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Karabakh not a drug transit route - Stepanakert

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  • Karabakh not a drug transit route - Stepanakert

    Interfax, Russia
    April 15 2006

    Karabakh not a drug transit route - Stepanakert


    STEPANAKERT. April 15 (Interfax) - Stepanakert has criticized the
    naming of the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno-Karabakh as a
    territory used for illegal drug transit in a U.S. Department of State
    report.

    Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Minister Georgy Petrosian and police chief
    Armen Isagulov sent a letter to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for
    the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
    Anne Patterson, in which they declared that "Nagorno-Karabakh is not
    a transit route for illegal drugs."

    The Department of State's International Narcotics Control Strategy
    Report (INCSR) for 2006 "again identifies Nagorno-Karabakh and
    territories it controls as a drug transit route, unlike in the
    previous years, when explanations given by the Nagorno-Karabakh
    authorities helped reach understanding on this issue," the
    Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry told Interfax.

    "We would like to once again assure you with all die responsibility
    that Nagorno-Karabakh is not a drug transit route, not only due to
    the absence of a developed transportation and communication system
    resulting from Azerbaijan's continuing blockade of the republic, but
    primarily thanks to efficient preemptive efforts by Nagorno-Karabakh
    law enforcement agencies," Petrosian and Isagulov said in the letter.


    "This incorrect information was given by Azerbaijan, which has made
    the falsification and discrediting of Armenia an element of its
    policy," they said.

    The authors regretted that "the report cites unconfirmed information,
    while repeated calls by the Karabakh authorities on putting together
    an independent monitoring team and sending it to Nagorno- Karabakh
    with a fact-finding mission have not yet evoked a response from the
    relevant international institutions."

    Nagorno-Karabakh would welcome such a monitoring team capable of
    drawing an independent and objective conclusion, they said. va
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