Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The U.S. Department of State announced that pro-Armenian resolution adopted by the California State Senate is a personal affair of the State.

"I am not going to have any comment on a resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh adopted by the California State Senate," U.S. Department of State spokesperson Jen Psaki said. "It is a state issue."

California Senate passed a resolution, which is of anti-Azerbaijani nature, on August 27. The racist anti-Azerbaijani resolution AJR 32 on Nagorno-Karabakh has been on the agenda of the California State Senate for some time. The resolution, 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.

Azerbaijani Consulate General in Los Angeles has condemned the adoption of an anti-Azerbaijani resolution. The Azerbaijani community of California also got mobilized and through various means harshly protested against the resolution.

Baku also announced that voting for this resolution, the Californian senators actually called for supporting the occupation of Azerbaijani lands, which contradicts international norms and principles.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said the resolution is declarative in nature and has no legal force, adding that it happened due to the Armenian lobby's financial support.

"This fact calls into question the honesty of the senators who voted for passing this document. This was possible thanks to the financial support of the Armenian lobby in the U.S.," Abdullayev stressed.

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 U.S. embassy in Azerbaijan earlier also announced that the resolution passed by the California State Senate regarding Nagorno-Karabakh is an expression of opinion by a state legislative body and does not change U.S. foreign policy on the matter.

"The U.S. foreign policy is determined by the federal government," the embassy said. "The States are free to express their opinions but those opinions do not represent national foreign policy."

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.