Azeri official warns OSCE fact-finding mission against breaching agreements
Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
1 Feb 05
[Presenter] The first complaints have surfaced in connection with the
OSCE fact-finding mission’s visit to the occupied districts outside
Nagornyy Karabakh. A number of conditions put forward by Baku and
accepted by the parties to the conflict to ensure the mission’s
objectivity are being violated. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has
said that if this information is confirmed, the ministry will ask the
experts for explanation.
[Correspondent over archive footage] Despite statements by the
Azerbaijani authorities and the OSCE [Minsk Group] co-chairmen, the
OSCE fact-finding mission visiting the occupied territories is being
accompanied by the Karabakh Armenians.
According to a report posted on the web site of the Armenian newspaper
Yerkir, the European experts are being accompanied by the deputy
foreign minister of the self-styled Nagornyy Karabakh republic, Masis
Mailyan.
Meanwhile, Baku regards the Armenian report as provocation. Deputy
Foreign Minister Araz Azimov has told “Son Xabar” that when the Minsk
Group co-chairmen and members of the fact-finding mission were in
Baku, this issue was broadly discussed. We told them that the
Armenians would try to offer a number of pretexts to stop the experts
going there, by saying that the areas are mined, that roads are
impassable, that the weather is not favourable enough. However, the
OSCE representatives said they would be accompanied by [special
representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office] Andrzej Kasprzyk, and
promised not to let this happen, end of quote.
According to Araz Azimov, the Azerbaijani side tends to trust the
sincerity of European experts. At the same time, the deputy minister
said if these reports are confirmed, the Azerbaijani side might ask
the fact-finding mission to provide an explanation of how this could
have happened.
[Passage to end omitted: known background details]