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BAKU: TV slams rights activist's "anti-Azerbaijani" remarks insepara

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  • BAKU: TV slams rights activist's "anti-Azerbaijani" remarks insepara

    TV slams rights activist's "anti-Azerbaijani" remarks in separatist Karabakh

    ANS TV, Baku
    2 Jun 04

    [Presenter] Azerbaijan's Avaz Hasanov [member of the international
    working group on hostages and missing persons] is making unofficial
    attempts to bring closer Azerbaijan and Armenia which occupies most
    of its territories.

    To recap, our compatriot attracted the attention because he acted
    against his state by visiting Nagornyy Karabakh from Armenian territory
    and by giving a news conference in Xankandi [Stepanakert].

    [Correspondent, over video of the news conference] The members of
    the international working group for releasing POWs and hostages and
    for tracing missing persons, Avaz Hasanov, Bernhard Clasen, Svetlana
    Ganushkina and Karina Minasyan, went to Nagornyy Karabakh without the
    Baku government's authorization. Their Georgian counterpart, Paata
    Zakareishvili, told ANS that the working group stayed at Armenia's
    Ararat Hotel. From there they went to Karabakh.

    To recap, this is what Avaz Hasanov told the news conference in
    Xankandi, which was also attended by the head of the Armenian community
    in Nagornyy Karabakh, Albert Voskanyan, about the Baku government's
    desire for Armenians not to visit Azerbaijan:

    We are involved in humanitarian activities as members of the
    international working group. Our mandate is quite different. We
    represent neither Azerbaijan, nor Armenia nor Karabakh. I cannot
    understand why the coordinators of this group are not allowed to visit
    Azerbaijan. Clearly the fact that our president called on the NGOs not
    to cooperate with Armenia has something to do with that. As a human
    rights activist I am involved in the issue of POWs. As a member of the
    working group I have been to Armenia and Nagornyy Karabakh. Personally,
    the president's challenge is of no relevance to me, end of quote.

    Commenting on the calls for war recently made in Baku, Avaz Hasanov
    said that no-one needs another war in the region. The government
    is artificially trying to give the impression that the Azerbaijani
    public opinion is aggressive, Hasanov said.

    To recap, Avaz Hasanov and his counterparts went to Armenia to
    trace the hostages. However, relatives of the hostages regard as
    insulting the anti-Azerbaijan remarks made by Azerbaijani citizen
    Avaz Hasanov as he stood next to a separatist Armenian. For instance,
    Asgar Nacafov, Gulsara Mahmudova's husband, has been in captivity
    for 11 years now. But there is no information about him. Before his
    visit to Armenia, Avaz Hasanov told the woman that he would let her
    know about her husband's plight.

    [Passage omitted: Gulsara Mahmudova questions Hasanov's behavior]

    [Correspondent, over video] Rafiq Nacafov [son of the hostage],
    whose father is missing, accused Avaz Hasanov of circulating this
    kind of reports.

    [Rafiq Nacafov] They have gone there to trace the hostages. But
    they have done nothing. On the contrary, they are involved in
    anti-Azerbaijani propaganda.

    [Correspondent, over video] Human rights activist Cingiz Qanizada
    thinks that Hasanov made a mistake by going to Karabakh without
    Azerbaijan's authorization. He should explain this step.

    [Qanizada, speaking to microphone in his office] I regret he said that
    - if that is what he actually said. It is inadmissible to say that
    the challenge by the Azerbaijani head of state is of no importance to
    me, irrespective of who the president is. I think if the state and
    the president, within his constitutional rights, make moves for the
    liberation of Karabakh tomorrow, people like Hasanov might not join
    such moves but form such opinions. Naturally, I denounce this.

    [Passage omitted: Hasanov's mother does not believe her son would
    make statements against Azerbaijan]

    [Correspondent, over video] There is another interesting
    fact. Hasanov's mother told us something interesting: she said that
    Hasanov himself had once been in Armenian captivity.

    Qanira Atasova, Sehrac Azadoglu, Sadiq Mammadov, ANS.
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