JOINT LETTER TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

nagorno karabakh
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President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C., 205000

August 4, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Last year’s war between Georgia and Russia punctuated the continued threat to peace and security in the South Caucasus arising from unresolved territorial conflicts that have spanned more than two decades since the fall of the Soviet Union. Recently, several Iranian officials openly threatened Azerbaijan for hosting Israeli President Shimon Peres in Baku. Similarly, four UN Security Council resolutions demanding that Armenian forces withdraw and cease the occupation of Azerbaijani lands since 1993 have achieved little for the displaced one million refugees and IDPs. All of this adds to the urgency of reaching a sustainable peace based on the fundamentals of international law and human rights, or, as you have stated earlier, “a lasting and durable settlement of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict.”

With stronger support from the United States and increasing involvement of the Russian Federation, the peace process has produced some momentum at the latest meetings of the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia. U.S. Mediator Matt Bryza emphasized the productive position and leadership demonstrated by Azerbaijan during the negotiations, particularly Azerbaijan’s many concessions to Armenia and the Armenian people despite Armenia’s aggression in and military occupation of western Azerbaijan. A peaceful settlement, which involves respect for territorial integrity of the states in the region, repatriation of the displaced communities, opening of all borders and communications, security guarantees for both Azerbaijani and Armenian communities in occupied regions of Azerbaijan, and withdrawal of Armenian forces from Azerbaijan, and nothing less, is necessary to achieve a lasting and durable settlement.

The South Caucasus, a strategic global juncture, holds great promise for regional and global peace and prosperity. Yet the region’s potential has been disrupted and disable by two decades of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia’s own development has been paralyzed as a result of its self-imposed isolation from major regional projects. More than one million Armenians have left Armenia due to poor government, poor economics, and poor services. While the Azerbaijani residents of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and other Armenian-occupied regions of Azerbaijan have suffered ethnic cleansing, displacement, and destruction of personal and cultural property, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh continue to live in economic and political uncertainty. Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijan has been costly in many ways.

A lasting and durable peace settlement would bring about a major positive change to the South Caucasus. The Azerbaijani-Georgian partnership has already shown what can be reached when the parties work towards regional cooperation. Should the Armenian leadership demonstrate productive pragmatism, it can help integrate the nation with the economic and democratic future of the region securing a peace and prosperity for its people. Such a future would include open communications and borders, including the Turkish-Armenian border, which was closed in response to Armenia’s invasion and occupation of the Azerbaijani region of Kelbajar, outside of NK region, in 1993. A lasting and durable peace would advance U.S. interests as it provides for lasting stability in a strategically important region where the United States requires solid friends. Significantly, as the value of the Caspian hydrocarbon resources increase for Europe’s energy security and the South Caucasus transport corridor serves as the key conduit for access to Afghanistan, a lasting and durable peace in this region becomes an even higher priority. In addition, helping Armenia and Azerbaijan to reach a settlement would demonstrate the new Administration’s commitment to the new foreign policy of global engagement and provide a positive tangible result for U.S.-Russian cooperation.

Therefore, on behalf of the Azerbaijani-American and Turkish-American communities, we support and encourage your Good Office to intensify U.S. efforts towards reaching a just peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on United Nations Security Council resolutions and the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, and to seize this historic opportunity. While we recognize the significant pressures that bear from special interests opposed to peace for a variety of reasons, including nationalist and religious ones, who have previously succeeded to undermine peace efforts, we hope that America’s vision for the South Caucasus is informed by its national interests and its relationship with strategic partners in the region. Thank you.

Sincerely,

U.S. Azeris Network (USAN)
Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA)
Azerbaijani-American Council (AAC)
Federation of Turkish American Associations (FTAA)
U.S.-Azerbaijan Council (USAC)
U.S. Turkic Network (USTN)
Cultural Center of Caucasus Jews (CCCJ)
Azerbaijan Turkey America Foundation (ATAF)
Houston Baku Sister City Association (HBSCA)

Cc: The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Vice-President of the United States of America
The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton, United States Secretary of State

www.USAzeris.org
www.FTAA.org
www.Azeris.org
www.ATAA.org
www.USTurkic.org
www.HoustonBaku.com
www.ATAF-Foundation.org


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5 responses to “JOINT LETTER TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA”

  1. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    EXCELLENT LETTER!!! RIGHT ON THE MARK!! A GREAT JOB WELL DONE!!

  2. SONA Avatar
    SONA

    EXCELLENT IDIOTIC LETTER!!! 🙂

    ARTSAKH – KARABAKH as Amirica in 1776 is fighting for its INDEPENDENCE!!!

