The Azerbaijani-American Council (AAC) and Azerbaijan Society of America (ASA) expressed their outrage over the vote in the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations markup session on June 30th 2010 to allocate $10 million in direct aid to "Nagorno-Karabakh" as a part of the fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget.
The statement of both organizations says "the move adopted under the influence of Armenian-American special interest groups in the U.S. Congress not only maintains but increases the amount of U.S. taxpayers` money allocated to an unrecognized illegal entity of "Nagorno-Karabakh" established by Armenia on the occupied territory of Azerbaijan. Such position assumed by the Congressional subcommittee not only contradicts the U.S. official position recognizing the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, a UN-member state, but also undermines the U.S. reputation in the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process as a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group".
AAC and ASA mentioned that at the time of troubled economic recovery and unprecedented increase in the unemployment rate that America is experiencing, the U.S. legislators are essentially rewarding the puppet regime responsible for the acts of mass ethnic cleansing and are prolonging the suffering of some 1,000,000 Azeri IDPs unable to return to their homes.
"The decision to allocate a direct aid to the so-called "Nagorno-Karabakh" also impairs the U.S. foreign interests in a broader region. The U.S. policymakers consider Azerbaijan's territory as an essential component of a successful war effort in Afghanistan. In past 9 years since the 9/11 attacks, Azerbaijan has fully supported the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo, providing over flight permissions, geographical advantage as well as sending troops in support of the U.S. operations. The amount of Azerbaijani effort in support of the U.S. security strategy in Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia by far exceeds that of Armenia, yet the U.S. lawmakers driven only by Armenian-American special interests again decided to maintain the military aid parity to Azerbaijan and Armenia," the statement says.
US Azerbaijanis called upon the U.S. lawmakers to stop sacrificing the national interests under the influence of over-zealous ethnic lobbies.

AzerTAc