05 February 2005	Saturday	25 Zilhaj 1425

BAKU, Feb 4: Iran calls it a mistake, but a fiesty daily newspaper in Azerbaijan says the flying of an Azeri flag upside-down in Tehran during a visit last week by the Azeri leader was a national insult and is fervently demanding that Iran officially say it is sorry for the incident.

"We urge all patriotic colleagues to teach Iranian politicians a lesson because they show disrespect for the Azerbaijani state and its symbols," the opposition Azadliq daily said in a fiery opinion page commentary that it has published three times in the past week.

In what appears to have been a diplomatic mishap during what was meant as a fence-mending visit by Azerbaijan's President Ilhan Aliyev to the Iranian capital last week, an Azerbaijani tricolor was hoisted the wrong way up, the newspaper claims.

Now Azadliq has announced it would publish Iran's flag upside-down in its own pages until the theocratic Islamic state's embassy in Baku delivers an official apology to the former Soviet republic.

The paper, which has already printed Iran's Green, White and Red tricolor upside-down alongside its two-column commentary three times since last week's visit, has called on other Azeri newspapers to join into its shame campaign.

Two of Azerbaijan's most vehement opposition papers have taken up the call, but it has been politely ignored by the rest of the country's press and while Iranian officials have acknowledged the flag incident they have also made clear that a formal apology would not be forthcoming.

"There were more than 50 flags of Azerbaijan during the president's visit and only one flag was wrong," Iranian Ambassador Afshar Suleymani said. "I don't see the problem. This is a mistake." -AFP