Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend , corr. S. Ilhamgizi/ The expression - "Armenian Forces still occupy most of Azerbaijani lands adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh" has been used in a report for 2006, prepared by the US State Department, concerning the human rights situation worldwide.
In his written appeal to the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Nizami Bahmanov, the Head of the Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh evaluated the phrase used in the report as a vivid disregard to the violation of the rights of more than 62,000 Azerbaijanis of the Nagorno-Karabakh.
Mr Bahmanov considers that the change in the position of the USA, the world's key to human rights, under the influence of Armenian organizations sponsoring Armenian terrorism, means America doubt the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. "We can understand and admit it as their support to the Armenian separatist regime. The Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh insists that the USA, being a OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair ought to keep its position fair towards the issue, and leave the first reading of the report unchanged," says Mr Bahmanov in his appeal to USA.
Notably, Armenia occupies 20% of Azerbaijani lands including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven districts of the country surrounding it. Since 1992 and up to now, all these territories have been under the occupation of Armenian Forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a cease-fire agreement that put an end to active battles and hostilities in Azerbaijan's breakaway region and surrounding territories. However, Armenian separatist has founded their own imaginary regime in the Nagorno-Karabakh, which is an integral part of Azerbaijan.