U.S. Azeris Network (USAN)

March 31 - Commemoration of the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis

2008-04-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

USAN PRESS RELEASE
March 31, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: info[AT]usazeris.org

The U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) joins the Azerbaijani-American communities across the country, as well as all Azerbaijanis and their friends across the globe and in the Republic of Azerbaijan, in commemorating the great tragedy that has befallen on the people of Azerbaijan through the 20th century, and specifically during the "March days" of 1918. The USAN is expressing its deep sorrow to all the victims and their families.
On those tragic days in March and April 1918, the Armenian Dashnak forces have committed the biggest genocidal act of the time in the region, by slaughtering no less than 12,000 Azerbaijanis in Baku alone, and later continuing these acts in Guba, Shemakha, Shusha, Naxcivan and other cities across Azerbaijan, increasing the total of deaths to 30,000. This act, explained in vivid details by a major British journalist and historian Peter Hopkirk, was described by him as "genocidal" ("Like hidden fire. The Plot to bring down the British Empire", Kodansha Globe, New York, 1994, pp. 281-287). To commemorate that and other Armenian atrocities against innocent Azerbaijani civilians, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR), which was the first Parliamentary democracy in the Muslim world, observed March 31 as the Day of Massacres in 1919 and 1920, thus being the very first political, legal and historical assessment of the tragedy, and preceeding by several decades the politicised counter-acts by other people. Taking into the account that since 1948, the largest crimes against humanity have been defined as "genocide", on the 80th anniversary of the March Massacres that tragedy, along with similar massacres in 1905, 1947-1953, and 1992, were named as the day of the Azerbaijani Genocide.
In light of this, the U.S. Azeris Network launched a campaign of commemoration and recognition of the Azerbaijani genocide. Since the initiation of the USAN campaign on the commemoration and recognition of March 31 as the Day of the Genocide of Azerbaijanis, between March 14-31, the members of the U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) have sent out a total of 2,627 emails and faxes to their elected officials and media. Of the total of 295 distinct recipients from among the elected officials and media, along with the U.S. President and Vice President, 80 were members of the U.S. House of Representatives (Congress), 44 were members of the Senate, and 168 were newspapers across the United States.

The U.S. Azeris Network is committed to its founding principles and goals, and will continue its campaign of public education and grassroots advocacy.

The U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) (www.USAzeris.org), is a registered non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian genuine grassroots advocacy and voter education network that is facilitating political activism and efforts by the Azerbaijani-Americans and other Turkic-Americans and their associations, organizations, councils, conferences, and other formal, semi-formal and informal groups, on federal, state and local levels. USAN is the first nationwide grassroots organization uniting Azerbaijani-Americans, being created by the grassroots, for the grassroots.

Azerbaijan is strategic U.S. ally, and deserves U.S. aid

2008-04-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

Narguiz Birk-Petersen: Azerbaijan is strategic U.S. ally, and deserves U.S. aid

Letter to the editor — 4/01/2008 8:35 am

Dear Editor: I am an Azerbaijani-American who is concerned on the matters related to the Caucasus and Caspian regions. I recently found out a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee is under intense pressure from pro-Armenian groups to disregard the president's 2009 budget request.
I urge Congress to retain or increase programs that give $23.4 million in aid to Azerbaijan, which is a strategic ally for the U.S. with peacekeeping troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and keep economic aid to Armenia at $24 million.
Moreover, absolutely no direct aid whatsoever should given to the Armenia-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.
It should be stressed that direct U.S. assistance to the NK region would exacerbate concern in Azerbaijan and especially among the Azerbaijani-Americans and their friends. Any direct assistance would inspire speculation that the United States is taking sides with Armenia. The NK region, occupied by Armenia in the early 1990s, is recognized by the U.S., the U.N. and other nations as an integral part of Azerbaijan.
I urge Congress to keep or increase the need-based amounts of aid for Azerbaijan, so that our troops could do their job more effectively with the Azerbaijani military. Doing otherwise undermines U.S. national security, and creates a very bad image of the U.S. in the Muslim world in general and in particular in Azerbaijan, its only predominantly Shiite but secular ally.

