State of Hawaii rejects anti-Armenian legislative initiative, financed by Azerbaijani government
Recently the legislature of the U.S. state of Hawaii publicly debated and then rejected a pair of Azerbaijan-initiated anti-Armenian measures. As Asbarez newspaper reports citing American Committee of “Hay Dat” (ANCA) Azerbaijani government allocated funds to enlist U.S. state legislatures in its increasingly aggressive campaign against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.
According to Elen Asatryan, representative of ANCA, that vote against the bill was a powerful signal sent to Baku that despite all the millions it spends on “caviar diplomacy” Azerbaijan cannot bribe the U.S. authorities.
As it is stated in the article two absolutely identical resolutions were presented by the initiative of Azerbaijani government, in particular by the ambassador of Azerbaijan to U.S. Elin Suleymanov, with serious violations of diplomatic protocol. The author of the bills is the chairman of the Veterans Committee on International Affairs, Culture and Arts of the House of Representatives of the state Marko Takei.
It is noted that the introduction of these initiatives may be associated with the trip of Marko Takei and another member of the House of Representatives, Rida Cabanilla to Baku in May last year. Azerbaijan spent $8000 on their visit.
Asbarez stresses the fact that despite the money spent by the Azerbaijani government, on the day of voting, the most persuasive voices of the day belonged to three members of the local Armenian American community, including: Arpine Philian Mar, an 82 year-old retiree, Arthur Martirosian, and Ani Martirosian
After the hearing Ani Martirosyan said, “I’d like this to be an example for all Armenians – and other underrepresented groups – around the world that our voices do matter. We must stay vigilant to recognize the attempts made to falsify our history.”
A self-identified neutral deputy Alexander Telnov supported the Armenian representatives and draw attention to the corrupt behavior of Azerbaijani authorities, “Why does Azerbaijan need to spend so much money to prove its point? That’s because its point is not credible. That’s because the opinions Azerbaijan is trying to instill in the United States and other countries are distortions and untruths,” he said.
The newspaper notes that prior to the submission of those bills ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian issued an open letter to all U.S. state legislatures urging them to take a stand against foreign interference in American civic life by corrupt regime of Azerbaijan.
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