Today.Az, Azerbaijan
Aug 20 2005

Ambassador of Azerbaijan in USA Hafiz Pashayev sent letter to members
of the USA Congress

20 August 2005 [09:57] – Today.Az

The extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of Azerbaijan in USA
Hafiz Pashayev sent a letter to the members of the USA Congress.

APA was informed about it from the embassy of our country in
Washington.

The ambassador exposed the congressmen Frank Pallone and Joe
Nollenberg for their actions. We should note that the co-chairmen of
the working group on Armenian questions in the USA Congress Frank
Pallone from the New-Jersey state and Joe Nollenberg from the
Michigan state appealed to the president George Bush and asked him to
increase the aid to Nagorno Karabakh and also asked the all members
of the Congress to support it.

H.Pashayev informed in his letter that the appeal made by Pallone and
Nollenberg does not reflect correctly the situation in the region and
position of the international community on the status of Nagorno
Karabakh. Nagorno Karabakh, never being independent or included in
Armenia, is recognized as the part of Azerbaijan by UNO and other
international organizations. That is why USA must take any political
or economic step in connection with Nagorno Karabakh in the frame of
the legal, political and economic interest of Azerbaijan.

The ambassador explained the members of the congress the facts known
to the whole world: “Not only Nagorno Karabakh, but also other seven
regions of Azerbaijan was occupied and 1 million people became
refugees and internally displaced in the result of aggression of
Armenia. After conducting ethnical cleaning in the occupied lands
they were engaged in forming a “democratic image” on Armenians of
Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia and began holding elections one after
another. Those elections were not recognized by any international
organization or state. The United States itself valued those
elections to be illegal and as an obstacle to the Minsk process”.

H.Pashayev stressed that Armenia does not pay attention to the
decrees of the UNO Security Council, NATO and OSCE on non-conditional
withdrawing of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied lands. It
was also reminded that though Russia mediated in achievement of the
ceasefire regime in 1994, just the Russia’s military aid to Armenia
and Russia’s sending illegal weapons costing 1 million USA dollars to
Armenia helped the invader policy of Armenians.

The ambassador called on the congressmen to treat with respect the
official policy of USA recognizing the territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan. He noted that any support to the initiative of Pallone
and Nollenberg shown in the stage of peaceful talks between
Azerbaijan and Armenia will damage the Minsk process.

H.Pashayev also stressed that Azerbaijan already suffered damage from
the initiative of the pro-Armenian members of the Congress:
“Azerbaijan was the only country deprived of the USA aid in the
result of the 907 amendment to the “Support to Liberty Act. The USA
government stopped the unfair amendment after 11 September events and
thus, demonstrated that what the interests of America consist of”.
The ambassador called on the members of the Congress not to forget
these facts when expressing attitude to the initiative of Pallone and
Nollenberg.

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