Narguiz Birk-Petersen

Fitchburg

Pasadena Star-News: Aid to Azerbaijan

2008-03-22T12:16:00.001-07:00

PASADENA STAR-NEWS
Pasadena, California

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/letters/ci_8642859

Aid to Azerbaijan
Article Launched: 03/20/2008 07:41:48 PM PDT

When Armenia established its independence in the aftermath of the Soviet
break-up, the U.S. undertook massive financial aid and assistance to
that nation. From day one, Armenia became the second largest per capita
recipient of U.S. aid in the world.

Since 1992, Armenia has received over $1.77 billion in aid. Armenia has
received $225 million in cumulative U.S. foreign assistance for
democratization (about 13 percent of all aid to that nation) from 1992
to 2006. These figures do not include millions in additional
democratization aid budgeted for 2008. Did the U.S. taxpayers and
American hopes and expectations bear fruit?

As all the elections in Armenia have shown, most vividly last month's
presidential elections and its violent aftermath, U.S. efforts have
failed and money was all but wasted: at least eight people killed, over
a hundred wounded, tanks and army patrolling the streets of the capital,
full-scale government censorship of all communications for at least 20
days, and main opposition contender under house arrest.

Armenia is also militarily occupying 16 percent of neighboring
Azerbaijan, displacing 800,000 ethnic Azeris in the process, placing an
even harder moral and financial burden on its population to sustain and
support its military machine.

Compare this with Azerbaijan, a victim of occupation and ethnic
cleansing by Armenia, yet has received only $746 million in cumulative
budgeted foreign assistance from the U.S. (from
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1992 to 2008), of which only about $75million were for democratization.

Thus, larger Azerbaijan, a strategic US ally, has received four times
less aid than a smaller but more aggressive Armenia.

Furthermore, when comparing to a similar presidential election that was
held 5 years ago in Azerbaijan, when two people unfortunately died,
dozens were wounded, yet tanks and army were not deployed, and no
censorship or emergency rule imposed, Armenia's record looks even more
deplorable. Thus, despite being born with a silver spoon in its mouth
and more than generously funded by U.S. taxpayers, Armenia, the second
largest aid recipient in the world, ended up having markedly worse
elections than Azerbaijan.

This is the wrong message to send; we should not be rewarding a corrupt
and militaristic regime, which is not only occupying its neighbors'
lands, conducts ethnic cleansing and engages in crimes against humanity
(e.g., Khojaly Massacre), but also violently kills its own citizens
during its elections and conducts markedly worse elections than its
neighbors.

It's grand time we ask Kocharyan and his regime the age-old question -
Where's the money?!

Arzu Aghayeva

Long Beach

March 31 -- the Day of the Genocide of Azerbaijanis

2008-03-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

March 31 is known as the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis, referring to the tragic events that happened on March 31-April 1, 1918. In one of the first comprehensive scholarly studies of the tragedy, Prof Firuz Kazemzadeh wrote: "This three-day massacre by Armenians is recorded in history as the "March Events" and thousands of Muslims [Azeris], old people, women and children lost their lives" ("The Struggle for Transcaucasia, 1917-1921", New York, 1951, p. 69).

Another distinguished professor was even more blunt: "From 30 March to 1 April 1918, the Tatars [as Azerbaijanis were sometimes called] were attacked. Almost half of the Muslim population of Baku was compelled to flee the city.. Between 8,000 and 12,000 Muslims were killed in Baku alone.." (Justin McCarthy, "Death and Exile. The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims 1821-1922", Darwin Press, Princeton, NJ, 1995, p. 214).

Continues Prof Kazemzadeh: "The truth is that the Armenians, under the guise of Bolshevism, rushed on the Muslims and massacred during a few frightful days more than 12,000 people, many of whom were old men, women, and children.The March Events, as this episode became known to history, touched off a series of massacred all over Azerbaijan."

Rear-Admiral Mark L. Bristol, US High Commissioner (Ambassador) in Istanbul, wrote: "While the Dashnaks [Armenians] were in power [1918-1920] they did everything in the world to keep the pot boiling by attacking Kurds, Turks and Tartars [Azeris]; by committing outrages against the Moslems; by massacring the Moslems; and robbing and destroying their homes. During the last two years the Armenians in Russian Caucasus have shown no ability to govern themselves and especially no ability to govern or handle other races under their power" (US Library of Congress, "Bristol Papers," General Correspondence Container #34). Rear-Admiral Bristol continues, "I have it from absolute first-hand information that the Armenians in the Caucasus attacked Tartar [Azeris] villages that are utterly defenseless
and bombarded these villages with artillery and they murder the inhabitants, pillage the village and often burn the village" ("Bristol Papers", General Correspondence: Container #32: Bristol to Bradley Letter of September 14, 1920).

