Let the steam out

Start a business in 24h

2009-10-31T13:47:00.000+01:00

The idea behind 24 Hour Business Camp is simple. People come together to start Internet businesses within 24 hours. #24hbc was founded by Ted Valentin, a pretty much successful webdeveloper and Internet entrepreneur. Ted is the developer behind essays.se, minkarta.se, blogipedia.com, etc. Most of the startups this year are characterised by Web 2.0, web and mobile applications, social media and networks as well as realtime applications.

What I wonder is how many websites that are founded during these autumn hours are going to be used after the annual camp is over. Last year's winner, YouTV.se, have not posted anything on their blog since February 2009. Hope that the other startups are doing better and that they really will be usable. Though maybe the very point was not at all that the startups should be usable? Maybe the inventors exist only to invent things and not make them usable?

Hammargren between Armenia and Azerbaijan

2009-10-14T16:23:00.002+02:00

Bitte Hammargren is a correspondent for Svenska Dagbladet who writes about Middle East countries like Turkey, Armenia and Georgia (sense the irony?). Recently, she wrote an article titled A big conflict around a small enclave, which I do not find neutral, which the Western press strives to be, right?

It is not only Armenians that see mountain Ararat as the Armenian national symbol, though it is situated in the present-day Turkey. My dear mother, for example, a much more relevant representative of the Soviet era than I, would agree with me that even from childhood, the "Soviet people" associated Ararat with Armenia. And probably duly.

Even though in the article, she includes photos from and reports from Nagorno-Karabakh, which "regular Armenians and occasional foreigners" can access by one route, according to Hammargren, and one route only, the article seems a bit one-sided and implicitly in favour of Azerbaijan. (Btw, as far as it is known, there are two, not one, routes to Nagorno-Karabakh, one of which has indeed, as Hammargren reports, been funded by the Armenians in the Diaspora.)

Very interesting to me seemed the SvD editors' choice of captioning the bannerimage of the article. The image shows a wall of twenty-seven black-and-white photographs with some flowers in front and the flag of Nagorno-Karabakh and a line of text above. In the paper edition of the article the image is captioned Place of honour for the Armenian casualties in the war. Online, the same image is captioned Armenian casualties in the war against Azerbaijan 1993-94.

To me, both captions, especially the one published online, frame in the twenty-seven casualties as the only ones on the Armenian side between 1993 and 1994. By the way, the war was not a one year, but a six year long war (between 1988 and 1994). The caption seems to say, "There were only 27 casualties on the Armenian side," while "hundreds of thousands of Azeris count themselves as war refugees," according to Hammargren.

A simple look at Wikipedia.org article on Nagorno-Karabakh War, however correct or incorrect the data there is, makes it clear that the number of casualties was almost proportional to the number of war-participants involved in each of the war-waging countries.

It is a shame really that these kinds of subtleties were not noticed by the editors of Svenska Dagbladet (or maybe the editors were behind them?). Bitte Hammargren received a great prize from the Publicist Club (SEK 30000 = EUR 2911 = USD 4334) for the coverage of the Middle East. Well deserved! (sense the irony?)

(The photo of B. Hammargren is taken from SvD.se)

Real estate tax to increase?

2009-10-13T16:25:00.000+02:00

Swedish Minister for Finance Anders Borg is satisfied with the pressure on Latvia. The government are apparently talking about raising the real estate tax in Latvia. As if the population have a huge money storage to pay from.

Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis announced that the pensions are not going to be cut by the new measures to consolidate the fiscal deficit. Nor will the progressive tax be raised or VAT increased. Thank God! How about the real estate tax, though, Valdis?

Google Translate and Zoho Viewer

2009-10-07T20:39:00.001+02:00

This was exactly what I was looking for! When uploading PDF documents to Google Docs, it doesn't give you the URL that Google Translate recongises, which is why it's necessary to use Zoho Viewer.

in reference to: How to Translate PDF & Word Documents with Google Translation (view on Google Sidewiki)

"Shushi breathes new life"

2009-07-22T10:07:00.000+02:00

Recently, I read another interesting article that touched upon the conflict on Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The story is about the city of Shushi. It is written by Daniel Bardsley for The National. This is not the first article about Armenia or Karabakh that Daniel writes for this UAE newspaper. Here's the excerpt:

Shusha, or Shushi as Armenians call it, is on the brink of the kind of renewal that has transformed Stepanakert, the enclave’s capital that lies 16km to the north. Since a ceasefire was agreed in 1994, with Armenia in de facto control, Stepanakert has turned into an attractive and leafy city with a string of new hotels, a modern assembly building and countless street cafes, even though Armenia and Azerbaijan are officially still at war over the region…

For a more detailed account of what kind of renewal Shushi is facing as well as for an overview over the past years in Shushi, read the whole article at The National.

