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AYF To Protest Azeri Consul General At World Affairs Conference On M

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  • AYF To Protest Azeri Consul General At World Affairs Conference On M

    AYF TO PROTEST AZERI CONSUL GENERAL AT WORLD AFFAIRS CONFERENCE ON MARCH 4

    Asbarez
    http://www.asbarez.com/77906/ayf-to-protest-azeri -consul-general-at-world-affairs-conference-on-mar ch-4/
    Mar 3rd, 2010

    GLENDALE-The Armenian Youth Federation will be protesting Azerbaijan's
    Consul General of Los Angeles, Elin Suleymanov, at the Pacific Club
    (4110 Macarthur blvd. Newport Beach, CA) on Thursday, March 4 from
    6-9pm. Suleymanov will be speaking about Azerbaijan's role in the world
    at an event sponsored by the World Affairs Council. The Azeri diplomat
    will also be discussing Azerbaijan's position on Nagorno-Karabakh
    and Armenia.

    "With this latest event, the Azerbaijani Government continues its
    decades long campaign to deny self-determination to the people of
    Nagorno Karabagh, undermining international peace talks with threats
    of war and an ongoing blockade against neighboring Armenia," stated
    protest organizer Caspar Jivalagian. "For this reason, we must stand
    strong and demonstrate our resolve to stop the lies and propaganda
    of the Azeri government and to support the peope of Artsakh."

    The protest comes days after the 22nd anniversary of the deadly
    pogroms of Sumgait on Feb. 27, 1988, which marked the beginning of
    a systematic campaign by Azerbaijan's OMON Special Forces to use
    massacres and violence to forcefully uproot Armenians from Azerbaijan
    and Nagorno-Karabakh.

    The events in Sumgait, which came as a direct response to Armenians'
    expression of their right to self-determination in 1988, were followed
    by equally violent pogroms in the Azeri cities of Kirovabad, Baku and
    later in the Northern Shahoumian district of Nagorno-Karabakh. The
    violence against Armenians eventually escalated and Azerbaijan launched
    a military invasion into Nagorno-Karabakh, sparking a devastating
    war in the region that ended in 1994 with a ceasefire that left the
    Nagorno-Karabakh Republic free from Azeri rule.

    Though a fragile state of "no peace, no war" has held over the years,
    Azerbaijan has refused to cooperate in internationally mediated peace
    talks with Armenia and has instead threatened to take Karabakh by
    force. On February 25, Azerbaijan's Defense Minister, Safar Abiyev,
    stepped up Baku's war rhetoric, this time threatening to launch an
    inevitable "great war" against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

    These remarks, explained Jivalagian, are part of a well-documented
    pattern of threats and corresponding cease-fire violations initiated
    by the Azerbaijani Government.

    "Concerns regarding Azerbaijan's destabilizing actions in the region
    are compounded further when Azerbaijan's grim human rights record is
    taken into consideration," he said, adding that a country threatening
    to wage war on a democratic neighbor should not be allowed a forum
    in the United States. "Since Azerbaijan's representative will be
    speaking here, we feel it is our obligation as human rights activists
    to inform the people attending the World Affairs Council event about
    Azerbaijan's growing war rhetoric and rampant disrespect of human
    rights and democracy."
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