After the proclamation of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic (ADR) on May 28, 1918, the "March Events" were investigated by ADR Government. In 1919-1920, the ADR observed March 31 as a national day of mourning. This was the first-ever genuine attempt to give political and legal assessment of the policy of genocide against Azeris. No other nation has commemorated genocide as early as 1919 but the Azeris, the first victims of the crimes against humanity.

Being unable to commemorate the tragedy during Soviet years, observation of March 31 was re-established since, to commemorate not just that particular massacre, but the policy of genocide against Azeris carried out since the 19th century and throughout the entire 20th century, with the final act being the Khojaly Massacre of 1992.

The position of Azerbaijani-Americans is that close to a million Azeris have been massacred in the 20th century as the result of Armenian genocidal campaign. This makes for a total of 2,5 million Azeris, Turks, Kurds, Jews, Georgians, Circassians, Tats, Talysh, Lezgins and other people who fell victim to the Armenian policies of ethnic cleansing for the creation of their state, which was supposed to stretch from the Black sea to the Caspian to the Mediterranean.

We are asking to join the Azerbaijani-American and other communities, and the US Azeris Network (USAN), in commemorating the Azerbaijani Genocide by making a statement for the record in your committees, legislature or newspaper column or Congressional Record. Thank you!

Congress should Condemn Armenia's Flawed Presidential Election and hold Hearings

2008-03-11T21:38:00.000-07:00

USAN Action Letter: Congress should Condemn Armenia's Flawed Presidential Election and hold Hearings

On February 19, Armenia held its controversial presidential elections. On March 1, peaceful protest demonstrations of Armenian opposition, that drew tens of thousands, have been dispersed with extreme violence and brutality by Armenian security forces which killed 8 people on the streets of Yerevan. A 20-day complete censorship and state of emergency were imposed, making all but impossible to get truthful coverage and information on casualties, which are claimed to be far higher.

The former war lord and incumbent Prime Minister, Serzh Sarkisian, assisted by state media and various manipulations and fraud (e.g., the vote count in 16% of precincts was "bad or very bad" according to international observer mission of OSCE/ODIHR, OSCE/PA and PACE), won 53% of the vote - just enough to deny a recount, and strikingly similar to the disputed 1996 election, in which the current second-place contender, Levon Ter-Petrossian, got almost 52%. Seems like nothing has changed in Armenia.

In between these rough 12 years between one disputed election to this one (in both cases a runoff, second round, was needed), Armenians endured a coup d'etat in 1998 that forced its president into retirement and takeover of presidency by another war lord Kocharyan, then a 1999 crisis from gunmen assassinating the popular Prime Minister Sargsyan, Speaker Demirchiyan, and several more officials in broad daylight in the nation's Parliament. Not the least among flagrant violations of law in Armenia is the continued military occupation of 16% of Azerbaijan, ethnic cleansing of 800,000 Azerbaijani civilians and crimes against humanity in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

What is also deplorable, however, is that in all this time and with all these egregious violations of international obligations and human rights, the US Congress, and specifically the US Helsinki Commission (CSCE), has never held any hearings on elections and democratization in Armenia - despite US taxpayers footing well over $1,7 billion dollars in aid since 1992 to the corrupt military regime in Armenia that is committing massive violations against its own citizenry as well as citizens of its neighbor.

Whilst in the same time frame, the US Helsinki Commission held numerous hearings on Armenia's neighbors, Azerbaijan and Georgia, but never done so on Armenia and Armenian elections, democratization and human rights.

Such a reaction, or lack thereof, which can be called as "Magna Silencia", is unacceptable. What message does it send to everyone, from peaceful protestors in Armenia, to innocent civilians in Azerbaijan whose homes are destroyed and held by Armenian military regime, to US taxpayers who have been duped into thinking that their money is democratizing Armenia. This is not acceptable for anyone who believes in democracy, and not acceptable to US taxpayers.

The Helsinki Commission along with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee should initiate urgent hearings, and invite their colleagues from the EP, OSCE and PACE to also hold their hearings on the Armenian elections, its short-term and long-term impact on regional security in the Caucasus region, the waste of generous aid to Armenia, and the burden of military occupation which is not allowing Armenia to break away from its inherently undemocratic status. For the people in the region it is important to see a clear and firm position of the US on the situation in Armenia.