The Madrid principles analysis

2009-07-20T14:23:00.000+02:00

I came across an interesting analytical article by Karine Ter-Sahakyan (PanARMENIAN.net) about the the Madrid principles, concerning the negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict:

Armenia, that has no control over Stepanakert, in the eyes of the world community loses the moral right to conduct negotiations, and the political competence as a negotiating party is reduced to zero…
Read the whole article at PanARMENIAN.net

Curious that the Azeri side does not address the issue of the Madrid principles to the same extent that the Armenians do. Just search for the query madrid + principles in Google news.

Google Maps shortcuts in Firefox

2009-07-01T15:17:00.007+02:00

There are several shortcuts in Street View that you might not know of. I discovered them by accident and I am glad I did. Just in case my mouse doesn't work and I want to move around in the Google Maps Street view. (Mind that the shortcuts are only tested in Firefox on Windows)

Shortcut	Description
~~Alt~~ + A	Pan left
~~Alt~~ + D	Pan right
~~Alt~~ + W	Pan up
~~Alt~~ + S	Pan down

I usually use Alt + D to set the cursor to the address bar in Firefox (and Ctrl + E to get it over to the Search bar). That explains the accident that helped me find the shortcuts. Now, sometimes the shortcuts wouldn't work, which I do not have any explanation for. But I know how to get around it.

Make sure you are using Firefox on Windows
Make sure you are viewing Google Maps in Street view
Move around by doubleclicking a circle or a rectangle somewhere in the image
Go ahead and try the shortcuts now

Do you know of any other shortcuts in Google Maps?

Update: Apparently, you do not need to hit Alt with the letter. Just use the letters for navigating around in the street view.

I can twitter that!

2009-06-09T13:19:00.000+02:00

For the past several weeks, I have been using Twitter fleetingly, to put it mildly. Every time I encounter something interesting like a hedgehog running across the road, or when I simply look out the window and see the rain or the sun, or when I buy some expensive jeans, or when I am glad about having started working out (I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture), I only have one thought in mind and that is "Hey, I can twitter that!"

The attraction to Twitter has proved to be magnetic. I sleep and dream about what I can tweet about, exactly which words I can use to make my tweets more effective and how I can draw more visitors to my account, so they can become my followers. "Follow me on Twitter" has a much different implication now. The higher the number of followers, the higher the status in the everpopular microblogging service and beyond. Just like sporting a button with the number of feed readers on my blog, I show off my popularity by mentioning how many Twitter followers I have.

Twitter has become a pond of ideas and links, and one can argue if a dump is not a better description. The abundance of information and variations has made the original question and purpose of the service fade into the background. "What are you doing?" is rarely a question you reply with "So simple yet so powerful! Short movie "Signs" http://bit.ly/smsigns" (original) or "Congratulations, Barons! One game to go and you are champions. Again. #lbl #basketball" (original), is it?

My point is by no means to demonise Twitter. I do not even question its value as a service to keep in touch with your friends or as an alternative source of information and news (e.g. @BreakingTweets, @DienaLv, etc.). A longer Gmail outage was the reason for me to start using Twitter in order to find out what was going on. My point is to raise awareness (first of all with myself) about the danger of having all decisions in life being centred around the mighty Twitter. I have to learn to use Twitter as a chain link, not a final destination.

