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Baku assesses pro-Armenian resolution as pure political corruption

28 August 2014 11:49 (UTC+04:00)
Baku assesses pro-Armenian resolution as pure political corruption

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani Consulate General in Los Angeles has condemned the adoption of an anti-Azerbaijani resolution AJR 32 on Nagorno-Karabakh in the California State Senate.

"The racist anti-Azerbaijani resolution AJR 32 on Nagorno-Karabakh has been on the agenda of the California State Senate for some time. From the very beginning, a number of serious measures were undertaken by the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles to counter the resolution. These measures included, inter alia, sending letters of protest to all senators, holding numerous meetings with them, thus explaining the biasedness and flawedness of the AJR 32, its contradiction to America's stated foreign policy and national interests, as well as the fact that this racist resolution justified ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia," the Consulate General said in its statement made on August 28.

The resolution (AJR 32), calling to recognize a separatist regime in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan was introduced by Assemblyman Mike Gatto at the behest of the Armenian lobby. Gatto submitted the proposal to California State Legislature on January 6.

The Consulate General noted the Azerbaijani community of California also got mobilized and through various means harshly protested against the resolution.

The Consulate said as a result, despite inordinate amount of effort by the Armenian lobby in California, where around 1 million Armenians reside, all the efforts by the two Armenian members of the California Legislature, as well as in spite of all the pressure by this ethnic lobby on senators using threats, blackmail and other means, 17 out of 40 senators refused to vote for the resolution.

"Also, the senators who receive massive financial contributions for their election campaigns and therefore hugely depend on the Armenian lobby, voted for AJR 32, disregarding all the solid facts presented to them. This is a pure political corruption. It has no other name," the Consulate said.

It is also a strong indicator of a serious flaw in America's political system that needs an urgent fixing, according to the Consulate.

"How can a state legislature adopt a document which strongly contradicts the federal government's stated foreign policy and damages the country's standing and national interests? Why no tangible measures are taken to curb the influence of such special interest groups who pressure the state legislators to disregard the national interests of the U.S.? These are questions still awaiting serious answers!" the Consulate said.

This resolution is not the first resolution adopted by the California Legislature regarding Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which erupted back in 1988 over Armenia's territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

The three similar resolutions had been adopted by the Legislature at the behest of the Armenian lobby in 1993, 1997 and 1999.

"However neither those resolutions, nor AJR 32 have any legal or political significance. The entire international community, including the United States and United Nations, recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. Therefore such meaningless pieces of paper are unable to change this position," the Consulate underlined.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s.

Long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.

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