You can find bellow some articles and video materials about bloody events in Armenia:

1) Bloodshed in Armenia (The Economist):
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10809006

2) Silence on Armenia (article appeared in Washington Post). By Levon Ter-Petrossian (opposition leader):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/04/AR2008030402329.html

3) This video shows how Armenian security forces kill innocent citizens in Yerevan: http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=RHhKq-0zKXg

Failed democratization of Armenia – a heist worth $2,6 billion dollars to US taxpayers

2008-03-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

When Armenia established its independence in the aftermath of the Soviet break-up, US undertook massive financial aid and assistance to that nation. From day one, Armenia became the second largest per capita recipient of US aid in the world.

Since 1992 Armenia has received over $1,777 billion in US aid, plus $236 million for 5 years in MCC funds. Incidentally, in years 1918-1920, Armenia received over $50 million in US loans, which in 2008 dollars is worth $623,121,387.28. This is for a grand total of $2,636 billion.

According to CRS calculations, Armenia has received $225 million in cumulative US foreign assistance for democratization (about 13 percent of all aid to that nation) from FY92 through FY06 (RS22675, Jun 8, 2007, p. 6). These figures do not include millions in additional democratization aid budgeted in FY07 and FY08. Did the US taxpayers' and American hopes and expectations bear fruit?

As all the elections in Armenia have shown, most vividly the Feb'08 presidential elections and its violent aftermath, US efforts have failed and money was all but wasted. Consider the official facts (independent and opposition report offer far higher figures): at least 8 people killed, over a hundred wounded, tanks and army patrolling the streets of the capital, full-scale government censorship of all communications for at least 20 days, and main opposition contender under house arrest.

Additionally according to the CIA World Factbook, Armenia is also militarily occupying 16% of neighboring Azerbaijan (including the NK region), displacing 800,000 ethnic Azeris in the process, placing an even harder moral and financial burden on its population, to sustain and support its military machine. Indeed, Congress and CRS note, "Armenia's shift away from a war footing would also further US interests in Armenia's economic development and improved standards of living (Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign Operations, FY2007)" (RL30679, Updated Jan 31, 2008, p. 29).

Compare this with Azerbaijan, a victim of occupation and ethnic cleansing by Armenia, yet has received only $746 million in cumulative budgeted US foreign assistance from FY92 through FY08, of which only about $75 million were for democratization. No other loans, grants or MCC compacts were given to Azerbaijan. Thus, larger Azerbaijan, a strategic US ally, has received some 4 times less aid than a smaller but more aggressive Armenia. As the CRS report notes, "The United States has provided most assistance for democratization to Armenia, and somewhat less for Georgia. U.S. aid for democratization in Azerbaijan was explicitly permitted by Congress [only] in FY1998 and thereafter" (ibid., p. 48).

Furthermore, when comparing to a similar presidential election that was held 5 years ago in Azerbaijan, when two people unfortunately died, dozens were wounded, yet tanks and army were not deployed, and no censorship or emergency rule imposed, Armenia's record looks even more deplorable. Thus, despite being born with a silver spoon in its mouth and more than generously funded by US taxpayers, Armenia, the second largest aid recipient in the world, ended up having markedly worse elections than Azerbaijan, which is suffering from occupation of its lands and has to grapple with 10% of its population being displaced. This shows that the US democratization aid to Armenia has been ineffective and failed (which was in line with the signs that the MCC, the Freedom House and others have started to
notice years ago).

This is the wrong message to send - we should not be rewarding a corrupt and militaristic regime, which is not only occupying its neighbor's lands, conducts ethnic cleansing and engaged in crimes against humanity (e.g., Khojaly Massacre), but also violently kills its own citizens during its elections and conducts markedly worse elections than its neighbors. It's grand time we ask Mr Kocharyan and his regime the age old question - "Where's the money?!"

