Washington, August 28 (AZERTAC). Azerbaijan`s Consulate General in Los Angeles has released a statement on California Legislature`s racist anti-Azerbaijani resolution AJR 32 on Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The racist anti-Azerbaijani resolution AJR 32 on Nagorno-Karabakh has been on the agenda of the California State Senate for some time. From the very beginning, a number of serious measures were undertaken by the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles to counter the resolution. These measures included, inter alia, sending letters of protest to all senators, holding numerous meetings with them, thus explaining the biasedness and flawedness of the AJR 32, its contradiction to America’s stated foreign policy and national interests, as well as the fact that this racist resolution justified ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia.” “Moreover, the Azerbaijani community of California also got mobilized and through various means harshly protested against the resolution. As a result, despite inordinate amount of effort by the Armenian lobby in California, where around 1 million Armenians reside, despite all the efforts by the two Armenian members of the California Legislature, as well as in spite of all the pressure by this ethnic lobby on senators using threats, blackmail and other means, 17 out of 40 senators refused to vote for the resolution,” the statement says.

“At the same time, the senators who receive massive financial contributions for their election campaigns and therefore hugely depend on the Armenian lobby, voted for AJR 32, disregarding all the solid facts presented to them. This is a pure political corruption. It has no other name. It is also a strong indicator of a serious flaw in America’s political system that needs an urgent fixing. How can a state legislature adopt a document which strongly contradicts the federal government’s stated foreign policy and damages the country’s standing and national interests? Why no tangible measures are taken to curb the influence of such special interest groups who pressure the state legislators to disregard the national interests of the US? These are questions still awaiting serious answers!”

“It should also be stressed that this resolution is not the first resolution adopted by the California Legislature regarding Nagorno-Karabakh. In 1993, 1997 and 1999, three similar resolutions had been adopted by the Legislature at the behest of the Armenian lobby. However neither those resolutions, nor AJR 32 have any legal or political significance. The entire international community, including the United States and United Nations, recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. Therefore such meaningless pieces of paper are unable to change this position,” the stament says.

Yusif Babanly

Special Correspondent