Azerbaijani and Turkish Diasporas in US start campaign against usage of “people of Nagorno-Karabakh” term by White House

The Azerbaijani (USAN) and Turkish Diasporas in the US has started an immediate campaign against by sending dozens of letters to the President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary Clinton, and Chief of Staff Daley, noting that they are “absolutely deplore, denounce and protest any usage of the term "people of Nagorno-Karabakh" by the White House, President Obama and the Administration or any US official”.

“The term used by the White House Office of the Press Secretary in its June 23 statement, and indirectly attributed to President Obama’s phone conversation with Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, contravenes the 1992 Baker Rules, State Department policy and all preceding and current Administrations, the UN Security Council resolutions, OSCE position, as well as facts on the ground”, say the letters. “It also contradicts simple logic - to call two Presidents, but address three people”.

The authors remind that, there are only two people locked in the conflict over NK region of Azerbaijan - the Armenian and Azerbaijani people. There are no "Nagorno-Karabakh people", just like there is no such recognized independent entity. “The 120,000 Armenian and 46,000 Azerbaijani communities of NK, like the 600,000 Azerbaijanis from the entire Karabakh region, are not "people of Nagorno-Karabakh", but remain Armenian or Azerbaijani ethnically, and Azerbaijani by citizenship”.

“Office of the Press Secretary’s usage of ambiguous terminology in regards to Armenia’s aggression and occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan can lead to confusion and send mixed signals to the scholarly community and general public. It will also lead to distortions by the Armenia government to misrepresent the White House statement as some tacit recognition of, and legitimacy for, the criminal regime occupying this de jure part of Azerbaijan, a total of 16% of territory, for the past 20 years, that displaced 600,000 Azerbaijanis of Karabakh”, the letters say.

USAN and Azerbaijani-Americans support Administration's attempts to help resolve the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but urge these efforts to be based on international law, UN SC resolutions.

/APA/