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Today, Azerbaijan
Nov 20 2010
Azeri-US and Turkish-US community activists confront the separatist
warlord, self-proclaimed "president of NKR" in California - PHOTOS -
VIDEO
20 November 2010 [19:37] - Today.Az
On Friday, November 19, 2010, in a first-ever Azeri-American public
protest in California, a group of Azeri and Turkish community
activists held a picket outside of the Pacific Club in Newport Beach,
California to protest an event featuring a separatist warlord,
self-proclaimed “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) President”, Bako
Sahakyan, as a speaker. The event was hosted by the World Affairs
Council (WAC) of Orange County and sponsored by the Consulate General
of the Republic of Armenia in Los Angeles, Armenian National Committee
of America (ANCA), and other Armenian-American groups.
The picketers held up slogans demanding the return and restoration of
the rights of 800,000 Azerbaijanis displaced as a result of ongoing
occupation and ethnic cleansing committed by Armenian forces on
Azerbaijani territories. They also distributed factsheets with
references on the conflict from U.S. and international sources to
visitors at the event venue entrance.
In addition, a group of 10 Azeri- and Turkish-American community
activists attended the speech by Bako Sahakyan inside the Pacific
Club. Introducing the speaker was the Consul General of Armenia,
Grigor Hovhannissian, who talked about the “heroic” achievements of
“NKR” on a path towards self-determination. It is noteworthy, that the
Republic of Armenia does not recognize the illegitimate “NKR” due to
the claimed commitment to peace negotiations under the OSCE Minsk
Group format. Yet high-level Armenian diplomats in the United States
not only participate, but also sponsor a visit by so-called “NKR
President”. Such actions manifest a clear disrespect to the
Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and its mediating OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs.
Taking the stage over next, Bako Sahakyan expressed his excitement
over recent decision on the legality of Kosovo independence by the
International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in his opinion, will
increase prospects for "NKR" to be independent as well. Sahakyan also
reiterated the necessity of including “NKR” as a party in the
negotiation process, repeatedly criticizing Azerbaijan’s opposition to
it.
He failed to recall, however, that the 1992 Baker Rules (named after
then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker) laid out the current OSCE
peace negotiation format, with Armenia and Azerbaijan as “principal”
and Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian and Azeri communities as
“interested” parties to conflict.
After the speech, during the Q&A session, Mr. Sahakyan was confronted
with several questions from Azerbaijani visitors and publicly
demonstrated further lack of any understanding of conflict history,
settlement process, providing completely incoherent and irrelevant
answers.
Asked to comment on his authority to represent “the people of
Nagorno-Karabakh”, while third of those were Azeris ethnically
cleansed from their homes, Bako Sahakyan said that the engagement of
Karabakh’s Azeri community is possible only if “NKR” is recognized as
an equal party to the conflict. Armenian separatist did not explain,
however, what prevents him from engaging with Azeri community of
Karabakh within the OSCE defined format of an “interested” party.
Instead Mr. Sahakyan repeated the old counterproductive slogan that it
is impossible for Karabakh to be part of Azerbaijan.
Asked to comment on the words of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
about the 1992 Khojaly Massacre ("before Khojali, the Azerbaijanis
thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians
were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian
population. We were able to break that [stereotype]." (Thomas de Waal.
Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War, NYU Press,
2004)) - Armenian separatist warlord went on to deny the Armenian
responsibility [for the massacre] already acknowledged by Human Rights
Watch, Armenia’s “national hero” Monte Melkonian and even the
incumbent President of Armenia. Claiming that he knows the “crux of
the matter” and that Azerbaijan is using Khojaly Massacre as leverage
against the recognition of “1915 Armenian Genocide”, Mr. Sahakyan
failed to answer the posed question honestly and coherently.
The real “pearl” of Bako Sahakyan speech came at the end of Q&A
session, when he was asked to comment on the impact of Azerbaijan’s
growing military budget on the fate of illegitimate “NKR” entity.
Choking on his own invention of “Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict”, Mr.
Sahakyan misfired that Armenian Armed Forces (and not so-called “NKR
forces”) are ready to defend it in case of a possible war.
During the past week, the board directors of Azerbaijani-American
Council (AAC) and other Azeri-American groups addressed their concern
to the World Affairs Council of Orange County with an appeal to cancel
this presentation by Bako Sahakyan. We regret that the WAC-OC
leadership did not listen to these recommendations, instead proceeding
with an event that did not produce any useful outcome in terms of
either knowledge or conflict resolution, instead focusing on repeated
dissemination of ethnocentric and irredentist views of the speaker.