    Artsakh is an ARMENIAN LAND!

    The essential difference in the cases of Nagorno Karabakh and Kosovo lies in the histories of both regions. Nagorno Karabakh — Artsakh in Armenian — is one of the cradles of Armenian statehood and the birthplace of a late medieval emancipatory movement in Eastern Armenia. Artsakh contains a large number of key landmarks of Armenian history, and is important to the Armenians in the same way Kosovo is important to the Serbs or Jerusalem is important to the Jews.

    ***
    … [the region of Nagorno Karabakh] is in Armenia Minor, which is now called Armenian Seghnakhs; all those lands are populated by brave Armenian Christians, who have defended themselves with their own forces against both the Turks and the Persians for the last several years.

    (From a report of 14 September 1733, by Pavel P. Shafirov (1669-1739), Special Envoy for Oriental Affairs of the Russian Imperial Court)

    ***
    The Armenian meliks [dukes] … ruled the five melikdoms of Karabakh whose ancestors remained autonomous after the fall of the Armenian kingdom. They remained independent until recent times …

    (From a diary of Peter I. Kovalenskii, Russian envoy to the Georgian court, August-October 1800; source: Kavkazski Kalendar, Tiflis, 1863, p. 212)
    ***

    TURKS and AZERIS don’t like HISTORY. It is against them 🙂 🙂

  3. Tolga Cakir Avatar
    Tolga Cakir

    I am sorry to say that, but you just sound like a stupid child. Lets analyse your theory. For your theory, you will go to a land which your grand dad may used to live and you will then forcefully illegally occupy it and try to claim that you own it.
    And you will Call this logical.

    Unfortunately this is what we call reverselogic.

    here is what happens in the real world.

    Here is the result as we are not living in a dream world that you live what would happen.
    1)You will be arrested.
    2) You will be forced to pay the damages that you have caused when you forcefully occupying it.
    3)You you will be called thief.
    4)You will loose your self respect in the community of course if you have one.

    And for this case

    1)United Nations laws are clear straight and forward and also according to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh region dealt with by the OSCE Minsk conference

    The conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region dealt with by the OSCE Minsk Conference

    1. The Parliamentary Assembly regrets that, more than a decade after the armed hostilities started, the conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region remains unsolved. Hundreds of thousands of people are still displaced and live in miserable conditions. Considerable parts of the territory of Azerbaijan are still occupied by Armenian forces, and separatist forces are still in control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

    2. The Assembly expresses its concern that the military action, and the widespread ethnic hostilities which preceded it, led to large-scale ethnic expulsion and the creation of mono-ethnic areas which resemble the terrible concept of ethnic cleansing. The Assembly reaffirms that independence and secession of a regional territory from a state may only be achieved through a lawful and peaceful process based on the democratic support of the inhabitants of such territory and not in the wake of an armed conflict leading to ethnic expulsion and the de facto annexation of such territory to another state. The Assembly reiterates that the occupation of foreign territory by a member state constitutes a grave violation of that state’s obligations as a member of the Council of Europe and reaffirms the right of displaced persons from the area of conflict to return to their homes safely and with dignity.

    3.The Assembly recalls Resolutions 822 (1993), 853 (1993), 874 (1993) and 884 (1993) of the United Nations Security Council and urges the parties concerned to comply with them, in particular by refraining from any armed hostilities and by withdrawing military forces from any occupied territories. The Assembly also aligns itself with the demand expressed in Resolution 853 of the United Nations Security Council and thus urges all member states to refrain from the supply of any weapons and munitions which might lead to an intensification of the conflict or the continued occupation of territory.

    4. The Assembly recalls that both Armenia and Azerbaijan committed themselves upon their accession to the Council of Europe in January 2001 to use only peaceful means for settling the conflict, by refraining from any threat of using force against their neighbours. At the same time, Armenia committed itself to use its considerable influence over Nagorno-Karabakh to foster a solution to the conflict. The Assembly urges both governments to comply with these commitments and refrain from using armed forces against each other and from propagating military action.

    5. The Assembly recalls that the Council of Ministers of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) agreed in Helsinki in March 1992 to hold a conference in Minsk in order to provide a forum for negotiations for a peaceful settlement of the conflict. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, the former Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Russian Federation, Sweden, Turkey and the United States of America agreed at that time to participate in this conference. The Assembly calls on these states to step up their efforts to achieve the peaceful resolution of the conflict and invites their national delegations to the Assembly to report annually to the Assembly on the action of their government in this respect. For this purpose, the Assembly asks its Bureau to create an ad hoc committee comprising, inter alia, the heads of these national delegations.

