USAN BoD sends its second letter to Secretary Clinton over Nagorno-Karabakh occupation, asks for a formal meeting with the Azerbaijani-American diaspora
Washington D.C. - On January 18, 2010, the U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) Board of Directors sent its second letter to the Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asking for a formal meeting with the Azerbaijani-American diaspora, over the latest news and developments arising from the Armenian occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and seven adjacent districts, of Azerbaijan, as well as due to Sec. Clinton's planned meeting with the Armenian-American diaspora on February 9. The first letter on this matter was sent to Sec. Clinton on August 28, 2009. The full letter is enclosed below:
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January 18, 2010
Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State, Department of State
2201 C Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20520
Dear Secretary Clinton:
As the Board of Directors of the U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) we are writing on behalf of the Azerbaijani-American community and our members to reiterate our August 28, 2009 letter to you, in which we expressed readiness and willingness to meet with you and your staff. We would like to formally request to greet you in person, to introduce to the Azerbaijani-American leaders, to discuss the occupation of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent districts, as well as U.S.’ role as the conflict mediator and co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group. This is particularly urgent considering your upcoming meeting with the Armenian-American community on February 9, 2010. We expect to have parity and balance maintained by the State Department in involving all stakeholders on an equal basis.
Per our statement in The Washington Post on the day of inauguration of the President of the United States on January 20, 2009, as well as our subsequent letters to President Obama and to you, the Azerbaijani-Americans and the USAN pledge their support and look forward to working on any issue related to our community and to the Caucasus region by the Administration and Congress, particularly the matter of occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As described in the statement by the Azerbaijani-American community leaders adopted unanimously on October 2, 2008 at the USAN conference in Washington, D.C., Azerbaijani-Americans aspire to restore peace, justice and fairness in the South Caucasus region and see U.S. play a role of an independent, influential, unbiased and fair broker.
Hence, we welcome all positive steps in resolving the NK conflict, and offer our support to conflict resolution efforts pursued by you, madam Secretary. We, as stakeholder representatives, are committed to doing our part to make the peace, reconciliation and normalization a reality. We stand ready to work with you to accomplish this goal and look forward to a meeting with you soon.
Sincerely,
[USAN Board of Directors]
Adil Baguirov, Ph.D., Managing Director
Bedir Memmedli, CPA, Treasurer and Director
Yusif Babanly, MBA, Corporate Secretary and Director
Jayhun Mollazade, Ph.D., Director, Eastern Region
Bob Guney, M.D., Director, Western Region
Nigar Gasimova, M.D., Director, Southern Region
Azer Tebrizli, Ph.D., Director, Northern Region
Mehriban Afandiyeva, Director, Southern and Northern Region
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The U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) <http://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.
