Djulfa Blog: Sacred Stones Reduced to Dust

In an interview with a Sacred Heart University professor, The Armenian Reporter’s February 2, 2008 (in PDF) issue has published COPRIM’s, a Canadian company, response to Azerbaijan’s angry reaction to COPRIM’s sponsorship of a November 2007 Harvard panel on the destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage in the region of Nakhichevan, a remote region of the South Caucasus republic of Azerbaijan:     

The undated letter signed by the Azerbaijani chargé d’affairesin Canada, Farid Shafiyev, told COPRIM “to withdraw support to this exhibition” alleging that it was an initiative of the “Armenian communities abroad [that] exhibit [a] radical and chauvinistic stance” and seek to create “the so-called Greater Armenia.” The communication also included pages of the Azerbaijani government’s anti-Armenian propaganda.

 

In response, a COPRIM attorney sent a letter to the Azerbaijani Embassy in Canada on November 18, stating that “the sponsorship and mounting of the Exhibition constitutes a legal act both in Canada and in the United States of America” and “constitutes an expression of one of the fundamental freedoms this country offers its citizens.”

 

The CORPIM attorney further noted that the Azerbaijani diplomatic mission’s “presence and activity in

Canada is limited to diplomatic representation between the Government of Canada and your Government, and between your Government and its citizens or nationals. You have no right, privilege or businessi. Writing directly to a Canadiancitizen who has not solicited anyassistance or information fromyou;ii. Advising a Canadian citizenon the exercise of his political andlegal rights;iii. Attempting to influence bypersuasion or threat, a Canadiancitizen engaged in lawful activity;iv. Interfering with a Canadiancitizen’s exercise of rights inCanada or in the United States ofAmerica;v. Invading the privacy of a Canadiancitizen by investigating theownership of COPRIM Inc., a Canadiancorporation.”The attorney further notified the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the U.S. Department of State, and Harvard Universityof the Azerbaijani demarche and demanded “an immediate written retraction of your letter with an unconditional apology for having sent it, the whole within five (5) days.