19-11-2009 06:08:20
The Turkish journalist who has visited Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh, an Azerbaijani region under Armenian occupation, has dismissed Armenian media reports that quoted her as saying that the region is Armenian land, an allegation that has drawn ire from Azerbaijan. Nagehan Alci, a writer for the Akhsham newspaper, speaking in Istanbul, told Radio Liberty’s Armenian service that she had not said Upper Garabagh is “100 percent Armenian land.”
According to Alci, her interview with the separatist regime’s public television channel had been distorted.
“I said we had come there to see and cover what’s going on. We witnessed that, today, this is an Armenian land, an Armenian country, because 100 percent of its population are Armenians. Though it is not internationally recognized, there is an Armenian government there today,” the reporter alleged.
Alci added that the TV channel employees cut out the word “today” from her statement, trying “to hide which tense she was talking in.”
Following the journalist’s visit to the occupied territories without Baku’s authorization, she was included in the list of “personas non grata.” But the Akhsham editorial office has assured it had not instructed Alci to visit the region.
Upper Garabagh is an historical Azerbaijani territory. Armenians were settled there in the early 19th century. Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict over the mountainous region for over a decade. OSCE-brokered peace talks kicked off after a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a shaky cease-fire in 1994. Armenia continues to occupy Upper Garabagh and seven adjacent Azerbaijani districts in defiance of international law.*
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