Twitter icons courtesy of Mirjami Manninen (via Smashing Magazine)

Sony Ericsson K750i smileys

2009-06-04T14:57:00.001+02:00

There are many online resources and forums about the hidden smileys that can be found on Sony Ericsson mobile phones. I own a K750i. Unfortunately, I was not able to find any of the original images, so I had to trace them myself. Mind, that the smiley images are provided for reference only! So, this is my attempt to bring all available and hidden smileys in a K750i together into one post:

Smiley	Combination	Description
	:-)	(happy)
	:-] or :-D	(happier)
	:-(	(sad)
	:-[	(sadder)
	;-)	(wink)
	:-o	(surprised)
	:-l	(serious)
	:-x or :-*	(kiss)
	[:]	(robot)
	\|-l	(open mouth)

Do you know of any other smiley that I have missed? Please, leave a comment, and I will be happy to include it in the post as an update. Do you know how I can get the original smiley images, please, leave a comment, too.

Unsubscribing from the ISIC newsletter

2009-05-13T15:25:00.008+02:00

This is a true story. About seven years ago, back in 2002, I got my first ISIC card and, quite rationally, I subscribed for their newsletter a couple of years later, when I had to renew it. To get the inside scoop of all the discounts for students, so to speak.

Now, when I am no longer a student in Latvia and at least three years since I had a valid ISIC card, I still get the newsletters from ISIC.lv. Not that I like getting them. It was just that there was no "unsubscribe here" link in their newsletters. Or their site, for that matter. The short of it is, their unsubscription service sucked. Until today.

Today I noticed their newsletter looked a little bit funny, because at the end of it they did indeed have a link to unsubscribe from the newsletter. I thought Why not give it a try and clicked the magic underlined phrase. Here's when the magic ended. Below are the steps I had to take (and what happened between them) in order to remove my e-mail address from their database (still not sure if it's removed).

Get a regular newsletter from ISIC
Click to unsubscribe
Get directed to their site
Read about the coming confirmation e-mail
Get a confirmation e-mail
Click to confirm the unsubscription
Get directed to their site
Read about the successful unsubscription
Get an e-mail about the successful unsubscription

Talk about a company (?) trying so hard to please (??) the customers with over-explicitness and usability of their services!

DN.se suspiciously similar to CNN.com

2009-04-28T16:15:00.001+02:00

Look at these two designs:

Don't they look similar? DN.se launched the new site on February 17, 2009. CNN.com launched a beta of the new version back in the summer of 2007. Tut-tut, DN.se, tut-tut!

Big loss for Sweden - huge win for Latvia

2009-04-28T09:37:00.004+02:00

It was probably the most exciting hockey match for Latvia that I've ever seen. Here's what happened yesterday:

I decided to watch the match for the sake of entertainment. Not that I am a huge ice-hockey fan. Or sports fan for that matter. So the match started and I had the anticipation that the Swedes would crush the Latvian team down, as usual (Sweden has never lost to Latvia in ice-hockey, as I understand).

Well, during the first period the game was pretty much one-sided. Sweden attacked and Latvia sat in the defend-zone. The flow of Swedish shots was so strong that the young star Omark (#23) just had to reach out with his stick and get the puck inside the Latvian net. Such was the end of the first period.

Now, the second period got more interesting, since Latvia was superior almost all 15 minutes of it, scoring two goals and getting their expectations as sky high as their confidence. Probably too high, though, as Sweden started off the third period with a sure puck in Masalskis' goals. The game was of a back-and-forth kind with a long stop after Karsums slammed Enström and left him severely injured in the face.

The game was long from over, because the new rules dictate that no match should end with a tie (very curious). So Sweden and Latvia played five more minutes in order to establish the victor of the game. The five minutes were not enough, so the shoot-out was the logical continuation. The suspense was thick, but the Latvians with a veteran goalie Naumovs were thicker. Nizivijs was the one to send the victorious puck into Liv's net.

The local press were very united in their opinions about the game. Dagens Nyheter said "it could not be worse" than a loss to Latvia, Svenska Dagbladet called the match a "cold shower", Hockeyexpressen.se asserted that they are not going to overexaggerate the consequences of the sensation.

The Latvian press was, of course, happy to provide their readers with the good news of the first win over Sweden, posting photos in diena.lv and numerous articles hailing the Latvian team. Tvnet.lv called the win over Sweden a historical one.

Here's the official summary of the game on iihf.com.

Ice-hockey World Championship

2009-04-26T14:16:00.003+02:00

The ice-hockey world championship started out with no big surprises.

Rather it started out with big scores by big teams:

Germany - Russia 0:5
Belarus - Canada 1:6
Norway - Finland 0:5
Sweden - Austria 7:1
Czech Republic - Denmark 5:0

I would love to see some interesting finals this year!

