US AZERIS WELCOME DENYING FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO ARMENIAN-OCCUPIED KARABAKH

Today.az
Aug 1, 2011
Azerbaijan

Board Members of the Pax Turcica Institute , Azerbaijan Society
of America and Azerbaijani-American welcome the recent decision by
the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations
and Related Programs to exclude the wording of direct US assistance
to the Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh from the FY 2012 budget
appropriations for the South Caucasus.

The organizations said the community members actively participated
in the relevant Pax Turcica advocacy campaign, “in achieving this
major milestone for the first time in 2011”.

The US Congress has been allocating funds to address humanitarian needs
of the victims of Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since
1992. In 2005, under pressure from the Armenian-American interest
groups, the wording of the State, Foreign Operations and Related
Programs Appropriations bills was revised to provide U.S.

funds only to the Armenian community of Nagorno-Karabakh, while over
600,000 Azerbaijanis expelled from the region in the course of the
conflict remained deprived of assistance.

“In the absence of a political settlement to the conflict, the
ethnicity-driven U.S. assistance to one conflict party not only
undermined the original Congressional intent, but also questioned the
U.S. role as an impartial mediator”, said the Diasporas organizations’
statement.

Despite the annual Congressional testimonies and campaigns by
Azerbaijani-American organizations opposing the direct US aid to
Nagorno-Karabakh, in past 6 years, Armenian-American lobby succeeded
in increasing the allocation amount from $3 million to $8 million.

Since February 2011, over 6,000 letters sent via the newly-launched
Pax Turcica CapWiz system to the Members of Congress highlighted
the fact that the US aid to Nagorno-Karabakh unfairly excluded the
Azerbaijani victims of the conflict and that the annual allocation
exponentially exceeded the programmatic capacity on the ground.

“Its noteworthy that these PTI arguments became compelling for many
Americans of non-Turkic heritage to also join in expressing their
concern about the waste of US taxpayer money for satisfying the whim
of one ethnic special interest group in Congress”, say the Diaspora
members.

“Ahead of the upcoming August 3rd vote on the FY 2012 foreign aid
bill in the full House Appropriations Committee, we once more call
upon all Azerbaijani- and Turkic-Americans to build up on our initial
success by sending the following PTI Capwiz action letter”, they call.

/APA/

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress