Friday, May 27, 2022
No Result
View All Result
Asbarez.com
NEWSLETTER
ՀԱՅ
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports
No Result
View All Result
Asbarez.com
ՀԱՅ
No Result
View All Result

ANCA Open Letter to State Legislators on Azeri Dictator Ilham Aliyev

by Aram Suren Hamparian
February 10, 2014
in Armenia, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories
6
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian

ANCA Open Letter To State Legislators About Azerbaijan

Take a Stand against Foreign Interference in American Civic Life by Corrupt Azerbaijani Dictator Ilham Aliyev

Dear U.S. State Legislator:

I am writing to alert you that Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan (an oil-rich and corrupt one-family dictatorship), is pressuring state legislatures across our country into joining his angry and increasingly violent attacks upon his Christian Armenian neighbors.

Azerbaijan has been run by the Aliyev family for the better part of the past half century. Its current President, the son of a KGB general, has become a billionaire on a civil service salary and is often listed as the single most undemocratic leader in the world. His personal wealth and his government’s corruption were both highlighted in this CNBC progam: “The Aliyev Family of Azerbaijan.”

President Aliyev is best known around the world for the scandal surrounding his pardon and promotion of a convicted axe-murderer, after this confessed killer happily admitted to hacking to death an Armenian student (while he slept) during a NATO peace program in Hungary. This shameful act was sharply condemned by President Obama. Azerbaijan’s human rights record, among the worst in the world, is documented annually in our State Department’s human rights reports. This one-page provides basic background about his record as President.

It is truly a tribute to our great American democratic tradition that even a regime as flagrantly corrupt as Ilham Aliyev’s is allowed to operate freely within our open society. But that does not mean that American citizens need to remain silent in the face of meddling by foreign leaders who neither respect our rights nor share our values – especially when they try to export their intolerance to our shores.

It would risk public embarrassment for any state legislature to be perceived, in any manner, as somehow serving the foreign interests of a corrupt dictator. The Washington Post and Politico, among other media outlets, have reported extensively about scandalous charges of Azerbaijani influence over U.S. policymakers – past and present. In fact, a previous Presidential nominee for Ambassador to Azerbaijan was blocked by the U.S. Senate due, in large measure, to concerns regarding reports of unacceptable relationships with Azerbaijani officials.

It is in the spirit of our American democracy that I ask you to ensure that this foreign dictator is not allowed to hijack your state legislature in his hateful campaign against the Republic of Armenia and the free people of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

I respectfully suggest that you tell President Aliyev: “Fix your own democracy, instead of trying to interfere in ours!”

I very much appreciate your consideration of my concerns.

Sincerely,
Aram Suren Hamparian
Executive Director
Armenian National Committee of America

Tags: AlabamaAlaskaancaArizonaArkansasarmenian national committee of americaAzerbaijanCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoilham aliyevIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMark TakaiMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNEW YORKNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandRida CabanillaSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiawashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
Aram Suren Hamparian

Aram Suren Hamparian

Next Post

Artists Join Workers in Pension Reform Protests

Comments 6

  1. Aram says:
    8 years ago

    As long as Alyev is serving western interests he can hijack the whole world. These warnings will go unneeded in Washington.

    Reply
    • Armenian says:
      8 years ago

      And whose interests are we serving? It’s a shame that even Aliyev has recognized that the West offers more of a promise than Russia does. Of course, the principle difference is that he’s not doing it for the good of his own nation, he’s doing it for himself and to hold onto his authority there. Same thing with Serjhik, except he’s literally sold our future to Russia for the next 30 years so he and his goons can hold on to power. You see, Aliyev and Serjhik are not that different; in fact, they’re actually very, very similar.

      Reply
      • Harutik says:
        8 years ago

        Washington’s cyber-warriors are everywhere these days. Please save us your nonsense about the West and Democracy. Even the most ignorant ones in our society are beginning to see the political West as a threat to humanity. God bless Russia. God bless Armenia. And may God help us preserve Russo-Armenian relations against all enemies both foreign and domestic.

        Reply
  2. GeorgeMardig says:
    8 years ago

    Azerbaijan is a liabiltity that US can’t Afford

    Reply
  3. Ohannes Boghossian says:
    8 years ago

    Hello any on home when Armenian’s will weak up the planet eart runs by OIL
    samthing we don’t have

    Reply
  4. bedodem says:
    8 years ago

    https://www.facebook.com/notes/european-armenian-federation-for-justice-and-democracy-eafjd/an-open-letter-to-the-high-representative-of-the-eu-for-foreign-affairs-security/808319329185354

    An Open Letter to the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy, Vice-President of the EU
    7 February 2014 at 14:01
    Brussels, February 7, 2014

    To: the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy,
    Vice-President of the European Commission,
    Her Excellency, Lady Catherine Ashton

    Your Excellency,

    Having read in the news, that the EU has a solution for solving the Ukrainian crisis by means of financial offer, as the source mentions (“Ashton off to Kiev with new financial offer”, http://euobserver.com/foreign/122996), outlined to EU ambassadors in the Political and Security Committee, in Brussels, on February 3rd, 2014, the financial assistance will come from a group of donor countries, and seeing Azerbaijan among them, it’s rather astonishing. It is disappointing seeing Azerbaijan listed in the same rank as Norway, Japan, the USA and the EU. No matter how novel a cause is to try and diffuse the tension in Ukraine – and your role as mediator is highly appreciated – but having Azerbaijan in the group of donors to support the democratic process in Ukraine is highly controversial, to say the least.