Stay tuned for the statistics on www.iihf.com

Go, Latvia. Go Russia, Sweden and Canada. I also like Slovakia, Czech Republic and Finland.

Armenian Genocide

2009-04-24T12:14:00.121+02:00

For Armenians, the 24th of April is a special date. Today they mark 94 years since the massacres in the Ottoman Turkey, which started with the mass arrests and killings of Armenian intellectuals as well as religious, cultural and political elite.

The mass killings of the Armenian population during the WWI are referred to as "genocide" in many Western countries. Contemporary Turkey though refuses to label the killings as "genocide", claiming that during the WWI many people died, both Armenians and Turks and that the massacres occurred on both sides due to the inter-ethnic strife and general violence during the war. Turkey avoids tagging the massacres as "genocide" and objects to anyone making a statement of their responsibility.

Probably the most vivid factor of disappointment these days was the statement by the President of the USA Barack Obama, when he twisted his promises to acknowledge publicly the massacres of nearly 1.5 million Armenians as "genocide" and chose instead to "pause to remember ... one of the greatest atrocities of the 20th century". His pre-election campaign statements were too far-stretched or good to be true, one can infer. Here are some excerpts from his statement in January 2008:

"As a U.S. Senator, I have stood with the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey's acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide ... I shared with Secretary (Condoleezza) Rice my firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy ... As a senator, I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106 and S.Res.106), and as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide." (Associated Press)

Needless to say, the Armenian community worldwide was let down by Obama's decision to refrain from calling the massacres "genocide". The Turkish community, too, were not happy with his statement on 24th of April calling his expressions unacceptable.

Even though many countries agree on the seriousness of the extensive massacres, calling them the first genocide of the 20th century, among those Russia, France, Argentina, Greece, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, as well as 42 of 50 states of the USA, there are still those who choose not to recognise the killings as "genocide".

For more information and a detailed timeline of the massacres, please, visit the information site, with a chance to sign the petition to support the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Retrial for The Pirate Bay possible

2009-04-23T10:39:00.011+02:00

The judge who sentenced four men to jail for their involvement with The Pirate Bay is also a member of the same copyright protection organisations as a number of the main entertainment industry representatives in the case.

The experts, one of them "high profile attorney Leif Silbersky", say retrial is possible. Other experts say they would have never taken the case in the given situation. Judge Tomas Norström denies the relevance of the expert charges:

"My view has been that these activities do not constitute a conflict of interest," Norström told Sveriges Radio.

Now, this is very interesting. Frankly, I cannot see the point of being a member of an organisation that protects copyright protection (which clearly represents a conflict of interest) and providing an objective decision on the Pirate Bay trial.

One of the original lay judges in the case was forced to step down from his position when his involvement in a music rights group made him vulnerable to charges of bias.

By thelocal.se and sr.se (via @brokep)

Latvia against the hockey giants?

2009-04-23T00:14:00.003+02:00

USA, Sweden, Austria and... Latvia?

I mean, come on, does Latvia have any chance of getting out of the play-offs in the upcoming ice hockey world championship in Switzerland? No offense, but the recent years have not seen any progress in Latvian hockey and I doubt strongly they will have smooth skating against Americans and Swedes.

Now, Austria has not been shown much skills either, being ranked 17th, according to the pre-champ ranking board (Latvia is on the 12th place for now). So there's hope for the Latvian ice hockey team. It would be hard for them to beat USA and Sweden, very possible to beat Austria, but apart from the noisy fans popularity, Latvians are known to provide surprises, which can be both good news and bad news.

Anyway, go, Latvia!

Word-choice in media

2008-08-29T10:36:00.004+02:00

RIA Novosti has chosen to publish an article with an interesting headline – "The king of pop turns half a century".

Now this is very smart. You choose to type more characters, i.e. "half a century" instead of "50", and you get a totally different effect. He suddenly turns much older than my ever-young mother, even though they are born the same year, 1958. This puts things into perspective, I can say. Here is my all-time Motown Jackson favourite – "I want you back" by Jackson 5.

Latvia buys weapons from USA

2008-08-29T09:34:00.002+02:00

Telegraf reports that the USA sell weapons and ammunition to Latvia.

