Azerbaijan, Baku, December 11 / Trend News, A.Huseynbala /
The Parliament of Azerbaijan will express its protest against U.S. Congress's assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to the Azerbaijani MP Zahid Oruj, at the next meeting of Parliament, together with his colleagues, he will protest against the decision of the U.S. Congress to allocate assistance in amount of eight million dollars to Nagorno-Karabakh next year.
"I believe that my colleagues and I must express our strong protest in connection with this fact," a member of Azerbaijan Parliament's committee on security and defense, Zahid Oruj, told Trend News.
On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate decided to provide eight million dollars assistance to the separatist regime of Nagorno-Karabakh."
According to him, the members of Congress, representatives of the U.S. political elite, as well as those associated with the processes occurring in the region can witness the tightening of the military regime in Karabakh. "The local regime continues remaining as a military junta. The process of forming institutional structures, or the process of establishing a civil society has not taken place in Nagorno-Karabakh. But in its essence, this aid means that the U.S. Congress funds separatism," said a the committee member.
All these can adversely affect the ties between the U.S. and Azerbaijan, said Oruj. "The fact is that over the past period, more than two billion dollars have also been provided to Armenia for the same purpose. Of course, these funds are derived from the U.S. citizens, and we can not order any country to whom to provide the funds. But the decision does not correspond with the character of U.S. relations with Azerbaijan and the region as a whole," he said.
According to the MP, the last U.S. decision does not conform with the requirements of the mandate of the unilateral mediation on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "If to remember, due to the Section 907, for decades Azerbaijan faced serious obstacles. We were not much concerned over the financial aspect of this problem. The most important was the political complications. It brought significant harms to the relations between Azerbaijan and the United States and the West, " said Orudj.
According to the committee member, if formerly the U.S. would not assist, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, and Yerevan would have already come to a view of the need for a peaceful settlement, including the signing of a peace agreement. "This would also accelerate the process of resolving the conflict. But the U.S. aid creates an opportunity to the separatist forces to stay afloat and from a political point of view, enjoy this in their own interests," said Orudj.
The MP said that he will propose at the Parliament meeting to be held on Dec. 15 to adopt a statement of protest and further submit it to the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
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