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Azerbaijani Diaspora sents hundreds of protest letters to the California lawmakers

08 February 2012 16:02 (UTC +04:00)

The Diaspora members have sent the hundreds of letters to the California lawmakers, expressing their indignation over the draft and called it â€œa real outrage, especially considering the date it chooses to designate for remembranceâ€.

â€œIt’s appalling that the California legislature will serve as a venue to celebrate the killing of 30,000 Azerbaijani people by the Armenian army, the ethnic cleansing of up to 800,000 Azeris that are unable to return to their homes and live as refugees in their own country for 20 years now. This is a consequence of irredentist claims and campaign of aggression by Armenia against Azerbaijanâ€, wrote the authors.

The Azeri Diaspora members also mention that the facts about the Sumgait events of 1988 were distorted and obscured by the propaganda and greater tragedies that followed, such as dozens of Azerbaijanis massacred in Armenia throughout 1988, the terrible massacre of over 400 Azerbaijanis in Baku during the Black January of 1990, a genocidal act of mutilating well over 600 Azerbaijanis during the Khojaly Massacre in February 1992 - the largest massacre in the region to date. All these tragedies caused considerable and irreparable damage to the Azerbaijani-Armenian relations, and should be carefully examined, with their masterminds brought to justice.

â€œThe Sumgait tragedy, which killed people on all sides, should be considered only in the larger historic context of the occupation of NK and other Azerbaijani regions by the armed forces of Armenia, displacement of over 800,000 Azerbaijanis, killing of a total of over 20,000 Azeris, and of course the gerrymandering of the Soviet Communist regime with the lives of millions of people on their peripheryâ€, say the letters.

The authors also mention that Azerbaijan is a country with well-recognized positive record of tolerance, where Jews and Christians of all denominations, Shia and Sunni Muslims, Bahais and Agnostics, have lived side by side for centuries. â€œMeanwhile, Armenia is a mono-ethnic state that regularly jails Jehovah Witnessesâ€.