ANCA CHAIRMAN CHALLENGES STATE DEPARTMENT ATTACK ON NAGORNO KARABAKH
armradio.am
14.10.2008 10:37
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Chairman Ken Hachikian,
in remarks delivered before more than 900 elected officials and
community leaders at the annual Western Region banquet, publicly and
forcefully challenged recent statements by senior State Department
official Matt Bryza that, as a precondition for peace, Armenia must
agree that Nagorno Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan.
Speaking before a capacity crowd at the Ronald Reagan Presidential
Library, Hachikian sharply condemned the "retreat from principle"
in U.S. policy toward the people and republic of Nagorno Karabakh –
who have strived, at the brutal cost of a generation of its best
sons and daughters – to live up to the fundamentally American ideal
that all people deserve to live free of foreign tyranny, under a
government of their own choosing." He added that, "just this past
week, we saw a senior State Department official, Matt Bryza, moving
farther from even the pretense of supporting democracy, by saying
that Armenia must accept the false proposition that Nagorno Karabakh
is part of Azerbaijan. He’s absolutely wrong. And we all know it –
and so does Baku and Ankara."