Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 12
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:
The Washington Post's heightened attention to and frequent coverage of Azerbaijan over the past year may be flattering for a country of its size, however, the one-dimensional nature of the coverage, including in an Aug. 17 editorial, is disappointing, said Samira Safarova, political officer of Azerbaijan's embassy in the US.
She made the remarks in a letter to the editor published by the Post, Sept 11.
"The administration of justice plays an important role in any society," said Safarova. "Therefore, even if one disagrees with the initial verdict, a case should be allowed to make its way through the judicial system, including appellate courts, a notion certainly familiar to many in the United States."
She added that summarily dismissing the prosecution's argument solely for ideological reasons is hardly beneficial for civil society development.
As for the people-to-people contacts, Safarova said it is the Azerbaijani side that insists on meetings between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno-Karabakh, an area illegally occupied by Armenia.
"The reasons for Armenia's rejection of such a dialogue as well as other developments in our strategically important region deserve more complex and multidimensional coverage than what we have seen so far," she added.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
Edited by SI