ANCA WELCOMES US VOTE AGAINST BIASED AZERBAIJANI UN RESOLUTION

armradio.am
18.03.2008 10:33

The United States, which serves along with the Russian Federation and
France as Co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group charged with leading talks toward a Nagorno
Karabakh settlement, voted last week against the passage of a biased
and destructive United Nations General Assembly resolution offered by
Azerbaijan, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

"We welcome the vote of the United States against Azerbaijan’s biased
and destructive attempt to undermine the OSCE peace process," said ANCA
Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "Ratherthan sincerely committing
to the path of peace, Baku’s most recent round of venue-shopping
sadly is aimed at undercutting the ongoing negotiations – as they
have done through their escalating threats of renewed war and their
recent attacks on Nagorno Karabakh – and, domestically, at distracting
pre-presidential election public attention away from the growing
popular discontent with President Aliyev’s increasingly corrupt and
undemocratic government."

The non-binding U.N. resolution, introduced by Azerbaijan on
February 20th and taken up by the General Assembly on March 14th,
demanded the "immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of all
Armenian forces from all the occupied territories of the Republic
of Azerbaijan." Despite concerns expressed by the OSCE Minsk Group
Co-Chairs that the resolution could undermine the ongoing peace
process, Azerbaijan persisted in pushing the measure to a vote,
which it won with 39 in favor, 7 against, and 100 abstentions. Those
voting against the resolution were: Angola, Armenia, France, India,
Russian Federation, United States, and Vanuatu.

The U.N. resolution comes in the wake of several months of increasingly
vocal threats of renewed war by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev,
followed up by recent attacks by Azerbaijani forces against defensive
positions in the Mardakert Region of Nagorno Karabakh. Congressional
Armenian Caucus Co-chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Joe Knollenberg
(R-MI) joined last month with more than 50 of their House colleagues
in condemning Baku’s war rhetoric, and, following the Mardakert
assaults, asserted that: "As the Co-Chairs of the Armenian Caucus,
we are deeply disturbed by the preventable loss of life along the Line
of Contact between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan that took place on
March 4th… It is troubling that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
has acted on his history of warmongering rhetoric."