'Armenian-American organizations damage US-Azerbaijan ties'

Alaska Dispatch news site published an article on absence of U.S. envoy to Azerbaijan by the activist of Azerbaijan-America Council Jamila Scheve. The article says in December 2010, following over a year of absence of U.S. envoy in Azerbaijan, President Obama recess appointed Matthew Bryza to the position. But after a year of obstruction by Senators Robert Menendez and Barbara Boxer, driven by Armenian-American ethnic special interest, Senate flouted the confirmation of Ambassador Bryza before the end of 2011. Consequently, the highly experienced U.S. diplomat had to vacate his position in January 2012.

The author states that ethnic lobby now seeks to prolong the absence of U.S. envoy to Azerbaijan. The Armenian-American organizations` main purpose of exerting pressure on nominations is to delay the appointment of an ambassador, create discontent and cause damage to the bilateral ties between US and Azerbaijan.

The writing also provides information on Armenia`s territorial claims to Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and US`s activity towards the settlement of conflict as a OSCE Minsk Group co-chair.

Scheve stresses Azerbaijan has been a staunch U.S. ally in the "War on Terror," opening its airspace and contributing troops in support of the U.S.-led missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Azerbaijan's significant oil and gas reserves, currently explored by Western energy companies, remain essential to Europe's energy security. During the same period, Armenia, which continues to occupy Azerbaijani territories against four U.N. Security Council and several U.N. General Assembly resolutions, fell into a regional isolation and was ranked by Forbes as the world’s No. 2 worst economy in 2011 and left out of major regional economic projects. Unable to comprehend on the situation or to contribute towards resolving these problems, Armenian-American interest groups are instead engaged on their limited ethnocentric agenda to simply damage the U.S.-Azerbaijani relations.


/AzerTAc/