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Diaspora Organizations Work to Stop US NGO's Unauthorized Karabakh Trip

Image Azerbaijani and Turkish diaspora organizations in the United States have launched a campaign to prevent a local NGO from making an unauthorized trip to Karabakh. The US-based Azerbaijani-American Council (AAC) and the Pax Turcica Institute have organized an action letter campaign (PTI) in protest of the recent discovery of a planned unauthorized visit to Karabakh by the World Affairs Council (WAC) of Houston, Texas, a US-based NGO.


According to its website, the World Affairs Council (WAC) of Houston, Texas is featuring an upcoming trip to Armenia and "Karabakh" in June 2012.

It is noteworthy that the WAC of Houston, one of the city's most prestigious citizen forums, is planning an unauthorized visit to Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory of Azerbaijan currently under the Armenian occupation. This trip to the occupied territories, held without an explicit approval of Azerbaijani authorities, would constitute an insult against Azerbaijan's sovereignty, integrity and people.

Azerbaijani- and Turkic-Americans urges those who want to voice their concern about the "Armenia & Karabakh" trip announcement to the WAC management, Houston's community and the local US media outlets to send Capwiz letter via the following link.

The leter says:

'It has come to my attention that the website of the World Affairs Council (WAC) of Houston is featuring an upcoming trip to Armenia and "Karabakh" in June 2012 [1]. It is noteworthy that the WAC of Houston, one of the city's most prestigious citizen forums, is planning an unauthorized visit to Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory of Azerbaijan currently under the Armenian occupation. The latter fact is recognized by the United States, European Union, United Nations, Council of Europe, China, Russia and the rest of the international community.

Between 1991 and 1994, Armenian armed forces attacked and occupied Nagorno-Karabakh along with 7 adjacent regions, in total about a fifth of Azerbaijan's internationally-recognized proper. The entire ethnic Azeri population - over 800,000 civilians - was expelled from all occupied territories in the course of this aggression. In February 1992, Armenian forces committed the worst atrocity of the conflict - a mass killing of 613 Azeri civilians, including 106 women and 86 children, in the town of Khojaly.

In April-November 1993, the United Nations Security Council passed four subsequent resolutions 822, 853, 874, 884, calling for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, to allow for the return of displaced people to their homes. On March 14, 2008, the United Nations General Assembly reiterated this position by adopting the resolution A/62/L.42, which called for immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian forces "from all the occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan" [2]. To date, Armenia has not fulfilled any of these international demands, instead prompting to legitimize its occupation and forceful displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians using a false pretext of self-determination of the Armenians in Karabakh.

This trip by the US-based delegation of the WAC of Houston is planned without an explicit request from or approval of the Azerbaijani authorities, thus constituting a severe disrespect of Azerbaijan's sovereignty and an insult against this foreign nation, a committed US partner in a volatile region bordering Russia and Iran. Moreover, according to the US Department of State (USDOS), "US citizens should avoid travel to the region of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding occupied areas, as well as regions along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian positions" because their safety cannot be guaranteed by USDOS [3].

I join the members of Azerbaijani-American Council (AAC), Azerbaijan Society of America (ASA), the Pax Turcica Institute (PTI), and all Azerbaijani- and Turkic-Americans, in calling upon the management of WAC Houston to reconsider its position and to exclude the planned visit to the occupied Azerbaijani territories from its upcoming program.'

News.Az
Last modified onSaturday, 06 May 2017 10:07
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