Baku, Azerbaijan, March 1
By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:
Hearings dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Sumgait events, promotion of economic ties between the State of California and Armenia, and the outflow of investments of California from Turkey were organized by the Armenian lobby in the California State Senate in Sacramento.
Despite the continuous efforts of the Armenian lobby in California, where about one million Armenians live, as well as spending of big money on various senators, only two of 40 members of the Senate of California (Senator Scott Wilk, whose wife is an Armenian, and a long-time patron of the Armenian lobby Senator Anthony Portantino) attended the event.
Immediately after receiving information about the hearing, active members of the Azerbaijan Cultural Society of Northern California and the Azerbaijani American Cultural Association, including Hamid Azeri, Samir Lutveliyev, Anar Usubov and others, joined the event.
During the event, the representative of the Armenian lobby, claiming that he lived in Azerbaijan and witnessed the Sumgait events, made slanderous statements against Azerbaijan, presented the Sumgait events of 1988 in a fictional version. Senators Portantino and Wilk also supported him and they tried to indulge the Armenian lobby.
Following the hearings, according to the procedural rules, comments were made and questions were asked.
“You talked about the Sumgait events, although the instigators of those events were brought to justice. One of them is an Armenian, whose surname is Grigoryan. However, the perpetrators of the terrible crime against humanity, committed in 1992 by the Armenian armed forces in Khojaly against peaceful Azerbaijanis, are still unpunished,” said one of the young members of the Azerbaijani community addressing Senator Portantino.
“Why do not you mention these facts in your speech? Do you intend to hold hearings on the Khojaly massacre?” he added.
He called on the senator not to treat the issue unilaterally. Confused Senator Portantino said he would consider this issue.
Another representative of the Azerbaijani community, noting that he is from Karabakh, and the fact that as a result of Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan, more than one million Azerbaijanis were expelled from their homes, their rights were grossly violated, asked the question: “What can you say to one million people who wait their return to the native lands?”
Senator Portantino refused to answer the question.
Then another representative of the Azerbaijani community, a student of the University of California, Berkeley, asked the senator why he demonstrated a one-sided approach to the issue and gave the floor only to the Armenian side instead of listening to the opinions of both sides.
Another representative of the Azerbaijani community told the senator that the current rulers of Armenia and those with whom the senator meets during his trips to Armenia are the people who once perpetrated massacre against thousands of peaceful Azerbaijanis.
The representative of the Azerbaijani community added that the Armenian lobby and Armenian citizens living and working in California bring false information to the senator, and he, as an official representing California, must be the first one to refute this lie.
Other members of the Azerbaijani community, including a witness of the Khojaly genocide Anar Usubov, urged the senators not to treat the issue in a one-sided and biased manner. Citing the facts about the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the Khojaly genocide, they brought Azerbaijan’s fair stance to the attention of the people present at the hearings.
Leaders of the Armenian National Committee of America and the Armenian Assembly of America, which are the leading organizations of the radical Armenian lobby in the US, taking the floor, tried to help the senator get out of the difficult situation, but instead of that, they further exposed themselves with their confusing arguments.
Although Senator Portantino said he would answer the questions of the members of the Azerbaijani community after the speeches, he didn’t express any attitude to the questions until the end of the event and completed the hearings using general phrases.