USAN MEMBERS PROTEST OUTRAGEOUS STATEMENT BY SENATOR OBAMA
Azerbaijani-Americans, Turkish-Americans and All Their Friends Are
Urged to Voice Their Disapproval of Sen. Obama's Statement Regarding
Crimes Against Humanity, Aggression, Occupation, Ethnic Cleansing, and
Embargoes
Today, the U.S. Azeris Network has made available a second letter,
provided below (and both made available in the Action letters section
of the www.USAzeris.org), related to the outrage surrounding Sen.
Obama's statement, which insult all Azerbaijani-Americans and
Turkish-Americans, as well as the U.S. allies of Azerbaijan and
Turkey. Sen. Obama's comments reveal his inexperience and poor
judgement, along with unprofessionalism of his foreign and domestic
ethnic policy campaign advisors. The inadequate advice under which
Sen. Obama made his ill-conceived statement cannot yield positive
results as it benefits a relatively small ethnic special interest
group at the expense of tens of millions of people worldwide as well
as domestically, and two strategic U.S. allies. All
Azerbaijani-Americans, Turkish-Americans and their friends can voice
their dissatisfaction to Sen. Obama and their local media.
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.
USAN facilitates the sending out of letters, emails and faxes by the
Azerbaijani-Americans to their elected officials (President,
Governors, members of U.S. House and Senate, State Assemblymen and
State Senators) and local media.
Being a true grassroots movement, USAN invites all activists to join
in by showing their support in the form of a: 1) monetary
contribution, 2) signing and sending of action letters, 3) suggesting
and drafting an action letter that would be of importance to the
entire Azerbaijani-American and Turkic-American Diaspora's, and the
strengthening of the U.S.-Azerbaijan strategic allied relations, and
4) taking a lead in your communities, university campuses, cities, and
states on spearheading USAN grassroots campaigns.
USAN is made possible thanks to generous support from dozens of
Azerbaijani-American donors across the country, making it a genuine
and true grassroots coalition. To make contributions easier and
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clicking on "Donate securely online" on the left side menu, or on the
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To register in the USAN action database, and send out any or all of
the letters, do the following:
1) Go to URL: http://www.usazeris.org
2) Click on red "Action Alerts" on the left side menu
3) Click on any of the letters you see and find relevant or
interesting to you in the Active Issues category
4) Click on the orange "Take Action" button in the bottom
5) If you are a new user, fill out the form that you see. If you have
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6) Enter your email address and zip code that you used when you
registered. REMEMBER IT!
USAN Members' Letter Regarding Sen. Obama's Campaign Website Statement
As a member of the Azerbaijani-American, and the wider Turkic-American
community, myself and my family are outraged and incensed by Sen.
Obama's Jan 19 website statement [ http://www.barackobama.com/2008/01/19/barack_obama_on_the_importance.php
] where he not only recognizes, once again, the allegations of the
highly disputed so-called "Armenian genocide" as true and valid, but
goes one step further, speculating about assumed "Turkish and
Azerbaijani blockades" of Armenia, and throwing his support behind
Armenia's aggression, occupation and ethnic cleansing of 16% of
Azerbaijan, by stating that he would favour the "founding commitment
to the principles of … self determination" over the no less important
founding principle of territorial integrity in settling the war
between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
At best this is complete ignorance and absence of real understanding
of foreign policy, international relations, history, and U.S.
strategic allied relations with important predominantly Muslim, but
secular Azerbaijan and Turkey. At worst, this is a complete mockery of
democracy, justice and fairness, where the votes of Armenian-Americans
just before the California, New York, New Jersey primaries are
essentially being bought with Azerbaijani blood and sufferings
(1905-1994), as well as Turkish and Kurdish blood and pain
(1914-1920). Is this the "change" Sen. Obama is promising, to sell his
vote and influence to the largest and wealthiest special interest
groups?
