Polish lawyer and politician Tomasz Lech Buczek has penned a letter to US President Joe Biden, urging him to take steps to free Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan.
Buczek also attached a publication on Azerbaijani war crimes against Armenians. He had earlier sent a copy to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
The letter reads:
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing to you, first of all, as an ordinary person, a Polish citizen by chance born on July 4, on a day so special for the history of the United States.
I am fighting for the truth to prevail. Artsakh, who fought for Independence, this small piece of Armenian sacred land.
On February 3, I received a very personal letter from Mrs Armine of Stepanakert, an Armenian mother.
During the Nagorno-Karabakh war, she lost her son and husband, and the youngest son, 19, was taken prisoner by Azerbaijan. In this letter, she stated that this letter was a Great Hope for Her, because as a simple woman she did not know who to turn to for help.
Then I remembered the letter. The Bixby letter a brief, consoling message sent by President Abraham Lincoln in November 1864 to Lydia Parker Bixby, a widow living in Boston, Massachusetts, who was thought to have lost five sons in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.
Dear Madam, I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, Abraham Lincoln
I replied to Ms Armine quoting this letter and added one sentence – only one that I would do everything to free the Armenian prisoners of war held in Azerbaijan.
In the twenty-first century, the world cannot accept the violation of fundamental human rights. The world must take steps to free the Armenian prisoners of war held in Azerbaijan.
To this letter, I attach my evidence-based publication on the Azerbaijani War Crimes against the Armenians in Karabakh 2020.