USAN CONDEMNS THE STATEMENT BY SAMANTHA POWER AGAINST SEN. CLINTON, COMMENDS SEN. OBAMA FOR FORCING DR. POWER’S RESIGNATION AS HIS ADVISOR

2008-03-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

USAN CONDEMNS THE STATEMENT BY SAMANTHA POWER AGAINST SEN. CLINTON, COMMENDS SEN. OBAMA FOR FORCING DR. POWER’S RESIGNATION AS AN ADVISOR TO HIS CAMPAIGN

In a predictable turn of events, Ms. Samantha Power, who served as an advisor to the Presidential Campaign by Sen. Barack Obama, has resigned from that position today, on Friday, March 7, 2008, after a string of upsetting and ill-serving advice to Sen. Obama, and culminating in making several disparaging public comments against Sen. Hillary Clinton in her interview with The Scotsman.

In the interview, also published today, Ms. Power labeled Sen. Clinton as a “monster”, resorting to “deceit”, “stooping to anything”, and “you just look at her and think, ‘Ergh’”. Such disparaging remarks are consistent with the generally extremely biased worldview and intolerance toward anyone with a dissenting opinion concerning historic and contemporary events, that Ms. Power, a Pulitzer-prize winning author and Harvard professor, displayed over and over again.

Earlier in the year, on January 25, 2008, the USAN has protested <http://www.usazeris.org/usanpr3.htm> the highly deplorable and unfortunate statement posted on Sen. Obama’s campaign website, about matters concerning Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Armenia, specifically about crimes against humanity, aggression, occupation, ethnic cleansing, and embargoes. The statement was the result of Dr. Power’s ill-served advice, which completely overlooked geopolitical and historic facts in favor of pleasing the Armenian special interest lobby groups.

Ironically, despite making this unfortunate statement, which was presumably calculated to attract supposedly active Armenian-American voters, it failed its objectives completely, by showcasing the greatly exaggerated ability to influence voter turnout attributed to the Armenian-American lobby, while at the same time only galvanizing the Azerbaijani-American and Turkish-American voters to get out the vote and show their unity against such unacceptable and appalling remarks. As USAN’s February 6, 2008 press release <http://www.usazeris.org/usanpr5.htm> observed in the aftermath of the Super Tuesday voting: “[Obama] campaign actually suffered more decisive losses in the states with a large portion of Armenian-American voters, such as California, New Jersey, Massachusetts and, earlier, in Michigan, as well as the state of New York with a large Turkic-American population. USAN views this failure as a result of miscalculation on behalf of policy advisers for Senator Obama, who tend to place the limited agenda of ethnocentric political groups over the interests of the United States.”

Furthermore, USAN remarked, “On behalf of Azerbaijani- and Turkic-American voters, who were deeply offended by Senator Obama's remarks, USAN encourages his campaign to take a more sensitive stance properly reflecting the interests of American people and the position of the United States as a fair broker of the international conflicts.”

USAN welcomes the resignation of Dr. Power and hopes she will do-away from her bias mixed with insufficient knowledge of facts and selective approach in treating historic and contemporary events in the Caucasus and Anatolian regions. Likewise, USAN commends Sen. Obama and his campaign staff for making the right decision quickly and hopes he will become more open for correct assessment of issues relevant to the Turkic-American communities.

The U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) is a registered non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian genuine grassroots advocacy and voter education network that is facilitating political activism and efforts by the Azerbaijani-Americans and other Turkic-Americans and their associations, organizations, councils, conferences, and other formal, semi-formal and informal groups, on federal, state and local levels. Through the auspices of the U.S. Azeris Network, the voice of the Azerbaijani-Americans is becoming unified and strengthened. USAN is the first nationwide grassroots organization uniting Azerbaijani-Americans, conducting successful fundraisers and being created by the grassroots, for the grassroots.

The Sumgait events of February 28, 1988: setting

2008-03-06T23:29:00.002-08:00

The latest USAN Action Letter is aiming at educating the U.S. media
and politicians on the facts surrounding the tragic events of February
28, 1988 in the city of Sumgait. It is important to set the record
straight on the issue to better understand the turbulence of the time,
complexity of the Caucasus region and case in point on how rapidly can
relations between two communities of people deteriorate, and lead one
to an aggressive, expansionist behavior, occupying lands (e.g., 16% of
Azerbaijan), carrying out ethnic cleansing (e.g., 800,000 Azerbaijani
refugees and IDPs), and committing crimes against humanity (e.g,
Khojaly).

