Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, Hikmet Hajiyev, addressed an open letter to the "New York Times".
Ednews presents the content of the open letter:
"Sirs,
Nicholas Kristof makes an important point (NYTimes, 2nd September). The first step to resolving the standoff in Karabakh between Azerbaijan and Armenia is to open additional land routes into the territory to transport supplies. The shortest route is via Azerbaijan itself, not least because that is the country of which Karabakh is part.
That is not the truth that militant Armenian separatists and their diaspora supporters want the world to hear. They want Karabakh to remain linked only and solely to Armenia through a single, monoethnic land route. This should not be acceptable to the international community any more than it is acceptable to Azerbaijan.
During the 30 years Armenia occupied one quarter of Azerbaijan's sovereign territory Karabakh was a grey zone. Ethnically cleansed of close to one million Azerbaijanis, the remaining Karabakh Armenian population was suckled via a single land route to Armenia, while the majority occupied territory was a land-mined buffer around them. Such a grey zone would not be tolerable to Armenia if it was in their country. So why should it be acceptable to Azerbaijan when it is in ours?"