To begin with, if Sen. Obama is truly interested in finding out more
about genocides, the qualifications of the likes of University of
Massachusetts Prof. Guenter Lewy, a Holocaust survivor and author of
"The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide" (Utah
University Press, 2005), would offer a more balanced and scholarly
perspective than Sen. Obama's past or present foreign policy advisors.
Secondly, in the wake of the approaching 16th anniversary of the
Khojaly Massacre (February 24-25, 1992), Sen. Obama should evaluate
that tragedy (as many U.S. publications, journalists and Congressmen
have), since it is the biggest modern slaughter of innocent civilians
in the Caucasus region, and was perpetrated by the Armenian military.
People who have had a genocide allegedly perpetrated against them
would probably not commit such a slaughter against other innocent
people. It should be noted that the Khojaly Massacre is the modern
(right before our eyes) culmination of Armenian slaughters of
Azerbaijani civilians, and is part of what is known as the Genocide of
Azerbaijanis, commemorated each March 31 since 1919 (at that time, it
was known as Massacre of Azerbaijanis, since the term genocide was not
invented yet).
Thirdly, there is no blockade of Armenia by either Turkey or
Azerbaijan, instead, there is an economic embargo which can be ended
by Armenia as soon as its ceases its occupation of 16% of Azerbaijan
and allows 800,000 Azerbaijani displaced to return home. Indeed, both
countries keep their airspace with Armenia open, and in case of
Turkey, it is a favourite destination for hundreds of thousands of
Armenian tourists, as well as legal and illegal workers (the latter
one's size is estimated to be 60,000 by the Turkish government).
Armenians pay the same low visa fee as any other tourist to Turkey,
and enjoy regular flights between Yerevan and Istanbul, among other
cities. We bet Cuba, Iran or Syria wished they could have such a
"blockade" against them. Meanwhile, it is Armenia which has really
been blockading and even occupying parts of Nakhichevan, an
Azerbaijani exclave with a population of 300,000 people (1/6th of
Armenia's own population), since 1989.
Finally, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not to be settled along Mr.
Obama's ill-advised lines, but the way four UN Security Council
Resolutions (in favour of which U.S. voted), among other resolutions
by international organizations, such as the OSCE and COE PACE, demand:
cessation of hostilities, removal of all occupying forces from
Azerbaijan and return of refugees and displaced, with full restoration
of territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan. This would be
the most democratic solution, acceptable to the international
community, and respect all founding principles of the international
law, including the principle of self-determination (as the latter is
not to be mistaken as a cart blanche for military aggression – which
is a mistake the Armenian lobby perpetuates).
Sen. Obama should apologize for his offensive and even immoral
statement, not just to the 700,000 Turkic-Americans, but also to the
tens of millions of Azeris and Turks around the world. The same Azeris
and Turks who serve alongside with Americans in Kosovo, Afghanistan
and Iraq; who are helping to diversify the U.S. oil supply and reduce
world energy prices, thus directly contributing to the American energy
security; who have expanding and rapidly growing economies, which
present huge opportunities for U.S. exports; and finally, who have
shown a proud tradition of ethnic and religious tolerance – the traits
completely absent in mono-ethnic Armenia, a country which has been
working against U.S. interests, and was even included in the
Department of Justice Terrorism List in 2002, whilst its "refugees"
were deported from the U.S. in 2005 for committing, according to the
Department of Homeland Security, "crimes against humanity" in
Azerbaijan. Hence, Sen. Obama's is at odds with the U.S. government,
its allies, the international community and basic human rights
principles.
This flies in the face of Sen. Obama's moral and ethical principles,
as well as his and his campaigns' experience and expertise. He should
immediately renounce his offensive statement, apologize to the
Azerbaijani-American and Turkish-American communities (also present in
California, New York, New Jersey, and other states, by the way), and
make it right by adhering to the international and U.S. human rights
practices, which value all human lives, and condemn all suffering,
irrespective of how strong one's lobby and how deep one's pockets.
