibition Hall of the Travel Show
on December 13".
The show will feature spectacular photography of the people, vistas,
and historic sites of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, the newspaper said.
The Azerbaijani Diaspora to US is already aware of that act of
disrespect and expressed its deep concern about it. US Azerbaijanis
sent a letter to Los Angeles Times saying that they urge the show
holders and the newspaper to stop this outrageous misuse of Terms of
Use and the international law. US Azerbaijanis stated it is absolutely
unacceptable for any exhibitor to promote any part of land, culture,
and heritage that does not belong to them.
"As is well known, Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan has been
occupied by the Armenian military since the early 1994, but has
always been legally recognized by the UN, U.S. government and the
entire international community as part of Azerbaijan. All Azerbaijanis
around the world, including our own Azerbaijani-American community in
the US, as well as the government of Azerbaijan, strongly object to
any report, incident or event, where the territorial integrity and
sovereignty of Azerbaijan over Karabakh is somehow misrepresented
and compromised. As a community, we have staged boycotts and protest
marches throughout cities in US to drive the point home, whilst the
Azerbaijani government is known for denying visas and "blacklisting"
known violators and alerting Interpol to assist in the apprehension
of such individuals" – says the letter.
According to Azerbaijani Diaspora, Armenians should promote tourism to
Armenia only, not encouraging illegal tourism to Azerbaijan’s occupied
lands. "As a community, we strongly support U.S. government’s position
on the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and are of the opinion
that all U.S. legal entities must adhere to the government’s position.
There is still time to prevent this outrage from taking place", –
they said.