U.S. State Department published a report on sales of American weapons abroad in 2007. The report states that the States earned 24,531 billion dollars on arms sales last year. Though the countries of the former Soviet Union are not among the major customers, the volume of their purchases is constantly growing. According to the report, Latvia purchased more than any other Baltic country – guns, ammunition, electronics, aviation equipment, total cost amounting to 4.4 million. Lithuanians' bill was 2.5 million, and Estonians' – 2 million dollars.

For other than political reasons, why does Latvia seem to prefer American weapons to Russian? Is that some kind of a childish game they are playing, to see how many countries can stand against the "almighty" Russia? Probably.

Sky-high prices for rat meat

2008-08-27T16:15:00.004+02:00

While even a single rat in our backyard in Riga is a disaster, Cambodians are paying quadruple prices in order to get their specialty of rat meat on a dinner table. It would be quite an adventure for me to taste this kind of "exotic" animal meat.

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials said on Wednesday.

...

"Many children are happy making some money from selling the animals to the markets, but they keep some for their family," Ly Marong, an agriculture official, said by telephone from the Koh Thom district on the border with Vietnam.

"Not only are our poor eating it, but there is also demand from Vietnamese living on the border with us."

He estimated that Cambodia supplied more than a tonne of live rats a day to Vietnam.

But the kids seem to like it. Good meat and good money. Maybe there is someone in Europe who can make a business, exporting rats there, if the local rats are edible in Asia, of course.

Kosovo: Screw Russia

2008-08-27T11:49:00.002+02:00

Mr. Sejdiu has been more than clear about what their newly proclaimed independent state stands for.

BELGRADE, August 27 (RIA Novosti) - The fact that Kosovo's independence has been acknowledged by some 50 countries does not justify Russia's decision to recognize Georgia's breakaway regions, the Kosovan president said.

"We have always said and will continue to insist that Kosovo is a special case which cannot be treated as a precedent for other conflict zones, territories and regions," Fatmir Sejdiu said in Pristina late on Tuesday.

...

Kosovo - which was a UN protectorate after the 1999 NATO bombings ended clashes between Serbs and Albanians - unilaterally proclaimed its independence from Belgrade in February, and has been recognized by the United States and most European Union countries.

And why wouldn't they refuse to back Russia, when it was Russia, that was against their independence, which was recognized by the West? Once again, it seems that there are those who are against Russia, those who are for the West and those who are against everyone. It so seems.

How Latvia reacted on Russian recognition

2008-08-27T02:19:00.005+02:00

While official Riga "harshly" condemns the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia's independence by official Moscow, I wonder whether official Tbilisi in any way appreciates or commends on the feeble support of a feeble country, that is joining in song of its new host against its former host, which they unequivocally call "occupants".

RIGA, Aug 27 - RIA Novosti. The President of Latvia Valdis Zatlers made a joint statement with the Foreign Minister of Latvia Maris Riekstins, in which they condemned the decision of Russia to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"This decision is contrary to the principles of independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia, recognized by the UN and OSCE. Latvia supports the territorial integrity of Georgia within its existing borders and calls on the parties to find a political solution. In turn, the decision made by the Russian side, in no way solves the issue", as outlined in the joint statement of the President and the Minister.

(Translation by Artiom Pereverzev of the original article by Yury Guralnik)

Valdis Zatlers also says official Riga is supporting and is going to continue to support the territorial integrity of Georgia and the people's desire to see their country as a full-fledged NATO and EU member. But I wonder how a people's desire (and even right) for self-determination is not an eligible factor for any kind of grace from Mr. Zatlers.

The Latvian officials refer to going against the UN and OSCE, when they talk about the "crime" committed by Mr. Medvedev. But the UN seem more neutral on the issue. Here is what the UN are saying about the recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon believes that the UN has no power to recognize or reject the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, since only the UN Member States can recognize or reject the independence, said on Tuesday UN official spokesman Terry Michelle Montas.

She also reported that Ban Ki-moon has repeatedly addressed the topic of recent developments in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict, calling for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the civilians affected by military actions.

However, according to Montas, "today's development of the situation could have a greater impact on the security and stability in the Caucasus", according to RIA Novosti.

She also indicated that Secretary-General regrets that the work in the UN Security Council to find a common solution to the crisis in Georgia can complicate."