    6. The Assembly pays tribute to the tireless efforts of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, in particular for having achieved a ceasefire in May 1994 and having constantly monitored the observance of this ceasefire since then. The Assembly calls on the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to take immediate steps to conduct speedy negotiations for the conclusion of a political agreement on the cessation of the armed conflict. The implementation of this agreement will eliminate major consequences of the conflict for all parties and permit the convening of the Minsk Conference. The Assembly calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to make use of the OSCE Minsk Process and to put forward to each other, via the Minsk Group, their constructive proposals for the peaceful settlement of the conflict in accordance with the relevant norms and principles of international law.

    7. The Assembly recalls that Armenia and Azerbaijan are signatory parties to the Charter of the United Nations and, in accordance with Article 93, paragraph 1 of the Charter, ipso facto parties to the statute of the International Court of Justice. Therefore, the Assembly suggests that if the negotiations under the auspices of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group fail, Armenia and Azerbaijan should consider using the International Court of Justice in accordance with Article 36, paragraph 1 of its statute.

    8. The Assembly calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to foster political reconciliation among themselves by stepping up bilateral inter-parliamentary co-operation within the Assembly as well as in other forums such as the meetings of the speakers of the parliaments of the Caucasian Four. It recommends that both delegations should meet during each part-session of the Assembly to review progress on such reconciliation.

    9. The Assembly calls on the Government of Azerbaijan to establish contact, without preconditions, with the political representatives of both communities from the Nagorno-Karabakh region regarding the future status of the region. It is prepared to provide facilities for such contacts in Strasbourg, recalling that it did so in the form of a hearing on previous occasions with Armenian participation.

    10. Recalling its Recommendation 1570 (2002) on the situation of refugees and displaced persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, the Assembly calls on all member and Observer states to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to the hundreds of thousands of people displaced as a consequence of the armed hostilities and the expulsion of ethnic Armenians from Azerbaijan and ethnic Azerbaijanis from Armenia.

    11. The Assembly condemns any expression of hatred portrayed in the media of Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Assembly calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to foster reconciliation and to restore confidence and mutual understanding among their peoples through schools, universities and the media. Without such reconciliation, hatred and mistrust will prevent stability in the region and may lead to new violence. Any sustainable settlement must be preceded by and embedded in such a reconciliation process.

    12. The Assembly calls on the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to draw up an action plan for support to Armenia and Azerbaijan targeted at mutual reconciliation processes, and to take this resolution into account in deciding on action concerning Armenia and Azerbaijan.

    13. The Assembly calls on the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe to assist locally elected representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan in establishing mutual contacts and interregional co-operation.

    14. The Assembly resolves to analyse the conflict-settlement mechanisms existing within the Council of Europe, in particular the European Convention for the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes, in order to provide its member states with better mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of bilateral conflicts as well as internal disputes involving local or regional territorial communities or authorities which may endanger human rights, stability and peace.

    15. The Assembly resolves to continue monitoring on a regular basis the evolution of this conflict towards its peaceful resolution and decides to reconsider this issue at its first part-session in 2006.

    You may say ‘killing and invading forcefully is legal’ however you may not persuade us to believe your cheap lies.

    Here is the report law and order(believe or not it is not from a corner shop) .

    Start living in Real world instead of a world of lies.

  4. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    SONA=The RAT,

    STAY OFF THE DRUGS!!!! Your mind is so far gone that all you have is a dream world.

    Tolga…An excellent post by you as usual!Great job!

  5. William Avatar
    William

    SONA=the rat in araRAT

    Erivan was called Revan Khanligi until 1828 and was a land with Turkish/Azeri majority (read McCarthy’s book: Muslims & Minorities.)

    Due to Russian policiy of replacing the Muslims/Turkic nations and communities in the Caucasus with Orthodox Christians, Armenians were brought in from other regions (or left on their own will) to fill the homes and lands vacated by Muslims/Turkics massacred of forced to flee by Russian bayonets.

    As a result, to day you cannot find a single mosque or Muslim in Armenia, the land locked, poverty stricken, violent and corrupt pacth of rough terrain, owned and operated mostly by Russians tofday.

    Armenia is a joke and Armenians are mostly (not all) simple minded terrorists who are braindwahsed to hate all things Turkish. Without Turkey’s or Azerbaijan’s help, there may not be any Armenia left within a few years.

    What people like SONA above write are “the last squeaks of hungry rats.”

    (h, I love it when rats are forced to spell Istanbul to post replies here. That goes to show that even incurable rats can learn something in the right “maze”… Hahaha…)

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