Your trusted source

New Mexico state Legislature recently passed a memorial praising Azerbaijan for “tolerance and interfaith harmony.” The facts show Azerbaijan has a history of anything but “interfaith harmony and tolerance” especially when it comes to its neighbor Armenia, a small Christian country facing constant threats of war and harassment from the Azerbaijan government and military, an Albuquerque resident writes for the American newspaper Albuquerque Journal.

Armenia recently commemorated the 100th anniversary of the genocide of 1.5 million of its people by Ottoman Turks, and Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian rhetoric encourages another genocide against the native Armenian people of the Caucasus. Despite lobbyists’ claims of Azerbaijan being a secular Muslim country, reality is since its independence from the USSR in 1991 it is no longer secular, the author stresses.

“Azerbaijan’s Armenian hate was on full display when Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev freed and promoted in rank an Azerbaijani soldier who beheaded his sleeping Armenian roommate, Army Lt. Gurgen Markaryan, in Hungary during a NATO Partnership for Peace program. This barbaric solider was sentenced to life in prison in Budapest, but in 2012 Azerbaijan spent a fortune to extradite this cold-blooded murderer. Azerbaijan promised Hungary he would serve the rest of his sentence in their country, instead he was pardoned and elevated to national hero status even receiving a parade for killing an Armenian,” the article reads. It further notes that in 2005, Aliyev deployed 100 of his soldiers to Julfa, Nakhijevan, conducting an operation to destroy 2,000 Armenian medieval hand-carved Christian cross-stones. Afterwards, Azerbaijan claimed these monuments never existed.

The author points that since Azerbaijan’s existence, its desire to wipe the ancient Christian country of Armenia off the map is apparent. It is the official policy of the president who inaccurately proclaimed Armenia exists on Azerbaijan land when, in fact, Azerbaijan did not even exist until 1918.

In May 2013, the state oil company of Azerbaijan, SOCAR, secretly funded an all-expenses-paid trip to a conference in Baku (“U.S.-Azerbaijan Convention: Vision for the Future”) for 10 members of Congress and 32 staff members. Three former top aides to President Obama appeared as speakers at the event. The lawmakers and their staff members received hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of travel expenses, silk scarves, crystal tea sets and Azerbaijani rugs valued at $2,500 to $10,000.

Related:
Albuquerque Journal: Pro-Azerbaijan lobbyists in US do not register officially and introduce ‘absurd’ resolutions