    The EU known for its strict attachment to Human Rights and Democratic values, should not allow a dictatorship be a donor and establish democracy in another country.

    Welcoming the struggle of the people of Ukraine for Democracy, which the EU intends to support with a financial offer as well, at least the money should come from a group of democratic countries – and not oppressive regimes, like Azerbaijan. Posing the question about the moral dimensions of such a choice should not be surprising for you.
    Azerbaijan has definitely trying to reach new levels of “caviar diplomacy”, by becoming a donor country for its wider neighbourhood – rather than importing democracy, it is selling democracy to others.

    While the EU is discussing sanctions for the Ukrainian governing elite, at the same time is prepared to back up the transition of the country towards democracy with money from another corrupt elite – that of Azerbaijan.

    It’s worth to check once again, the reports of international organizations such as Freedom House (http://www.freedomhouse.org/country/azerbaijan#.UvJd1CyYZMs), Transparency International (http://www.transparency.org/country#AZE) to remember the state of affairs of Azerbaijan. You must be fully aware of last year’s election scandal when the results of voting were made public before the voting itself – not to mention the re-election of Ilham Aliyev by 84% of the vote and OSCE/ODIHR’s report (http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/106901). The Statement of Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum on NGO law amendments in Azerbaijan (http://www.eap-csf.eu/en/news-events/news/statement-of-eastern-partnership-civil-society-forum-on-ngo-law-amendments-in-azerbaijan/) is a good indication of the regime’s oppressive approach to its own citizens – let alone giving voice and support to the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians on Euromaidan square in Kiev, against their government.

    The least the EU can do to help Ukraine in her transition, is to keep away from Azerbaijani caviar diplomacy and financial support.

    Recalling the abovementioned, we hope that the EU will not turn away from its Democratic values and will take its decisions with precaution to cooperate with third countries in transition.

    Kaspar Karampetian,
    President

    European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended

Warsaw Stock Exchange to Acquire 65% Stake in Armenia’s Securities Exchange. What Does it Mean?

Warsaw Stock Exchange to Acquire 65% Stake in Armenia’s Securities Exchange. What Does it Mean?

12 hours ago
Holden Meets with Pasadena ANCA, ARS, and Hamazkayin Chapters

Holden Meets with Pasadena ANCA, ARS, and Hamazkayin Chapters

12 hours ago

Connect with us

  • About
  • Advertising
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

© 2021 Asbarez | All Rights Reserved | Powered By MSDN Solutions Inc.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports

© 2021 Asbarez | All Rights Reserved | Powered By MSDN Solutions Inc.

Accessibility

Accessibility modes

Epilepsy Safe Mode
Dampens color and removes blinks
This mode enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode
Improves website's visuals
This mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode
Helps to focus on specific content
This mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode
Reduces distractions and improve focus
This mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode
Allows using the site with your screen-reader
This mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.

Online Dictionary

    Readable Experience

    Content Scaling
    Default
    Text Magnifier
    Readable Font
    Dyslexia Friendly
    Highlight Titles
    Highlight Links
    Font Sizing
    Default
    Line Height
    Default
    Letter Spacing
    Default
    Left Aligned
    Center Aligned
    Right Aligned

    Visually Pleasing Experience

    Dark Contrast
    Light Contrast
    Monochrome
    High Contrast
    High Saturation
    Low Saturation
    Adjust Text Colors
    Adjust Title Colors
    Adjust Background Colors

    Easy Orientation

    Mute Sounds
    Hide Images
    Virtual Keyboard
    Reading Guide
    Stop Animations
    Reading Mask
    Highlight Hover
    Highlight Focus
    Big Dark Cursor
    Big Light Cursor
    Navigation Keys

    Asbarez.com Accessibility Statement

    Accessibility Statement

    • asbarez.com
    • May 27, 2022

    Compliance status

    We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.

    To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.

    This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.

    Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.

    If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email

    Screen-reader and keyboard navigation

    Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:

    1. Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.

      These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.

    2. Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.

      Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

    Disability profiles supported in our website

    • Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
    • Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
    • Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
    • ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
    • Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
    • Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

    Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments

    1. Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
    2. Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over 7 different coloring options.
    3. Animations – epileptic users can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
    4. Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
    5. Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
    6. Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
    7. Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.

    Browser and assistive technology compatibility

    We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.

    Notes, comments, and feedback

    Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to