Armenian lobbyists urge greater U.S. aid for separatists
By Vafa Ismayilova
Against the background of the global fight against separatism, the U.S-based pro-Nazi Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) urges Washington to provide greater financial support to Armenian separatists.
ANCA wrote about this in a post on its official Facebook page a few days ago.
Despite the fact that Azerbaijan as a country suffering from Armenian separatism in its Karabakh region for about 30 years liberated the Armenian-occupied territories in late last year's war, Armenia’s foreign-based forces are still pursuing a policy of separatism.
Baku has repeatedly made all the necessary proposals to Yerevan with regard to the post-war situation. Namely - to sign a peace treaty, to recognize each other's territorial integrity, and to begin the delimitation and demarcation of borders.
It should be noted that official Baku’s position has always been that it is inadmissible to create another state within the territory of one state established by the norms of international law and to resort to national and ethnic split to achieve this goal.
Before liberating its lands on its own, Azerbaijan repeatedly warned the world community about the dangers of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the region and called for decisive practical steps to deter Armenia from pursuing a policy of aggression.
Armenian diaspora also defeated in 44-day war
The U.S. branch of the ultranationalist left-wing party Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF, also known as Dashnaktsutyun or in short, Dashnak) usually incites hatred towards Azerbaijan and Turkey as a way to ensure political and financial support for themselves.
It is noteworthy that the 44-day war not only defeated the Armenian army, but also the Armenian diaspora.
The Armenian diaspora organizations, including ANCA which raised millions of dollars to continue the conflict in the region and prepare provocations against Azerbaijan, have exhausted materially and morally.
Back in 2018, former US ambassador to Azerbaijan Mathew Bryza said that “ANCA does not want to see a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which would reduce the organization’s ability to raise money from donors”.
The Armenian army’s inability to resist during the war after so much help has disappointed those who donated to the diaspora.
They now refuse to make donations as Armenia lost the war over Karabakh and seven regions around, which it occupied about 30 years ago. They believe that given the lack of the Karabakh factor to use against Azerbaijan and Turkey, there is no need for donations.
The misappropriation of the allocated funds is the other side of the problem. It is believed that the funds invested in the diaspora failed to be appropriately spent.
Under the guise of pursuing the interests of the Armenian people, the diaspora effectively turns the Armenian people into its victims. From this standpoint, the support given to Armenia by the Armenian diaspora can also be seen as a myth.
Begging money from Washington
In light of its frustrations, ANCA urges the U.S. government to increase aid to separatists. While begging money from Washington, ANCA radicals should not forget the fact that the peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan have to co-exist in peace sooner or later.
The lack of peaceful co-existence threatens the whole region and its economic development. The peaceful co-existence is possible if Armenians give up their territorial claims and ethnic hatred mainly inflamed by the diaspora organizations, including ANCA. That is the Armenians have to look into their history, reconsider their place and role in the South Caucasus and their prospects in the region.
Over the past 200 years, Armenians’ territorial claims and the policy of hatred against other peoples have been at the heart of all ethnic conflicts in the South Caucasus.
Azerbaijan supports peace and is doing its best to sign a comprehensive peace treaty with Armenia.
Some experts believe that attitude to the Armenian diaspora in Armenian society is not unambiguous. According to them, unlike in the 1990s, it will not be easy for the Armenian diaspora to transfer nationalism, chauvinism and ethnic hatred into Armenian society now.
It should be noted that this radical lobby organization arranged the largest hate crime against the Azerbaijani community in Los Angeles in 2020 following hostilities on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in Tovuz.
ANCA's former leader, Murad Topalyan, was one of the top ten terrorists in the history of the movement and was arrested on terror-related charges. Although the organization is trying to portray itself as a lobbyist one, separating itself from terrorism, in fact, it is still committed to the principles of aggression.
Anti-Azerbaijan efforts to fail
Despite ANCA's ongoing efforts and calls to stop U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, the U.S. State Department of Defence still retains the freedom to work together with the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry regardless of the Pallone amendment that blocked two sources of funding for U.S.- Azerbaijani military cooperation.
As confirmed by the Jamestown Foundation, the U.S. security relationship with Azerbaijan is premised on Washington’s broader desire to build up capacities and competencies in partner countries around the world to counter transnational threats, thwart terrorist networks, and respond to regional crises.
With the power vacuum being created in Afghanistan as a result of the rapid US pullout, Baku’s ability to ensure a safe route to the region is of paramount strategic importance for Washington.
Armenian war crimes
The ultranationalist group, which spares no effort to ensure that the U.S. government stops any aid to Azerbaijan, based on its false allegations, does not utter a word about war crimes against Azerbaijan committed by Armenia in last year's war.
In the war unleashed by Armenia, Azerbaijan's Ganja, Barda, Yevlakh, Beylagan, Tartar, Gabala, Goranboy, Aghjabadi, Khizi and other cities and regions, fairly far from the war zone, came under Armenia's missile and artillery fire.
International human rights watchdogs Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch verified the use of banned cluster bombs and missiles by Armenia in its attacks against Azerbaijani cities.
As a result, 100 Azerbaijani civilians were killed, including 12 children and 27 women. As many as 454 people were injured, including 35 children. Some 181 children lost one parent, five children lost both parents, one family died. In total, 12,292 residential and non-residential buildings and 288 vehicles were damaged.
A criminal case has been initiated into the death of every civilian in Azerbaijan caused by the Armenian terror, and appeals have been sent to international courts and organizations.
In 2020 Azerbaijan liberated its territories from Armenia’s 30-year occupation. The scale of destruction and cultural genocide is now fully evident. In the early 1990s, Armenia invaded 20 percent of Azerbaijan, expelling about 1m Azerbaijanis from Karabakh in the early 1990s and 200,000 from Armenia in the late 1980s. During three decades of illegal occupation, Armenia razed 10,000 sq km of occupied Azerbaijani territories to the ground. Entire Azerbaijani cities were obliterated.
To erase all traces of Azerbaijani culture and history Armenia systematically destroyed cultural and historical monuments. Out of 67 mosques, 65 were desecrated and destroyed. Many mosques were turned into pigsties and cowsheds like the Juma Mosque of Agdam (1870), Zangilan Mosque (17th century) or Marmar Mosque (18th century) in Gubadli.
Some 900 cemeteries with over a million graves were decimated. Azerbaijani gravestones were even used to build stairs to Armenian homes. Car plates of killed and displaced Azerbaijanis were used to decorate public restrooms. Overall, during 30 years of occupation 927 libraries with 4.6 million books, 700 historical monuments and 22 museums with 100,000 exhibits were looted and destroyed by Armenia. Armenia looted and erased more heritage than ISIS terrorists did in Iraq and Syria. It is the worst cultural genocide of the 21st century.
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