U.S. AZERIS NETWORK LAUNCHES PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGN ON AGHDAM’S INVASION

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
July 22 2013

22 July 2013, 16:08 (GMT+05:00)
By Sara Rajabova

The U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) has launched a traditional campaign
on awareness in the American society about the occupation of the
Azerbaijani Agdam region by Armenian armed forces on July 23, 1993.

Members of the Azerbaijani diaspora sent letters to legislators,
officials in the United States administration, as well as US media
outlets.

A letter called “Agdam – The ghost town of the Caucasus” cites the
occupation of Azerbaijani regions, the facts concerning the massacre
committed against peaceful Azerbaijani citizens in Khojaly during
the Karabakh war in the 1990s and statistics.

The authors of the letter stressed that Yerevan is completely
indifferent to the four UN Security Council resolutions urging an
immediate withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied
territories of Azerbaijan, as well as the UN General Assembly
resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional pullout from
all the occupied territories.

The USAN campaign participants urged the US government to be proactive
in exerting pressure on Armenia to take a constructive stance and
force it to comply with the UN Security Council and General Assembly
resolutions, withdraw from the internationally recognized Azerbaijani
territories and allow return of Azerbaijani refugees displaced during
the war to their homes.

On July 23, 1993, after heavy fighting, Agdam was captured by the
Armenian armed forces. More damage occurred in the following decades
when the deserted town was looted for building materials. Agdam is
currently a ruined and uninhabited town.

Armenia’s territorial claims in the late 1980s and the ensuing military
aggression resulted in the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani
territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and also seven surrounding
regions. Over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs in the
aftermath of the ensuing war between the two South Caucasus republics.

The UNSC’s four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been
enforced to this day.

Russia, France and the U.S. have long been working to broker a solution
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through the OSCE Minsk Group, but
their efforts have been largely fruitless so far.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress