US AZERBAIJANIS CALL UPON LEGISLATORS TO LET TURKEY AND ARMENIA RESOLVE THEIR HISTORICAL WOES WITHOUT INTERFERENCE, AND INSTEAD FOCUS THEIR EFFORTS ON PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF CONFLICTS IN CAUCASUS
APA
March 9 2010
Azerbaijan
Washington. Isabel Levine – APA. Azerbaijani Americans regret about
the US Foreign Affairs Committee’s decision on the Armenian "genocide"
issue, March 4, 2010. According to APA’s Washington DC correspondent,
US Azerbaijani organizations stated that the House Resolution H252
unfairly accuses Turkish nation of carrying out a premeditated genocide
against the Armenian population of Ottoman Empire during the World
War I.
US Azerbaijanis bring the UN Convention on genocide as a source to
judge whether that was a genocide or not. UN Convention describes
genocide as carrying out acts intended "to destroy, in whole or in
part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group".
US Azerbaijanis note that the alleged intent of Ottoman Turkish
government to eliminate Armenian population cannot be established due
to non-deportation of Armenian communities of major Ottoman cities
like Istanbul, Izmir and Aleppo. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands
of Turks and Kurds, for whom no recognition was ever extended, also
perished in Eastern Anatolia at the hands of Russian army and Armenian
forces during the same period of time.
In its statement Diaspora also mentions that since 1993, Armenia
forcibly occupies 20% of the territory of neighboring Azerbaijan
and nearly 1 million Azeri Turks, displaced by the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, are unable to return to their homes.
Azerbaijanis’ statement says the resolution also bring damage to the
U.S. foreign policy in the volatile Middle East and serves to reward
the counter productive and non-compromising position assumed by the
Republic of Armenia against a key U.S. ally, Turkey.
Azerbaijani Diaspora thanks the 22 House Representatives who voted
against H. Res. 252 in the Foreign Affairs Committee. "We call
upon all U.S. legislators and foreign policy experts to help the
Turkish-Armenian rapprochement by letting the two sides resolve their
historical woes without interference, and instead focus their efforts
on speedy and peaceful resolution of conflicts in the Caucasus region",
– the Diaspora said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
