BRYZA VISITED NAKHICHEVAN AND TOOK AN INTERESTED IN JUGHA KHACHKARS By Hovik Afyan US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza's recent statements and activities are quite remarkable. It seems that Bryza, using the US "sulky politics" conducted towards Baku, tries to justify his appointment before the Armenian community of America in every possible way. The Armenian community of America, as well as some senators did not want to trust the OSCE Minsk group former American Co-Chair of Turkish origin (according to some, Kurdish) Zeyno Baran's husband Matthew Bryza with the position of the US Ambassador to Baku, which remained vacant over a year. It is not a fact that the last will continue holding the position of ambassador, as, according to the American law, the newly elected Senate could still disagree with this appointment of Obama, especially when one of the two American senators, who put a veto upon endorsement of Bryza's candidacy, was re-elected. Perhaps, also taking into consideration all of this, a few days ago Matthew Bryza, touching upon the noise aroused on the Stepanakert's airport, "made it clear" to Baku that the flights to Nakhichevan pass through the air of Armenia, while the Armenian side does not threaten to destroy the civilian planes, which is unacceptable in international practice. Bryza mentions Nakhichevan, which is one of the Armenian-Azerbaijani, in this case also Turkish, "big issues", which is also not a secret for anyone. Former Armenian Nakhichevan internationally was given an "Azerbaijan's black garden" description last year, referring to the sad situation of the human rights in the region. Let's remind, Baku did not allow a number of European experts, diplomats and journalists to enter Benanyar village of Nakhichevan, where earlier ordinary citizens' self-immolations happened. Anyway, it turns out that especially western politicians and diplomats understood that the best form of "biting" Azerbaijan is reference to Nakhichevan. Only just the neighboring country's political-media field "bore" the US ambassador's reference to Nakhichevan, when this time Matthew Bryza just visited Nakhichevan instead of talking about it. It should be noted that the time is not chosen at random. As we informed in our yesterday’s issue, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has unilaterally cancelled the joint military exercises with the US, being dissatisfied with Washington's policy conducted in our region, more specifically, with the absence of the pressure applied towards Armenia. In addition to this, the US Ambassador to Yerevan Jovanovich speaking over the "Azatutyun" radio station on April 15 stated that the United States stop financing the project of Armenia, which was specified in the program of "Millennium Challenges". Consequently, for showing American "balanced policy" in the region, Bryza's visit to Nakhichevan and the statements made by him there are justified. Bryza is on two-day visit to Nakhichevan. He already met with head of the autonomy's Parliament Vasif Talibov. The US Ambassador has also scheduled meetings with the representatives of the human rights organizations' of Nakhichevan. The Ambassador discussed "the issues that concern the general situation of democracy and human rights in Nakhichevan" with Talibov. According to Turan agency, in a briefing with the journalists Bryza informed that he also displayed interest in the state of historical monuments of the region, particularly Armenian khachkars in Old Jugha". The Ambassador expressed regret that this time he was unable to visit Jugha "to get acquainted with the situation on-site". "I will be able to go there during my next trip", noted Bryza, adding, rather stressing: "that those monuments and khachkars in Jugha were of great significance and that he attended some meetings in Armenia". |
