Western Azerbaijan Community urges US congressmen to end ethnic and religious discrimination

Western Azerbaijan Community which includes Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia, strongly condemned the biased letter sent by a group of US Congress members to US President Joseph Biden on October 2, 2023.

The West Azerbaijan Community told APA that the said letter is inherently false, and harmful and clearly demonstrates prejudice and discrimination against ethnic Azerbaijanis.

"It seems that not only the Armenian government but also some members of Congress oppose the reintegration of the Armenian residents of Garabagh into Azerbaijan as full citizens and support mono-ethnicity in the region.

The congressmen's call to reinstate Article 907, which prohibits US government aid to Azerbaijan, and to impose additional sanctions is an unfair and unfriendly step. By calling for these negative steps against Azerbaijan, 20 per cent of whose territory has been occupied by Armenia, facing one million refugees and internally displaced persons, more than 30,000 inhabitants killed and nearly a thousand towns and villages destroyed, the congressmen are actually becoming complicit in these crimes of Armenia.

Defending separatists, against whom there are serious reasons to believe that they participated in war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the Khojaly genocide, massacres in Garadaghli, Meshali, Malibeyli and rocket attacks on Azerbaijani towns, reflects no honour to American congressmen.

Finally, we would like to emphasise that American congressmen have never commented on the expulsion of almost 300 thousand Azerbaijanis from Armenia. Our appeal to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US Congress on this issue remained unanswered.

We call on congressmen to put an end to ethnic and religious discrimination and prejudice, to respect Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and sovereignty, to support its reintegration measures based on ethnic diversity and peaceful coexistence and the safe return of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia to their homes, as well as to express their attitude to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Armenia," the statement reads.