Louis Sahagún
Sat, September 17, 202
Demonstrators supporting Armenia protest on Saturday outside the Azerbaijani Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
More than 100 people gathered outside the Azerbaijani Consulate in Los Angeles on Saturday demanding an end to attacks by Azerbaijan forces in a disputed border region with Armenia and Artsakh, where an estimated 200 people were killed in the past week.
The demonstration coincided with a surprise weekend visit to Armenia by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and two Armenian American members of Congress, and the introduction of a resolution in Congress by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) demanding a prohibition on U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan.
The U.S. Embassy said the visit will include a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, according to the Associated Press.
Like many others waving Armenian flags at the event organized by the Armenian Youth Federation, Tenny Alahverdian, 20, said she found herself thinking of relatives "suffering on the front lines.”
“We’re hoping that the United States comes down hard on Azerbaijan,” she said. “For President Biden to be calling for peace while funding Azerbaijan’s military is a crazy — and deadly — double standard.”
The demonstration was part of an effort that has spanned decades of advocacy and activism by Armenians around the world. Much of that movement has been centered in Los Angeles County, home to America’s largest Armenian diaspora community.
The movement was launched in the 1980s, when children of survivors of the Armenian genocide of 1915 to 1918 established themselves in the U.S. The genocide claimed the lives of more than 1 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, which became the modern republic of Turkey.
Over the years, Armenian Americans grew more politically active, contributing to political campaigns and the successful push last year to have Biden officially recognize the genocide.
Bitter memories of the massacre have profoundly shaped Armenian and Armenian American identity. But U.S. presidents had avoided using the term “genocide” so as not to anger the Turkish government, an important ally that disputes that what took place constituted genocide.
Both Armenia and Azerbaijan blame each other for instigating the recent bloody clashes.
But demonstrators outside the Wilshire Boulevard consulate on Saturday say the fighting started in 2020 when Azerbaijan, with the help of Turkey, launched a war to remove Armenians living in the disputed border region of Nagorno-Karabakh, referred to as the Republic of Artsakh.
News of Pelosi’s visit to Armenia, combined with Schiff’s proposed resolution, prompted Raffi Haig Hamparian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, to urge Congress to "stop shipping U.S. tax dollars to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.”
“A halt to U.S. aid to Azerbaijan,” he said, “would also meaningfully challenge our State Department’s deeply flawed policy of answering every act of Azerbaijani aggression with generic calls upon all parties to refrain from violence.”
The Azerbaijani Consulate, however, said in a statement on its website that the ongoing tensions “arose as a result of large-scale provocations by Armenia, and therefore the responsibility completely falls on ... Armenia.”
Alahverdian, the Los Angeles protest attendee, said: “The situation isn’t looking good anyway you look at it. It’s difficult being a member of the diaspora.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Pelosi condemns Azerbaijan over Armenia attack
U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, center left, and Head of Armenian National Assembly Alen Simonyan, center right, attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the monument to the victims of mass killings by Ottoman Turks during the massacre, in Yerevan, Armenia, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. A U.S. congressional delegation headed by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has arrived in Armenia. The group landed Saturday amid a cease-fire that has held for three days. Earlier this week, an outburst of fighting with neighboring Azerbaijan killed more than 200 troops from both sides.
U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, center left, and Head of Armenian National Assembly Alen Simonyan, center right, attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the monument to the victims of mass killings by Ottoman Turks during the massacre, in Yerevan, Armenia, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. A U.S. congressional delegation headed by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has arrived in Armenia. The group landed Saturday amid a cease-fire that has held for three days. Earlier this week, an outburst of fighting with neighboring Azerbaijan killed more than 200 troops from both sides.
(Hayk Baghdasaryan/Photolure via AP)More
Sun, September 18, 2022
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Sunday that the United States deplores recent attacks by Azerbaijan and called for a negotiated solution to the countries' conflict.
Pelsoi's visit to the Armenian capital, Yerevan, with a congressional delegation came just a few days days after two days of shelling by both sides that killed more than 200 troops. It was the largest outbreak of hostilities in more than two years.
The two ex-Soviet countries have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but was long under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.
During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed broad swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories held by Armenian forces. More than 6,700 people died in that fighting.
Armenia and Azerbaijan each blamed the other for starting the shelling attacks last week.
Pelosi on Sunday met with Alen Simonyan, president of Armenia's parliament, and told reporters afterward that “Our meeting again had a particular importance to us because the focus was on security following the illegal and deadly attacks by Azerbaijan on the Armenian territory.
“We strongly condemn those attacks — we in our delegation on behalf of Congress — which threaten prospects for a much-needed peace agreement,” she said. “The United States ... has clearly and has long stated that there can be no military solution to the conflict. We continue to watch the situation closely and we continue supporting a negotiated, comprehensive and sustainable solution to all issues relating to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
The Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry sharply criticized her comments.
“Pelosi’s baseless and unfair accusations against Azerbaijan are unacceptable," it said in a statement.
“We emphasize with regret that Pelosi, who speaks of justice, has not purposefully shown any position until today regarding the policy of aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan, the occupation of the territory of Azerbaijan for almost 30 years, the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis and other similar grave crimes, for which Armenia is responsible,” the ministry said.
Sun, September 18, 2022
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said Sunday that the United States deplores recent attacks by Azerbaijan and called for a negotiated solution to the countries' conflict.
Pelsoi's visit to the Armenian capital, Yerevan, with a congressional delegation came just a few days days after two days of shelling by both sides that killed more than 200 troops. It was the largest outbreak of hostilities in more than two years.
The two ex-Soviet countries have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but was long under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.
During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed broad swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories held by Armenian forces. More than 6,700 people died in that fighting.
Armenia and Azerbaijan each blamed the other for starting the shelling attacks last week.
Pelosi on Sunday met with Alen Simonyan, president of Armenia's parliament, and told reporters afterward that “Our meeting again had a particular importance to us because the focus was on security following the illegal and deadly attacks by Azerbaijan on the Armenian territory.
“We strongly condemn those attacks — we in our delegation on behalf of Congress — which threaten prospects for a much-needed peace agreement,” she said. “The United States ... has clearly and has long stated that there can be no military solution to the conflict. We continue to watch the situation closely and we continue supporting a negotiated, comprehensive and sustainable solution to all issues relating to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”
The Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry sharply criticized her comments.
“Pelosi’s baseless and unfair accusations against Azerbaijan are unacceptable," it said in a statement.
“We emphasize with regret that Pelosi, who speaks of justice, has not purposefully shown any position until today regarding the policy of aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan, the occupation of the territory of Azerbaijan for almost 30 years, the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis and other similar grave crimes, for which Armenia is responsible,” the ministry said.
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