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ARMENIA IS 'NOT WILLING' TO LIVE IN PEACE WITH AZERBAIJAN
news.az
May 13 2010
Azerbaijan
Fariz Huseynov News.Az interviews Dr Fariz Huseynov, Assistant
Professor of Finance, North Dakota State University.
Do you think that Azerbaijanii Diaspora of US is already strong enough
to solve the problems of Azerbaijan in America?
First let's define the problems of Azerbaijan in America. The most
important problem has been the lack of awareness about Azerbaijan
among Americans. We need to both introduce cultural and historical
aspects of our country, as well socio-economic achievements and
our problems. Every Azerbaijani living in U.S. must feel obliged to
promote our culture and traditions. This is an on-going process and we
can never say that we finished our job. Diaspora organizations need
to provide our community with various platforms (virtual or real)
to introduce our country. For example, USAN has done a tremendous
job in connecting our community to US senators, congressmen and
media through its web platforms. These organizations often release
written statements about historical or cultural days and try to
bring American and Azerbaijani communities together during these
important events. Apart from organizations, our students from various
universities host cultural events to access different layers of
society. I would say we have been successful so far in this goal,
however we need to work more organized around the country and use
each others' resources efficiently.
Second, it is essential to deliver the truth about Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict (NK), as U.S. is taking an influential part in peace building
process. Unfortunately, for many years Americans have learned only
Armenian side of story. We have been literally re-educating Americans
about the history of this conflict. However, we cannot expect an
average American to learn everything about this or any other conflict
taking place in Caucasus. Besides educating regular Americans, our
Diaspora actively participated in or organized scholarly meetings and
invited more American scholars to our events to discuss U.S. policy and
NK conflict. Our community members have been actively sending letters
about Khojaly, invasion of Shusha etc. to senators, congressmen or
local media. Moreover, Turkish government's stance in Turkey-Armenia
rapprochement publicized our position as many newspaper articles
explained concerns of Turkey and Azerbaijan laying down details about
on-going negotiation process.
Third, we also need to ensure Americans that our nation values
democratic principles and we are in the process of transition to a
country where human rights, freedom of speech and other practices are
preserved. This is very important for the sake of our country's image
which is, unfortunately, often deteriorated due to many reasons. I
must confess that this also hurts our Diaspora's efforts as a single
op-ed in top newspaper criticizing the violation of human rights
may easily damage the image gradually built through several events
organized by our fellow members. Unfortunately, many domestic issues
have negatively affected our community's integrity, as well. AZAD has
been a sole organization to emphasize democratic values and ensuring
Americans that we still care about and pursue these values flagged
by our fathers who founded ADR, the first democratic state in this
region, back in 1918.
Another thing worth to mention is that we still need to be actively
represented in national daily press by submitting op-ed articles
on various issues from current administration policy to regional
politics, to socio-economic issues. Our involvement in U.S. daily
agenda must be multi-dimensional, only one of them being NK and our
history. Therefore, we should not only respond to NK-related issues,
but also to other issues that regular people are interested in. We
should also get involved in local activities to expand our outreach and
amplify our impact. We need to respond to daily newspaper articles more
often by submitting our comments or letters to editors. Moreover, we
need to improve our intra-community communication through establishing
web resources where news about recent community related developments
is published or where our leading community members publish their
articles on various issues. We may also need to bring more students
with journalism major and lead them to national media sources to
expand our outreach in U.S. society.
Azerbaijan has been participating in Infowar with Armenia since the
Karabagh conflict began. Can we say that Azerbaijan already has much
more friends now among American political establishment?
Yes, indeed we were far behind Armenians when we started telling
our side of story. Our grassroots organizations, such as USAN, AAC
and ASA along with scholars and students around the country have
tried their best to balance the positions. I have already mentioned
about participating at scholarly meetings. Pleasantly, Congressional
Azerbaijan Caucus has grown to 50 members now and most of them support
our positions when needed. Our diaspora leaders continuously meet
officials from various states to deliver our position. We often contact
local and federal officials to deliver the truth about NK conflict
and asked them vote against Armenian-supported resolutions in state
or federal legislature. We receive many letters from House or Senate
members, as I personally did from senators of North Dakota. But we
need to work harder this year, as we are entering elections period
and candidates are more responsive to their electorate.
Armenians have mostly concentrated on false "genocide" claims
and reaped benefits by misinforming and affecting decisions of
U.S. officials. However, we witnessed the strong results of efforts
by Azerbaijani and Turkish organizations when House Committee for
Foreign Affairs approved the "genocide" resolution only by a single
vote. Even this fact shows how positions are balanced now.
Overall, I think we are in much better situation compared to 10 years
ago but we need to diversify our efforts as I mentioned before to
reach more layers of society.
How would you estimate the current cooperation of Azeri Americans
with Turkish and Jewish community?
Azerbaijani Americans have always acted together with Turkish
community and I do not think this will change ever. There is no
question that we are the closest communities and we both benefit from
that. We always collaborate and contribute to the events organized by
both communities. This is evident in all kinds of activities, from
cultural events to politically oriented protests. We have recently
seen a tremendous joint-activity through newly established Pax Turcica,
which gathers Turkic communities in both scholarly and cultural events
several times a year. This April we again gathered our efforts during
"genocide" campaign and I consider our efforts to be successful.