/Today.az/
View photos at http://www.today.az/news/vdiaspora/76922.html
From: A. Papazian
Nov 20 2010
Azeri-US and Turkish-US community activists confront the separatist
warlord, self-proclaimed "president of NKR" in California - PHOTOS -
VIDEO
20 November 2010 [19:37] - Today.Az
On Friday, November 19, 2010, in a first-ever Azeri-American public
protest in California, a group of Azeri and Turkish community
activists held a picket outside of the Pacific Club in Newport Beach,
California to protest an event featuring a separatist warlord,
self-proclaimed “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) President”, Bako
Sahakyan, as a speaker. The event was hosted by the World Affairs
Council (WAC) of Orange County and sponsored by the Consulate General
of the Republic of Armenia in Los Angeles, Armenian National Committee
of America (ANCA), and other Armenian-American groups.
The picketers held up slogans demanding the return and restoration of
the rights of 800,000 Azerbaijanis displaced as a result of ongoing
occupation and ethnic cleansing committed by Armenian forces on
Azerbaijani territories. They also distributed factsheets with
references on the conflict from U.S. and international sources to
visitors at the event venue entrance.
In addition, a group of 10 Azeri- and Turkish-American community
activists attended the speech by Bako Sahakyan inside the Pacific
Club. Introducing the speaker was the Consul General of Armenia,
Grigor Hovhannissian, who talked about the “heroic” achievements of
“NKR” on a path towards self-determination. It is noteworthy, that the
Republic of Armenia does not recognize the illegitimate “NKR” due to
the claimed commitment to peace negotiations under the OSCE Minsk
Group format. Yet high-level Armenian diplomats in the United States
not only participate, but also sponsor a visit by so-called “NKR
President”. Such actions manifest a clear disrespect to the
Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and its mediating OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs.
Taking the stage over next, Bako Sahakyan expressed his excitement
over recent decision on the legality of Kosovo independence by the
International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in his opinion, will
increase prospects for "NKR" to be independent as well. Sahakyan also
reiterated the necessity of including “NKR” as a party in the
negotiation process, repeatedly criticizing Azerbaijan’s opposition to
it.
He failed to recall, however, that the 1992 Baker Rules (named after
then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker) laid out the current OSCE
peace negotiation format, with Armenia and Azerbaijan as “principal”
and Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian and Azeri communities as
“interested” parties to conflict.
After the speech, during the Q&A session, Mr. Sahakyan was confronted
with several questions from Azerbaijani visitors and publicly
demonstrated further lack of any understanding of conflict history,
settlement process, providing completely incoherent and irrelevant
answers.
Asked to comment on his authority to represent “the people of
Nagorno-Karabakh”, while third of those were Azeris ethnically
cleansed from their homes, Bako Sahakyan said that the engagement of
Karabakh’s Azeri community is possible only if “NKR” is recognized as
an equal party to the conflict. Armenian separatist did not explain,
however, what prevents him from engaging with Azeri community of
Karabakh within the OSCE defined format of an “interested” party.
Instead Mr. Sahakyan repeated the old counterproductive slogan that it
is impossible for Karabakh to be part of Azerbaijan.
Asked to comment on the words of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
about the 1992 Khojaly Massacre ("before Khojali, the Azerbaijanis
thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians
were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian
population. We were able to break that [stereotype]." (Thomas de Waal.
Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War, NYU Press,
2004)) - Armenian separatist warlord went on to deny the Armenian
responsibility [for the massacre] already acknowledged by Human Rights
Watch, Armenia’s “national hero” Monte Melkonian and even the
incumbent President of Armenia. Claiming that he knows the “crux of
the matter” and that Azerbaijan is using Khojaly Massacre as leverage
against the recognition of “1915 Armenian Genocide”, Mr. Sahakyan
failed to answer the posed question honestly and coherently.
The real “pearl” of Bako Sahakyan speech came at the end of Q&A
session, when he was asked to comment on the impact of Azerbaijan’s
growing military budget on the fate of illegitimate “NKR” entity.
Choking on his own invention of “Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict”, Mr.
Sahakyan misfired that Armenian Armed Forces (and not so-called “NKR
forces”) are ready to defend it in case of a possible war.
During the past week, the board directors of Azerbaijani-American
Council (AAC) and other Azeri-American groups addressed their concern
to the World Affairs Council of Orange County with an appeal to cancel
this presentation by Bako Sahakyan. We regret that the WAC-OC
leadership did not listen to these recommendations, instead proceeding
with an event that did not produce any useful outcome in terms of
either knowledge or conflict resolution, instead focusing on repeated
dissemination of ethnocentric and irredentist views of the speaker.
/Today.az/
View photos at http://www.today.az/news/vdiaspora/76922.html
From: A. Papazian