Urges U.S. Ambassador to Keep Pressing for Visit to Desecrated Christian Armenian Religious Site
WASHINGTON—The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has called on U.S. Ambassador to Baku, Richard Morningstar, to honor his commitment to the U.S. Senate to secure access to the site, in Djulfa, Nakhichevan, of the Azerbaijani government’s 2005 video-taped destruction of a medieval Armenian cemetery housing thousands of intricately carved Armenian stone-crosses (khatchkars).
In a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Baku Monday, Ambassador Morningstar stated that, when he was recently in Nakhchivan, he “discussed at length with local authorities one such site in Julfa, where, according to evidence from credible sources, an ancient Armenian cemetery was desecrated or destroyed. I regret that the authorities, citing security reasons, made it impossible for me to visit the site and personally see what is there.” Read the complete text.
“Ambassador Morningstar cannot take no for an answer,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “He can either keep knocking on the Ilham Aliyev’s door until this baseless ban is lifted, or simply travel to the site of the Djulfa cemetery on his own. Either way, it’s clear that, as Americans, we should neither sell arms to an Azerbaijani military that destroys cemeteries, nor send any aid to a government in Baku that blocks U.S. ambassadors from visiting sites of peace-time cultural desecration.”
In response to questions by Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) during his confirmation hearing, in June of 2012, Ambassador Morningstar had committed to “make every effort to visit the cemetery and that any kind of desecration such as that is unacceptable, outrageous and I will do my best to get there, and soon.” He also said he would: “amplify our concerns to the Government of Azerbaijan and stress the need to respect and safeguard Armenian religious and cultural sites in Azerbaijan.”
In his recent statement regarding Djulfa, Ambassador Morningstar spoke of Azerbaijan’s “diverse cultural heritage,” while remaining silent on the virulently and violently anti-Armenia policies of the Aliyev government, including its escalating pattern of fatal cross-border attacks, and its recent pardon and promotion of Ramil Safarov, who axed to death an Armenian in his sleep during a NATO-sponsored peace training program in Hungary.
That’s DIRTY BAN!!!
what more can we ever see from such mongrols-azeri mongrol-dogs are better bred than them
I think what the Axerbaijani criminals in Julfa mean by citing security reasons making it impossible for the United States ambassador Morningstar to visit the 1,300 year old desecrated Armenian cemetery is that he will be an eyewitness to the deliberate and sadistic destruction and perhaps also because he might slip on the bulldozed and crushed cross-stones and get injured.
We should form volunteer groups from all over the world and travel to every corner of liberated Karabakh and destroy anything Axerbaijani still standing. Particularly, in response to the vandalism in Julfa we should level to the ground anything sacred to kafir Axerbaijanis.
You don’t knock on Aliyev’s door to make him lift the ban or asking permission to let the ambassador visit the demolished Armenian cemetery in Julfa. You don’t negotiate with racist anti-Armenian Aliyev who calls every single Armenian his enemy. What you do instead is fire missiles to knock down his door and send him to hell where he belongs.
Azerbaijan has NO respect to US whatsoever, if a friend and ally like US is treated this way, than US has a problem.
morningstar,a official visit or not,the wrong political puppit,for the job.clinton and her stooges,playing both sides of the street.It truly is a shame,that the country ,I served has stooped so low.Get the obummer out of there. Do we have a pro-turkie in the Azberaz newspaper