WASHINGTON POST RECOGNIZES EQUAL RIGHTS OF AZERBAIJAN AND NAGORNO KARABAKH

PanARMENIAN.Net - The article of “Washington Post’s” correspondent Suzan Glasser was titled “The Unruly Settlement – an Unexpected Trial for Azerbaijani Authorities”. It concerns mainly the situation in the village of Nardaran, near Baku, where protest actions against the policy conducted by the country's authorities are going on for already 2 years. ''The Azerbaijani government says it is democratic, but rules the country with authoritarian methods. The action in Nardaran became a very serious trial,'' the journalist writes. Susan Glasser notes that ''Azerbaijan is a place where it is especially difficult for the United States to balance between the policy of the protection of human rights and its strategic interests''. ''After the terrorist acts of September 11, America tries to find new allies and often concludes partnership agreements with former Soviet Republics, where the human rights and democracy principles are being violated,'' the author of the article says bringing the example of Azerbaijan.

The publication in the ''Washington Post'' touched upon the issue of the 907 section of the Freedom Support Act. According to the correspondent, the aspiration of the American administration to reach at least a temporal lifting of sanctions towards Azerbaijan became the result of new approaches of Washington, recently not very scrupulous in choosing partners. Glasser notes that “the United States have made certain concessions to Aliyev through lifting the ban on providing some types of aid to Azerbaijan introduced in the beginning of 90ies”.

It is not surprising that such evaluations could cause the indignation of Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They would hardly expect that demanding from the editorial of the “Washington Post” to publish a rejection, they will have more problems. The matter is that providing the Azerbaijani ambassador with the possibility to express his opinion about the article of Susan Glasser, the newspaper decided to maintain the balance and asked to speak also his Karabakh colleague, permanent representative of Nagorno Karabakh Republic in Washington Vardan Barseghyan.

The diplomat first of all welcomed the impartiality of the newspaper which gave an objective assessment to the democratic situation in Azerbaijan. Vardan Barseghyan stressed that “Threatening Nagorno Karabakh with a new war, Heydar Aliyev and his surroundings use militaristic rhetoric in order to strengthen the dictator regime”. “Economic development, transportation of fuel, peace and stability in the strategically important region of Southern Caucasus depend on the recognition of common values and friendship between neighbors in the region,” the comment of Mr. Barseghyan reads. He voiced his hope that “under the support of the USA, the democratic principles and respect of Human rights will become main directing principles on this way”.

Publishing the message of the NKR Permanent Representative near the letter of the Ambassador of Azerbaijan, The Washington Post in fact acknowledges that Stepanakert, and not Yerevan appears as a part of the Karabakh conflict. Besides, the newspaper makes it clear that it considers Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan as states with equal status. And this is a very important fact if taking into account the fact that the Washington Post, which managed once to remove he President, is very influential.