U.S. Department of State restored original version of country report on human rights practices in Armenia

According to Day.Az, U.S. Department of State restored original version of country report on human rights practices in Armenia.

Wording "Armenian forces occupy large portions of Azerbaijani territory adjacent to Nagorno Karabakh" was changed to the original version "Armenia continued to occupy the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno Karabakh and seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories."
( http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78799.htm )

Earlier the country report on Azerbaijan, posted on the State Department Web site, stated that in 2006 "Armenia continued to occupy the Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno Karabakh and seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories" - wording that was apparently acceptable to Azerbaijan. But the report on neighboring Armenia, however, said: "Armenian forces occupy large portions of Azerbaijani territory adjacent to Nagorno Karabakh.

According to the Associated Press, the Caspian Sea coast nation's Foreign Ministry warned that the issue "may become a serious impediment to further security-related cooperation between our countries" - a possible reference to Azerbaijan's contribution to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

The government postponed the two-day visit for security talks, which was to have started Monday and to have included high-level officials from several ministries, because of "changes to the provisions" on Nagorno Karabakh in the State Department's 2006 report on human rights abroad, a ministry statement said.

The changes "distort the essence of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh conflict" and their introduction "puts in doubt the U.S. position of the 'honest broker' in the resolution of the conflict," the statement said.

Nagorno Karabakh is a territory inside Azerbaijan that has been occupied by Armenian and local ethnic Armenian forces since a six-year war that ended in 1994. Tension remains high between Armenia and Azerbaijan, ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus.

The Azerbaijani statement said resolution of the conflict "based on the territorial integrity of ... Azerbaijan, with Nagorno Karabakh as its inalienable part, is a primary and foremost element" in its security cooperation with the United States.