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Freedom House mislabels Nagorno-Karabakh

14 December 2009 08:44 (UTC +04:00)

Washington. Isabel Levine â€“ APA. According to APAâ€™s Washington DC correspondent, Azerbaijani Diaspora organizations have started a new campaign against Freedom House in internet. The reason for this is that the organization has declined of the Armenia-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as both somehow â€œPartly Freeâ€ and designated under some joint rule of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Azerbaijanis in America stated that this is incorrect â€“ Nagorno-Karabakh region has been and is recognized as de jure part of Azerbaijan by four UN Security Council resolutions, several UN GA resolutions, as well as the State Department.

Hundreds of Azerbaijani Diaspora members are sending their protect letters to a number of US officials, including Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Senator John Cornyn, Representative Al Green.
They are also calling on Azerbaijani and Turkish societies to send protect emails directly to Freedom House.

Azerbaijanis believes that the Freedom House sends a wrong signal to the world and confuses readers and visitors. â€œWhile it rightly indicates Abkhazia, Transdnistria and even Kosovo as part of Georgia, Moldova and Serbia respectively, Nagorno-Karabakh for some unknown reason is indicated as Armenia/Azerbaijan. â€œThis gross mistake turns the â€œMap of Freedomâ€ into a Map of Selective Separatism, Annexation and Usurpationâ€, -stress Azerbaijanis.

Authors of letters also pointing out that Freedom House is a US organization and gets government funding, hence should listen to what US government says. On the other hand, Azerbaijan continues to have de facto control of some 15% of Nagorno-Karabakh (more than any other country with similar problems of occupation).

US Azerbaijanis are strongly urging Freedom House to correct the map and country report as soon as possible to bring it in-line with UN SC resolutions and State Departmentâ€™s policy.