Today.Az, Azerbaijan
July 25 2009
Participation of both Nagorno-Karabakh communities in talks crucial to
achieve peace: U.S. Azeris Network
25 July 2009 [12:30] – Today.Az
U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) has sent a letter to President Barack Obama
concerning the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
USAN Managing Director Adil Baguirov said they aimed to put an end to
the speculations of ultranationalist and radical Armenian forces in
the U.S. over the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations.
`As Azerbaijani-Americans, we greatly appreciate your joint
declaration with Presidents of France and Russia, your phone calls
about NK conflict with President Aliyev and President Gul, the
reinvigorated work of the OSCE Minsk Group of which U.S. is a
co-chair, the more equitable and fair foreign assistance FY2010
requests in line with previous years requests. We urge you, Vice
President Biden, Secretary Clinton and your Administration to step up
such positive efforts in the future, as well as visiting the
U.S. strategic ally Azerbaijan to witness the challenges and effects
of the occupation of 16% of Azerbaijan and displacement of some 12% of
its population by Armenia’, USAN said in its letter.
`Our key aspiration is the liberation of all occupied Azerbaijani
lands through the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
on the basis of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. We believe that
one of our most important objectives as a community of people tracing
their heritage to the land of Azerbaijan is to educate our government
and lawmakers to assist in enhancement of the bilateral ties between
Azerbaijan and the United States. Azerbaijani-Americans support the
long-term strategic allied relations between the United States and
Azerbaijan, and we fully encourage the development of bilateral
cooperation between America and all Turkic nations’, the letter said.
Hence, we welcome your positive steps in resolving the NK conflict,
and offer you our full support in light of relentless criticism from
ultranationalist and maximalist Armenian special interest groups that
have built their entire raison d’etre on creating and perpetuating
only negativism, hate mongering and intimidation.
USAN reminded that it is Armenia that is occupying Azerbaijan for
almost two decades now, not the other way around, and it is Armenia
that caused almost a million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs, and
according to U.S. Government, committed `crimes against humanity’ in
Azerbaijan, such as the largest war crime in the region, the Khojaly
Massacre in 1992. `Armenia’s creation of a straw-man in the form of
the so-called `Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR)’, an entity recognized
by no one, including its own creator, is especially unhelpful to the
peace process and causes nothing but irritation and tensions in the
region. With multiple U.S. Government statements clearly calling a
spade a spade, and with the U.N. Security Council adopting four
resolutions calling for the immediate withdrawal of Armenian military
forces from Azerbaijan, to restore the territorial integrity and
sovereignty of Azerbaijan’.
`It should be further stressed once again, that we all fully and
unequivocally support the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. No
question about it, NK has to remain part of Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, we
also recognize the other Helsinki Final Act principles of equal rights
and self-determination of peoples, which are envisioned within the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan’.
`Per equal rights and the participation of interested parties to the
conflict, indeed, the engagement of Karabakh’s ethnic communities in
negotiations is an absolute must for reestablishing peace in that
region. In fact, the conditions for an equal engagement of all parties
in the conflict were already enshrined in the "Baker Rules" proposed
in 1992 by the first peacemaking mission of the CSCE Minsk Group, led
by then U.S. Secretary of State, James Baker III. These rules, agreed
to by all sides, recognized the two ethnic communities of the
Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as the "interested parties", and
Armenia and Azerbaijan ` as the "principal parties".
`However, the radical Armenian lobby organizations stop short of
mentioning the ethnic Azerbaijani community, which prior to the
conflict in 1988 comprised a third of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population
and 99% of the population of the seven other, surrounding and
currently occupied, regions of Azerbaijan. It shall be understood that
while the present conditions of Armenia’s military occupation preclude
the participation of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian community in the peace
process, a lasting peace in Nagorno-Karabakh can only be achieved
after the return and peaceful co-existence of the region’s both ethnic
communities, cessation of all occupation, and moving away from
constant and continuous attempts to stonewall the peace process,
intimidate elected officials, and attempt to preserve the status quo
of continuous military occupation’, said USAN.
On Friday, the American-Azerbaijani Council also issued a statement on
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The statements were made after that the
leader of the Armenian National Committee of America Kenneth
Khachikian sent a letter to President Obama noting the necessity of
involving the so-called `Nagorno Karabakh Republic’ in the
negotiations over the conflict solution.
/APA/
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