U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT REPLIES TO PRO-ARMENIAN CONGRESSMEN

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Oct 4 2005

A group of Congressmen addressing President Bush appealed to him to
recognize the so-called “Nagorno Karabakh Republic”, correspondent
of AzerTAc reports. The letter runs: “The United States has rendered
direct humanitarian assistance to Nagorno Karabakh to restore the
war-torn economy”. The Congressmen ask George bush to increase
this aid and uphold the “Nagorno Karabakh residents’ rights for
self-determination”. The most surprised is that according to the
Congressmen, “Nagorno Karabakh made significant contribution to peace
and stability in the strategically important South Caucasus region”.

The Department of State has replied to these pro-Armenian members
of Congress. Spokesman of the State Department Mr. Mccormack in his
daily briefing has stated that there is no change in the policy over
Nagorno Karabakh “We support the work that the OSCE Minsk Group as
well as any efforts by Azerbaijan and Armenia to resolve the conflict
there is no change in our policy”.

It has to be mentioned that in February current year the United States
had disseminated its official position over the Armenia-Azerbaijan,
Nagorno Karabakh conflict in the fact list titled “United States and
Nagorno Karabakh”. At that time it was noted “the United States does
not recognize Nagorno Karabakh as independent state, its authorities
are neither recognized by the international community, nor the
US. The United States supports territorial integrity of Azerbaijan,
and considers that the future status of Nagorno Karabakh should be
specified through negotiations between the sides”.