Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Executive Director of American Jewish Committee David A. Harris: â€œWe consider Azerbaijan as an important country for the United States and for the stability in the regionâ€

05 July 2010 11:28 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Lachin Sultanova â€“ APA. â€œThe Jewish community helped the United States to appreciate the importance of Azerbaijanâ€, Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee David A. Harris told journalists in Baku, APA reports. â€œWe want to educate the people about Azerbaijan and about its importance for the United Statesâ€, said Harris. He also mentioned the US Secretary of State Hillary Clintonâ€™s visit to Azerbaijan. â€œI am delighted with being here at the same time with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She is a good friend, dear friend. Her visit here likely the visit of American Jewish Committee underscores the importance that the United States, the government and the Jewish community attach to Azerbaijan. I am happy to be here and I would like to take this opportunity to thank her personally that she just announced budget of 15 million dollars to preserve Nazi death camp in Auschwitz. I would like to take this opportunity in Baku to thank for thatâ€.

David Harris said he visited Baku for the first time two years ago. â€œIn the meeting with President Aliyev in Davos, Switzerland two and half years ago, he invited us to come to Baku and we came two years ago. We had very important visit. We consider Azerbaijan as an important country for the United States and for the stability in the region. So we are happy to be back in the delegation to Bakuâ€.

Speaking about the cooperation between the Jewish and Azerbaijani communities in the United States, David Harris said there was close cooperation. â€œI think there is close cooperation between the communities. Specially one is to know that the Jewish Diaspora from Azerbaijan in the United States represented by one of the members of our delegation here has been doing important thing for Azerbaijan in the United States to help to educate America about the importance of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is not well-known country in the United States and it needs to be well-known. The Jewish community can help and we are tryingâ€.

Answering the question about the Jackson-Vanik amendment, David Harris said that it was adopted 35 years ago in 1975 because of Soviet Union and because there was restriction on emigration from the Soviet Union. â€œThere is no more Soviet Union and no more need in emigration and so we, the American Jewish Committee, are concerned that there is no reason to focus on the Jackson-Vanik amendment any longer and it is historical archaism and it shouldnâ€™t beâ€.

Answering the question about the possible impact of the Turkish-Israeli relations on the relations between Azerbaijan and the American Jewish community, David Harris said: â€œTurkey is very important country to Israel, to the region, to the United States. It is very important that Turkey and Israel are finding new language to re-build the relationship. Any separation between Ankara and Jerusalem will not be good for other countries in the region. We, at AJC, are trying to help to repair the relationship. It is very important. I think Turkey and Israel are the two democracies in the region. I hope the recent steps trying to repair the relations will help. As we know there was a secret meeting directing towards the improvement of relations between Jerusalem and Ankara. It is important to both countriesâ€.