"Sumgait Pogroms" refer to tragic events which took place in the era
of perestroika in the waning days of the Soviet Union, in the
economically-depressed and poverty-stricken Azerbaijani industrial
town of Sumgait (pop. 300,000), on February 28, 1988. As a result of
the unfortunate provocations, according to official data, a total of
32 people were killed (26 ethnic Armenian, 6 ethnic Azerbaijani), many
more were wounded, substantial private and public property damage
occurred due to vandalism and looting.

This was the first instance of what was labeled as an inter-ethnic
strife in an otherwise multi-cultural, ethnically and religiously
diverse, and historically tolerant Azerbaijan, but was quickly picked
up by Armenian nationalists and propaganda, with heavily inflated
casualty figures, as an example of large-scale massacre and perhaps
even "genocide". Before too long, the tragedy of Sumgait Pogroms was
spiraled out of control, and became accepted as an example of
persecution of Armenians, and the cause of Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) war
between then-Soviet Armenia and Azerbaijan. Such allegations are still
made by Armenian nationalist circles, including in the United States,
where they take advantage of their numerical strength and overwhelm
the U.S. public opinion with false propaganda claims.

It is vital to recall essential facts related to the Sumgait tragedy:

1) Since 1985, and especially from late 1987, some 11,000 ethnic
Azerbaijanis were ethnically cleansed from their homes in Armenia, and
became the very first refugees of the NK conflict, settling primarily
in and around Sumgait. "Meanwhile, there were more pro-Anschluss
demonstrations in Yerevan and Stepanakert and anti-secessionist
demonstrations by local Azeris in other parts of Karabakh. Tensions
continued to mount when thousands of ethnic Azeris and Kurds living in
Armenia began packing their possessions and leaving, either because
they were 'encouraged' to do so by Armenian nationalists or simply
because they saw the omens and decided to leave of their own accord.
... Azeris and Kurds, among them many mixed, Azeri-Armenian couples,
also began leaving their homes in the Karabakh capital, Stepanakert.
Once again, the question of whether this was due to a general fear of
the future or thanks to more 'active' measures on the par of Armenian
nationalists is a matter of the most bitter dispute. The refugees
settled in the nearby Azeri towns Xodjali or Shusha, or went (or were
sent) to places like the Caspian Sea industrial wasteland city of
Sumgait, north of Baku." (Thomas Goltz, "Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue
Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic",
M.E. Sharpe, 1998, p. 83).

2) On February 14, the Armenian nationalists held the first large
rally in NK region, on February 20, adopted an appeal on the need to
separate the NK region from Azerbaijan and its attachment to Armenia,
stunning and frustrating the people of Azerbaijan. "There was no
mobilized Azeri ethnic nationalism to speak of on 26 February 1988;
people in Azerbaijan had hardly begun to be affected by the events in
Armenia; most Azeris were in fact shocked by the event." (Svante E.
Cornell, "Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical
Conflict in the Caucasus", Routledge, 2001, p. 84).

3) On February 22, 1988, the first casualties of the NK conflict
appeared: two Azerbaijani youths, Bakhtiyar Uliyev, 16, and Ali
Hajiyev, 23, were shot and killed. Their killings, with emphasis on
their ethnicity, were announced on February 27, 1988, on state-run TV
and radio, by the Chief Military Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor
General of USSR, Gen. Alexander Katusev. "Two Azeris were killed,
though that fact was not revealed until later…" and the violence was
"… sparked off by the belated report that two Azeris had been killed…"
(Source: Patrick Brogan, "World Conflicts", London: Bloomsbury
Publishing, 1998, p. 399).

4) Sumgait, third largest city in Azerbaijan, within about half hour
drive from the capital of Baku, had 14,000 Armenian residents (4,67%
of total city population). Of them, according to Soviet
Prosecutor-General Office, 26 died (0,20% of Armenian population)
during the tragedy (independent Armenian sources claim 28-30 dead,
whilst some nationalists claim as much as 450). Evidently, had it been
an act of inter-ethnic strife, the wholly outnumbered Armenians would
have sustained larger casualties than 0,20% of their population.
Today, up to 800 Armenians continue to live in Sumgait, and a total of
up to 30,000 Armenians live in major cities of Azerbaijan. Meanwhile,
no Azerbaijanis are left in Armenia – all 194,000 were ethnically
cleansed;

5) Azerbaijani citizens, its intellectual elite and government,
condemned all the violence publicly, as well as helped and protected
victims of violence;

