Online mistake related to Azerbaijan made by International Union for Conservation of Nature corrected - UPDATED

16.06.09

10:00

Owing to high civil activeness and awareness of our readers, who sent letters to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the organization has corrected the mistake on the Azerbaijan map, on which the administrative borders of the Armenian-occupied Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan were marked in the same format with the state borders of the South Caucasus region. The similarity of the administrative borders of the former NKAO with the state borders of Azerbaijan, Georgia and and Armenia hinted on the existence of another independent state in the said part of Azerbaijan.

After the mass appeals of our readers to the organization with letters of protest the administrative borders of Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan were replaced with a vague pecked line, similar to the administrative borders of Dagestan, Chechnya and other autonomies within Russia, while the sign "former NKAO" appeared next to the region.

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/3795/0/rangemap
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/3786/0/rangemap

We express our deep gratitude to the IUCN management for the changes! At the same time, we urge our readers to continue informing us about the inaccuracies, related to Azerbaijan and its territorial integrity.

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10.06.09

12:33

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) brings into question the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Day.Az has received a letter saying that despite remarks sent to IUCN calling to correct the mistake, nothing has been done. There were just answers that the maps have been presented from UN.

If we look at this map (http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/3795/0/rangemap), it shows that the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh (an integral part of Azerbaijan), has been marked by a certain color. Judging by the inscriptions below the map, notes on the selected territory of Nagorno-Karabakh are translated from English as "of unknown origin".

What does "unknown origin" means? If it were Wikipedia, which distorts the facts for political reasons, it would be clear. But nature conservation ... South Ossetia and Abkhazia on the territory of Georgia are not marked, then how Karabakh differs from them? Why should an area which allegedly does not belong to Azerbaijan, be separated?

After contacting with the Office of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, we received a short answer - they say, yes, all the maps are provided by the UN (an organization which is, by the way, one of the sponsors of the Union), and unless the UN orders, nothing will change.

According to sources in UN, probably the Union has not received any maps, it is just unwilling to carry any corrections.

It is inadmissible to close eyes on such mistakes, otherwise, everyone will soon mark Nagorno Karabakh in all colors, hiding behind the law on nature protection or something else.

We urge you to write a letter to the organization to ensure further correction of the mistake. And, of course, many thanks to our readers for their letters!

Day.Az

Below is a sample letter in English, which must be sent:

Subject/???? – Please correct the map mistake
Send to [email protected]

The map of Azerbaijan on IUCN website contains a serious mistake:
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/3795/0/rangemap
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/3786/0/rangemap

The administrative borders of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region are marked.
Nagorno-Karabakh region is an enclave inside Azerbaijan and it’s internationally recognized integral part.

However, similar breakaway autonomies in Georgia – South Ossetia and Abkhazia – are not marked. To be consistent, please either mark all of these separatist regions and autonomies, or do not mark any of them at all. The best option would be to show only the state borders, which is the case with Armenia and Georgia.

I urge you remove the administrative borders of the self-proclaimed separatist Armenia-occupied region of Nagorno Karabakh and show only the state borders of Azerbaijan. This will bring the map in line with the recently Bundestag-adopted resolution that supports territorial integrity and sovereignty of all the three states of the South Caucasus.

Similar mistakes were found in past on other websites, and most of them had demonstrated good faith and cooperation and had those mistakes corrected, and thus we are very grateful to them. I expect the same from your organization. Thank you.

Sincerely,

(Your name)

/Day.Az/