February 11, 2002 - 22:49 AMT
OFFICIAL BAKU DISPLEASED WITH "ITAR-TASS" INFORMATION AGENCY COVERAGE OF HEYDAR ALIYEV'S MEETING WITH PRESIDENT OF UNION OF ARMENIANS OF RUSSIA
Ambassador of Azerbaijan in Washington Hafiz Pashayev addressed the Director General of the "ITAR-TASS" Russian information agency Vitaliy Ignatenko a protest concerning the content of the information spread lately about Heydar Aliyev's meeting with President of the Union of Armenians of Russia Ara Abrahamian in New York. The diplomat says that the report comprises distortions. "It follows from the information that Ara Abrahamian expressed confidence in continuing the negotiations in the direction of "recognition of Nagorno Karabakh Republic as a sovereign state" and that "the territory populated by Armenians since ancient times had never legally belonged to Azerbaijan," - the call says. The Ambassador states that the information does not correspond to the reality. At the same time it is not quite clear whether the fact that Abrahamian really said this or the correspondence of his words to the reality is denied. Taking into consideration that the agency just cited Abrahamian, who, by the way, does not refuse his words, it becomes apparent that the protest is misdirected.