In regards to Jewish community, it has always stood in support of
Azerbaijani or Turkish interests. This community is also one of our
major supporters against anti-Turkish campaigns run by Armenians. Our
organizations, such as ASA and AAC, along with Turkish Coalition
of America cooperate with American Jewish Association and as a
result of this collaboration they recently hosted Pax Turcica Jewish
idendity symposium. No doubt that Jewish community is one of the most
influential communities in U.S. political life and we should continue
to cooperate with this community.
They say that there is a significant difference in views on Karabagh
problem between Armenia Republic and Armenian Diaspora, and Diaspora
put a huge pressure on Yerevan in this issue. Do you agree with that
and how can you explain such a destructive role of Armenian Diaspora?
I agree that Armenian Diaspora has substantial impact on
Armenian government but I would not specify it as a major
driving force. Armenian Diaspora and Yerevan officials try to
separately benefit from NK conflict and not to accept any resolution
yet. Status-quo works for Yerevan as it expands their power and tools
to rule the country. Armenian Diaspora leverages "genocide" claims
more than NK conflict as they already have a well-established agenda
around the former. Although they used NK issue early '90s to achieve
Section 907, they would not like to draw attentions to NK conflict
now, as they realize that Armenia needs to compromise for any solution
in this conflict. I would say Yerevan and domestic nationalists has
more destructive role than Diaspora. Yerevan is more vulnerable to
domestic pressure as Yerevan realizes that any compromise may result
in loss of power.
However, Armenians need to realize that status-quo will further
deteriorate their already critical socio-economic conditions and
impede any improvements in the country. Azerbaijan has expressed
its partial agreement to neo-Madrid principles. Now Armenians need
to realize the value of compromise and use this chance to reach a
long-term solution as this may be their last opportunity.
Do you believe that public diplomacy between societies of Azerbaijan
and Armenia can be useful in the Karabagh settlement?
Truly speaking, at this point I do not believe that we should put
public diplomacy efforts forward as 20 percent of our lands are still
under occupation. Under these premature circumstances we cannot reach a
friendly environment by just bringing some people from these societies
together. Armenia has not showed any signs of strong commitment
in solution and I have no reason to believe that it is willing to
live in peace with Azerbaijan. Only after they vacate 5+2 regions
surrounding NK, we may start such efforts to start dialogue-building
process. Meanwhile, we should bring forward Azerbaijani community
leaders of NK and let them appear in international media to emphasize
our needs and intentions.
news.az
May 13 2010
Azerbaijan
Fariz Huseynov News.Az interviews Dr Fariz Huseynov, Assistant
Professor of Finance, North Dakota State University.
Do you think that Azerbaijanii Diaspora of US is already strong enough
to solve the problems of Azerbaijan in America?
First let's define the problems of Azerbaijan in America. The most
important problem has been the lack of awareness about Azerbaijan
among Americans. We need to both introduce cultural and historical
aspects of our country, as well socio-economic achievements and
our problems. Every Azerbaijani living in U.S. must feel obliged to
promote our culture and traditions. This is an on-going process and we
can never say that we finished our job. Diaspora organizations need
to provide our community with various platforms (virtual or real)
to introduce our country. For example, USAN has done a tremendous
job in connecting our community to US senators, congressmen and
media through its web platforms. These organizations often release
written statements about historical or cultural days and try to
bring American and Azerbaijani communities together during these
important events. Apart from organizations, our students from various
universities host cultural events to access different layers of
society. I would say we have been successful so far in this goal,
however we need to work more organized around the country and use
each others' resources efficiently.
Second, it is essential to deliver the truth about Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict (NK), as U.S. is taking an influential part in peace building
process. Unfortunately, for many years Americans have learned only
Armenian side of story. We have been literally re-educating Americans
about the history of this conflict. However, we cannot expect an
average American to learn everything about this or any other conflict
taking place in Caucasus. Besides educating regular Americans, our
Diaspora actively participated in or organized scholarly meetings and
invited more American scholars to our events to discuss U.S. policy and
NK conflict. Our community members have been actively sending letters
about Khojaly, invasion of Shusha etc. to senators, congressmen or
local media. Moreover, Turkish government's stance in Turkey-Armenia
rapprochement publicized our position as many newspaper articles
explained concerns of Turkey and Azerbaijan laying down details about
on-going negotiation process.
Third, we also need to ensure Americans that our nation values
democratic principles and we are in the process of transition to a
country where human rights, freedom of speech and other practices are
preserved. This is very important for the sake of our country's image
which is, unfortunately, often deteriorated due to many reasons. I
must confess that this also hurts our Diaspora's efforts as a single
op-ed in top newspaper criticizing the violation of human rights
may easily damage the image gradually built through several events
organized by our fellow members. Unfortunately, many domestic issues
have negatively affected our community's integrity, as well. AZAD has
been a sole organization to emphasize democratic values and ensuring
Americans that we still care about and pursue these values flagged
by our fathers who founded ADR, the first democratic state in this
region, back in 1918.
