Diaspora

Diaspora

Azerbaijani Diaspora dismisses George Mason Universityâ€™s event on Nagorno-Karabakh organized by Armenians

19 February 2011 11:21 (UTC +04:00)

The lecture was planning to express Robert Avetisyan, Karabakh Armeniansâ€™ Washington DC representativeâ€™s views on the Karabakh conflict, but Azerbaijani side dominated the forum with its representatives and brochures.

Even prior to the event, Azerbaijan side made some progress as it forced George Mason University to remove the logo with few Armenians holding a sign saying â€œAzerbaijan is Guilty of Genocideâ€ and change the announcement language that was initially referring to Avetisyan as if he was an official representative of â€œNKR.â€

Azeri Diaspora membersâ€™ comments were shocking and unexpected to Armenians. The lecture switched from Karabakh peace process to drug trafficking in the occupied regions, rising death rates among Armenian soldiers serving in Karabakh, destruction of mosques and historical monuments in the occupied regions, intentional Armenization of geographic Turkic names, killing of peaceful Armenian protestors during recent elections in Yerevan, illegal settlements in the occupied regions, illegality of â€œNKRâ€ and its failure to be recognized, Armeniaâ€™s cooperation with Iran and Russia, international as well as US support for Azerbaijanâ€™s territorial integrity, military support provided by Russia and Armeniaâ€™s dependence on Russia, IDP and refugees, 30 thousands Armenians living in Baku and so forth.

Similar event will be held on February 24 at at the same place by Azerbaijani students with the lectures by Dr. Rovshan Ibrahimov, Chairman of International Relations Department at Qafqaz University and Bedir Memmedli, Director, and co-founder of USAN.