6) Hundreds of people of all nationalities were arrested and detained
by police for the killings, property crimes, and vandalism. According
to court documents (USSR criminal case 18/55461-88, vol. 29, p. 260),
among the arrested were "Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Russians and
Lezgins". Over eighty people were imprisoned;

7) Among key ringleaders, arrested for killings of 7 of the 26
Armenians, were ethnically Armenian, convicted felons, Eduard
Grigoryan and Zhirayr Azizbekian, as well as other Armenians;

8) Most prosecution and investigation was done by central Soviet
authorities, from Moscow. Most case documents were taken from
Azerbaijan to Moscow and never returned. The Armenian ringleaders,
such as Mr. Grigoryan, were freed in the 1990's from their Russian
prisons;

9) This out of the ordinary behavior has led the Azerbaijani side to
be adamant that the Sumgait Pogroms were a deliberate act of
provocation and sabotage by some elements within the Communist Party,
to fuel ethnic tensions, and keep pro-independence Azerbaijan and
Armenia fighting each other, instead of the central authorities, in a
classic example of divide and rule;

10) This has been recently carefully acknowledged by then Defense
Minister, current Prime Minister and head of National Security
Council, and likely next President of Armenia, Mr. Serzh Sargsyan,
during March 30, 2005, Parliamentary hearings in Armenia: "There are
grounds for a judgment that the mass pogroms and killings of peaceful
Armenian population in Sumgait … were exercised with the knowledge of
CC CPSU [Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,
in Moscow]". He has confirmed his words during a briefing at the
National Press Club in Washington DC in October 2005.

11) "Second and also similar to tsarist-period treatment, the
different reactions of the central government to unrest in the two
republics is noteworthy. Gorbachev talked with the Armenians for
months, accepted petitions, and offered to "work something out" before
resorting to armed force. In Azerbaijan, he immediately called out
troops. Trials of Azerbaijanis have been carried out with the label
"anti-Armenian", and have even been moved outside the republic to the
RSFSR, apparently in response to Armenian accusations that Azerbaijani
courts were not impartial. Although many Azerbaijani dead were
reported, there have not been reports of trials of Armenians for their
murders. The Soviet press relays news from Erevan of Stepanakert (or
from Armenians living in Moscow), rarely from Baku. These actions by
Moscow can only reinforce a widespread feeling of discrimination among
Azerbaijani Turks." Source: Prof. Audrey L. Altstadt.
"Nagorno-Karabagh – "Apple of Discord" in the Azerbaijan SSR". Central
Asian Survey, vol 7, No. 4, 1988, p. 63-78.

12) But Communist leadership seemed unrepentant. "'As far as these
events [Sumgait] are concerned, we acted properly. ... We took
efficient measures that, as it turned out, were just what was needed.
In short, we were on top of events and were able to influence them,
averting the worst.'" declared Mikhail Gorbachev in a Politburo
meeting in March 1988, after the events in Sumgait. (Anatoly S.
Chernyaev, "My Six Years With Gorbachev", Penn State Press, pp.
181-182).

13) Moreover, at the earlier meeting of the Politburo on 29 February
1988 in the immediate aftermath of Sumgait tragedy, Gorbachev said:
"The main thing now is we need to send the working class, people,
people's volunteers into the fight with the criminals. That, I can
tell you, will stop any hooligans and extremists. As happened in
Alma-Ata." (Thomas De Waal, "Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan
Through Peace and War", NYU Press, 2003, pp. 38-39). He was casually
referring to the ruthless suppression of legitimate demands of the
people of Kazakhstan in their capital city of Alma-Ata in 1986, when
Soviet army was used against peaceful civilians, like it was used in
Baku on January 20, 1990, in Tbilisi in 1989 and in Vilnus in 1991.

14) By no means were the Sumgait events sole tragedy in the periphery
of the USSR: "...then came disturbances in Ashghabad and Nebit-Dag
(May 1 and 9, 1989), pogroms in the Fergana valley (June 1989),
interethnic clashes in Novyi Uzen' and Mangyshlak (June 17-20, 1989),
Abkhaz-Georgian confrontation in Abkhazia (1989), Georgian-Ossetian
confrontations in South Ossetia (1989)." (Anatoly M. Khazanov, "After
the USSR: Ethnicity, Nationalism and Politics in the Commonwealth of
Independent States", Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1995, p. 30).