Another thing worth to mention is that we still need to be actively
represented in national daily press by submitting op-ed articles
on various issues from current administration policy to regional
politics, to socio-economic issues. Our involvement in U.S. daily
agenda must be multi-dimensional, only one of them being NK and our
history. Therefore, we should not only respond to NK-related issues,
but also to other issues that regular people are interested in. We
should also get involved in local activities to expand our outreach and
amplify our impact. We need to respond to daily newspaper articles more
often by submitting our comments or letters to editors. Moreover, we
need to improve our intra-community communication through establishing
web resources where news about recent community related developments
is published or where our leading community members publish their
articles on various issues. We may also need to bring more students
with journalism major and lead them to national media sources to
expand our outreach in U.S. society.
Azerbaijan has been participating in Infowar with Armenia since the
Karabagh conflict began. Can we say that Azerbaijan already has much
more friends now among American political establishment?
Yes, indeed we were far behind Armenians when we started telling
our side of story. Our grassroots organizations, such as USAN, AAC
and ASA along with scholars and students around the country have
tried their best to balance the positions. I have already mentioned
about participating at scholarly meetings. Pleasantly, Congressional
Azerbaijan Caucus has grown to 50 members now and most of them support
our positions when needed. Our diaspora leaders continuously meet
officials from various states to deliver our position. We often contact
local and federal officials to deliver the truth about NK conflict
and asked them vote against Armenian-supported resolutions in state
or federal legislature. We receive many letters from House or Senate
members, as I personally did from senators of North Dakota. But we
need to work harder this year, as we are entering elections period
and candidates are more responsive to their electorate.
Armenians have mostly concentrated on false "genocide" claims
and reaped benefits by misinforming and affecting decisions of
U.S. officials. However, we witnessed the strong results of efforts
by Azerbaijani and Turkish organizations when House Committee for
Foreign Affairs approved the "genocide" resolution only by a single
vote. Even this fact shows how positions are balanced now.
Overall, I think we are in much better situation compared to 10 years
ago but we need to diversify our efforts as I mentioned before to
reach more layers of society.
How would you estimate the current cooperation of Azeri Americans
with Turkish and Jewish community?
Azerbaijani Americans have always acted together with Turkish
community and I do not think this will change ever. There is no
question that we are the closest communities and we both benefit from
that. We always collaborate and contribute to the events organized by
both communities. This is evident in all kinds of activities, from
cultural events to politically oriented protests. We have recently
seen a tremendous joint-activity through newly established Pax Turcica,
which gathers Turkic communities in both scholarly and cultural events
several times a year. This April we again gathered our efforts during
"genocide" campaign and I consider our efforts to be successful.
In regards to Jewish community, it has always stood in support of
Azerbaijani or Turkish interests. This community is also one of our
major supporters against anti-Turkish campaigns run by Armenians. Our
organizations, such as ASA and AAC, along with Turkish Coalition
of America cooperate with American Jewish Association and as a
result of this collaboration they recently hosted Pax Turcica Jewish
idendity symposium. No doubt that Jewish community is one of the most
influential communities in U.S. political life and we should continue
to cooperate with this community.
They say that there is a significant difference in views on Karabagh
problem between Armenia Republic and Armenian Diaspora, and Diaspora
put a huge pressure on Yerevan in this issue. Do you agree with that
and how can you explain such a destructive role of Armenian Diaspora?
I agree that Armenian Diaspora has substantial impact on
Armenian government but I would not specify it as a major
driving force. Armenian Diaspora and Yerevan officials try to
separately benefit from NK conflict and not to accept any resolution
yet. Status-quo works for Yerevan as it expands their power and tools
to rule the country. Armenian Diaspora leverages "genocide" claims
more than NK conflict as they already have a well-established agenda
around the former. Although they used NK issue early '90s to achieve
Section 907, they would not like to draw attentions to NK conflict
now, as they realize that Armenia needs to compromise for any solution
in this conflict. I would say Yerevan and domestic nationalists has
more destructive role than Diaspora. Yerevan is more vulnerable to
domestic pressure as Yerevan realizes that any compromise may result
in loss of power.
However, Armenians need to realize that status-quo will further
deteriorate their already critical socio-economic conditions and
impede any improvements in the country. Azerbaijan has expressed
its partial agreement to neo-Madrid principles. Now Armenians need
to realize the value of compromise and use this chance to reach a
long-term solution as this may be their last opportunity.
Do you believe that public diplomacy between societies of Azerbaijan
and Armenia can be useful in the Karabagh settlement?
Truly speaking, at this point I do not believe that we should put
public diplomacy efforts forward as 20 percent of our lands are still
under occupation. Under these premature circumstances we cannot reach a
friendly environment by just bringing some people from these societies
together. Armenia has not showed any signs of strong commitment
in solution and I have no reason to believe that it is willing to
live in peace with Azerbaijan. Only after they vacate 5+2 regions
surrounding NK, we may start such efforts to start dialogue-building
process. Meanwhile, we should bring forward Azerbaijani community
leaders of NK and let them appear in international media to emphasize
our needs and intentions.