(Translation by Artiom Pereverzev of the original article by Newsarmenia.ru)

Latvia says no to boycotting Eurovision-2009

2008-08-26T19:01:00.002+02:00

RIGA, Aug 26 - RIA Novosti. The Latvian television is not going to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held in Moscow in 2009, as reported to the RIA Novosti in the press service of the Latvian Television (LTV).

A number of Latvian media has reported that Latvian television is willing to support Estonian colleagues in boycotting the Eurovision-2009.

"The Latvian television categorically denies the rumours that LTV may boycott the contest in the coming year. This is an interpretation of journalists," - said Arnis Kuprish, vice-director of LTV.

Because of the military conflict in South Ossetia, Estonians were considering boycotting the international song contest in Moscow. Chairman of the Estonian National Broadcasting Corporation Margus Allikmaa said that the issue of boycotting of the competition should be discussed publicly. He invited the audience, authors, performers, producers and all who are interested to express their views on the issue.

The Ministry of Culture of Estonia supported the idea. It also stressed the need to communicate with the colleagues from Lithuania and Latvia, and to encourage them to similar action.

According to the above article from RIA Novosti, Latvia is doubtfully willing to worsen the already bad relations with Russia. But whether the recent events would aid in the deterioration of their relations remains unknown.

Russia recognizes South Ossetia, Abkhazia

2008-08-26T17:22:00.007+02:00

Analysts say the move is likely to further escalate tensions between Russia and the West.

"I have signed decrees on the recognition by the Russian Federation of the independence of South Ossetia and the independence of Abkhazia," Mr Medvedev said in the announcement.

"That was no easy choice to make, but it is the sole chance of saving people's lives," Mr Medvedev added.

He blamed Georgia for failing to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the problem and called on other states to follow Russia's example.

Basically, this is how it all went:

Russia: "South Ossetia, Abkhazia, you may be free!"
South Ossetia and Abkhazia: "Oh, yeah! We are free! Let's fire in the air!"
Georgia: "Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind?"
Russia: "What did we do?"
Georgia: "This is our land, we are all brothers!"
Russia: "No. We are. Not you."
UK: "Oh, dear. Bloody hell! We warned you!"
USA: "You had no right following our example invading a country and then supporting a breakaway state!"
Germany: "Come on, quick! Georgia and Ukraine, come under NATO:s wing!"
Latvia (one half): "Yeah, go Russia!"
Latvia (other half): "To hell with Russia! Send our Prime Minister to Georgia again!"
Armenia: "Hey, what about Karabakh now?"
Azerbaijan: "Separatists are all the same!"
Sweden: "The Russians are criminals!"
NATO: "Screw Russia's recognition! Russia is an empty spot!"
Russia: "Screw all! We've got no other choice. Oh, and one more thing, screw all!"

Click here to read the original article on BBC

Watch the exclusive interview on BBC

Click here to read Onnik Krikorian's post

Recognize the Armenian genocide

2008-08-25T17:29:00.012+02:00

Click here to find out more about the Armenian Genocide of 1915

Independent belonging to another?

2008-08-25T11:52:00.024+02:00

(via news.trendaz.com)

“The independence of Nagorno-Karabakh should be recognized only within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,” Khazar Ibrahim, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan said to media on 25 August.

What kind of independence or territorial integrity are you talking about? To me, the phrase sounds weird, to put it mildly. Karabakh is an independent state, territorially still belonging to Azerbaijan. It's like saying "I won't eat any kind of meat, except for pork, beef and lamb."

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.

Didn't Nagorno-Karabakh, this historically Armenian piece of land, belong to Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in 1921 and didn't it become an autonomous oblast of the AzSSR in 1923? Territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is not the same as territorial integrity of AzSSR.

The leadership of the self-declared ‘Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’ intends to follow the example of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and to appeal Council of Federation of Russia to recognize its independence.

Really? And how would that help in the international recognition of its independence? And why is the source of this kind of information not mentioned?

Click here to read the full article on trendaz.com

Update: According to abc.az, he says something totally different:

“The international law is on our side, therefore Armenia has to release Azerbaijani lands. We do not see Nagorno Karabakh outside Azerbaijan,” K.Ibrahim said.

Click here to read the full article on abz.az