15) The facts about the Sumgait events of 1988 were distorted and
obscured by the propaganda and greater tragedies that followed, such
as dozens of Azerbaijanis massacred in Armenia throughout 1988 (e.g.,
in Gugark, Spitak), the terrible massacre of over 400 Azerbaijanis in
Baku during the Black January of 1990, a genocidal act of mutilating
well over 600 Azerbaijanis during the Khojaly Massacre in February
1992 – the largest massacre in the region to date. All these tragedies
caused considerable and irreparable damage to the Azerbaijani-Armenian
relations, and should be carefully examined, with their masterminds
brought to justice. The Sumgait tragedy, which killed people on all
sides, should be considered only in the larger historic context of the
occupation of NK and other Azerbaijani regions by the armed forces of
Armenia, displacement of over 800,000 Azerbaijanis, killing of a total
of over 20,000 Azeris, and of course the gerrymandering of the Soviet
Communist regime with the lives of millions of people on their
periphery.

U.S. AZERIS NETWORK (USAN) COMMEMORATES "BLACK JANUARY"

2008-03-06T23:25:00.000-08:00

The matter of "Black January" commemoration of tragic events in Baku on January 19-20, 1990, was the most pressing for the Azerbaijani-Americans in January '08. The Black January commemoration campaign (see USAN Action Alert #1-1-2008) has brought in the first accomplishment, with several Congressional offices responding to the Azerbaijani-American community and Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) making a public statement for the Congressional Record, which can be read here: http://www.usazeris.org/CongressionalRecordJoeWilsonBlackJanuary.pdf

USAN members commemorate the Khojaly Massacre

2008-03-06T23:24:00.000-08:00

Join the Azerbaijani-American community in commemorating the Khojaly tragedy! Khojaly massacre of innocent Azeri civilians happened only 16 years ago, and has been extensively documented and written about in the American press, although formal recognition is lacking. Lectures and public commemorations held across the nation: Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Houston.

Azerbaijani-Americans display unprecedented activism in the first two months of '08!

2008-03-06T23:23:00.001-08:00

USAN goals and objectives are being accomplished: In just six weeks, USAN members have sent out thousands of faxes and emails to their elected officials and media, setting a new record for the community. This has resulted in a greater positive activity on the Hill, with constantly growing Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus (CAC), increasing number of public statements by members of Congress, and regular communication between constituents and their elected officials. Azerbaijani-Americans have also stepped up their financial contributions and generally have become more politically pro-active.
The U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) is a non-profit, non-partisan, true grassroots organization which aims to educate, engage, energize, link and unite Azerbaijani-American voters across the political spectrum into the U.S. political process, on both Federal and State levels. USAN will facilitate, ease and automate the electronic delivery of letters, petitions, action alerts and major news from Azerbaijani-American voters to their State Legislators, Assemblymen, Congressmen and Senators, as well as the U.S. media. This is especially important for the Azerbaijani-American community in the 2008 election year, when Presidential, U.S. House and Senate, and State and Local elections all are held at once.
The U.S. Azeris Network is making the first nation-wide attempt to bring all the Azerbaijani-American current and potential voters together, to educate them about the need for voting and thus voter registration, engage them into the American political debate, energize them to vote and be active on important issues facing the Azerbaijani-American community and the country at large, link and unite the Azerbaijani-American voters to speak with one vigorous voice, to be heard in Washington D.C. and state capitals, and to be recognized as an influential voice on the issues pertaining to the Azerbaijani-American voters, particularly energy security, religious tolerance, racism, NATO, EU and WTO politics, humanitarian aid and technical assistance to the strategic ally nations, taxation, social security and healthcare.
As a relatively new group of "swing" or "undecided" voters, the up to 400,000 strong Azerbaijani-American community, concentrating particularly in the states of California, New York, New Jersey and Texas, together with other Turkic communities, such as the half-million strong Turkish-American voter block, along with Iranian-Americans of Azerbaijani Turkic heritage, and, Jewish-Americans (primarily Mountain Jewish) who came from Azerbaijan, presents a great opportunity as a new force in grassroots activism and voting in U.S. politics.
Through the auspices of the U.S. Azeris Network, the voice of the Azerbaijani-Americans will be unified and strengthened. USAN is the first nationwide grassroots organization uniting Azerbaijani-Americans, conducting successful fundraisers and being created by the grassroots, for the grassroots!