LOS ANGELES—The guest speaker on the evening of November 13, was the Consul General of Azerbaijan to Los Angeles Nasimi Aghayev. The forum was the World Affairs Council (WAC). The occasion was Azerbaijan ‘s response to a compelling account of that region, the southern Caucasus — Armenia , Artsakh and Azerbaijan — by the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of Armenia , Edward Nalbandian, given from the same podium less than two months earlier.
Garo Ghazarian, the Chairman of the Armenian Bar Association, after being recognized and permitted to address the Azeri Consul General by the President of the World Affairs Council, proceeded to challenge the half-truths and outright inconsistencies articulated by the Azeri Consul General at the World Affairs Council, after the latter concluded his presentation before a predominantly American audience.
Ghazarian took issue with the blatant Azeri misrepresentations regarding the policy and practice of alleged “tolerance towards minorities, including Armenians…,” as declared from the podium by the Azeri Consul General.
“You speak of tolerance and you speak of alleged violations of law by Republic of Armenia. How do you reconcile your President’s utter disregard of international law, his refusal to adhere to recognized rules of engagement dealing with prisoner transfers, his pardoning of convicted ax murderer Safarov, his declaring all those who kill Armenians as heroes, his stating that Armenians all over the world are the enemies of Azerbaijan?” queried Garo Ghazarian, after identifying himself as the Chairman of the Armenian Bar Association.
Ghazarian continued his remarks to the Azeri Consul General by quoting President Barack Obama and the White House’s Press Release on August 31, 2012, reminding all in the audience of President Obama’s remarks: “I am deeply concerned by the pardon, [and that the Azeri President’s] action was contrary to ongoing efforts to reduce regional tensions and promote reconciliation.”
Inviting the Azeri Consul General to respond to his remarks and the concerns expressed by President Obama, Ghazarian took his seat. What followed by the Azeri Consul General was more of the same –innuendos, denials and distortions, which at once were both offensive and injurious to any rational person’s intelligence.
“We may be in the 21st Century, but on the evening of the 13th of November, 2012, truth was the latest victim of the oil-fueled Azeri propaganda machinery. The audience was treated to yet another rewriting of history, courtesy of the Azeri Consul General who shamelessly declared that the first Christian people of the world were residents of Azerbaijan and were known as the Albanians of the Caucasus . We were transported to a make-believe reality, where the Azerbaijan Government in Baku, according to its Consul General in Los Angeles, is the most tolerant government in the region,” said the Chairman of the Armenian Bar.
The Azeri Consul General also referred to the Armenian Genocide as the “so called Genocide,” despite the fact that it clearly was not lost on him that many members of the Jewish-American community were in the audience. It must have not occurred to him that these Jewish Americans, like their fellow compatriot Armenian Americans in the audience, experienced great suffering and survival in their recent history, or that they were the children and grandchildren of the Jewish Holocaust. Finally, the Azeri Consul is apparently not familiar with the words uttered by Adolf Hitler in 1939, before he gave the orders to exterminate all Jews in Poland by stating “after all, who remembers the Armenians today?”
“The Azeri falsehoods uttered from a prominent podium such as the World Affairs Council provided all the confirmation one needed to mistrust, more than ever, anything said by the Azeri regime. We have reached a point where we can tell when they are being disingenuous. All we have to do is look to see if their lips are moving,” said the Chairman of the Armenian Bar Association.
Well said Garo! We are so fortunate to have you as our President of the Armenian Bar Association!
The international community is more open to believe Azerbaijani version of truth, because of OIL,…. $$$$, OIL…. $$$$$ Who cares about truth
Finally someone responded to these cretins and their lies. Don’t put to much stock in the “benevolent” audience rejecting these lies spoken by the consul. Every single person in attendance there knew they were lies, however, they chose to ignore all the fabrications because it was in their best interest to do so. If such audiences were truly concerned about any of these baked stories, they would not have bothered inviting the consul knowing full well he was going to spew state sponsored fairy tales.
More importantly, every single Jew in the audience knew full well that the consul was a lier, however, because what was being said did not pertain to Jewish interests and the Holocaust, they were more than willing to let all the lies slip by unnoticed until an Armenian called the consul out on his BS.
Remember fellow Armenians, we have not “benevolent” friends, there are simply those that may or may not have their interests aligned with ours. And no matter how many times Jewish groups claim that they “share in our pain” as “people that have suffered similar fates”, they will always opt and work to have the Armenian Question stay on the back burner of world affairs while they maintain their title of the “quintessential world victims”.
Had one single Armenian attended any sort of meeting that involved a speaker denying the Holocaust and spewing anti-Jewish propaganda, the said Armenian would be chastised and criticized for their actions. Yet groups of Jews attend such propaganda filled rooms and somehow it’s okay for them to knowing listen to lies and sweep it all under the rug.
nice!