Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ANCA: Kerry Schedules Bryza Confirmation Vote Despite...

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ANCA: Kerry Schedules Bryza Confirmation Vote Despite...

    Armenian National Committee of America
    1711 N Street, NW
    Washington, DC 20036
    Tel. (202) 775-1918
    Fax. (202) 775-5648
    [email protected]
    Internet www.anca.org

    PRESS RELEASE

    July 30, 2010
    Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
    Tel: (202) 775-1918

    KERRY SCHEDULES BRYZA CONFIRMATION VOTE
    DESPITE INCOMPLETE AND EVASIVE ANSWERS

    -- Bryza Responds to Written Questions Submitted by Senate
    Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
    Chairman John Kerry, and Senators Barbara Boxer, Robert Menendez,
    and Russ Feingold

    WASHINGTON, DC - Senator John Kerry (D-MA), Chairman of the
    Foreign Relations Committee, today announced that his panel will
    hold a vote next Tuesday, August 3rd, on the confirmation of
    Matthew Bryza, President Obama's controversial nominee to serve
    U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan, despite the nominee's evasive and
    incomplete answers to a series of written questions submitted to
    him by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and key members of
    this influential panel, reported the Armenian National Committee of
    America (ANCA).

    "Mr. Bryza's evasive, unresponsive, and incomplete written answers
    to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, even more than his
    spoken testimony before this panel, confirm our reservations about
    his troubling track record, and clearly confirm that he is not the
    right person to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan," said Aram
    Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. "American diplomacy in
    the region would be well served by a fresh start, with a new
    ambassador who doesn't have deep ties into Azerbaijan's corrupt
    government, a history of turning a blind-eye to Baku's aggression,
    or serious conflict of interest issues."

    "We want to thank Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and offer our
    sincere appreciation to Senators Boxer and Menendez and all the
    those who have worked hard to ensure that we send an ambassador to
    Baku who can effectively represent U.S. interests, persuasively
    advance American values, and - crucially, for the cause of peace -
    constrain an increasingly belligerent Aliyev regime from acting on
    its threats of renewed war," added Hamparian.

    Bryza's July 22nd confirmation hearing before the Foreign Relations
    Committee raised more questions than answered on a range of issues,
    prompting Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ),
    Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Chairman Kerry to submit written questions
    to the nominee and, significantly, prompted a detailed letter of
    inquiry to the State Department directly from Senate Majority
    Leader Harry Reid.

    Azerbaijani Aggression:

    During Bryza's July 22nd committee appearance, he confirmed, for
    the first time by an Administration official, the widely reported
    news that Azerbaijan had, in fact, initiated the June 18, 2010
    incident on the Nagorno Karabagh frontier that led to the death of
    four Nagorno Karabagh and one Azerbaijani soldier. In response to
    a question from Senator Boxer, he acknowledged Azerbaijan sparked
    the conflict, but then sought to deflect responsibility onto
    Nagorno Karabagh forces, which he mistakenly described as
    "Armenia[n]," stating: "There was an Azerbaijani movement across
    the line of contact, Armenia responded, resulting in deaths." In
    response to Senator Boxer's follow-up written question asking "Why
    hasn't the U.S. government been more forceful in its condemnation
    of Azerbaijan," Bryza retreated from his cautious spoken remarks,
    saying only that: "the full details of what occurred on June 18 are
    not known."

    In response to a separate written question by Senator Boxer as to
    whether Azerbaijan's June 18th attack against Nagorno Karabagh
    represented a violation of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act,
    which restricts U.S. aid to Azerbaijan unless it takes demonstrable
    steps to cease offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno
    Karabakh, Bryza repeated: "The full details of what occurred on
    June 18 are not known," and then went on to defend the
    Administration's waiver of Section 907 and to generally praise
    Azerbaijan as a "important security partner" to the United States.

    Azerbaijan's Desecration of the Djulfa Cemetery

    In response to written inquiries about Bryza's prolonged silence in
    the wake of Azerbaijan's December 2005 demolition of the Armenian
    cemetery in Djulfa, Bryza argued that he had made private comments
    on this matter to Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammedyarov,
    but could not point to any public remarks until March of the
    following year, when he was confronted with questions on this
    subject by journalists at a Yerevan press conference. In the
    nearly three month period of Bryza's silence on Djulfa, this issue
    was covered in the international media and publicly condemned by
    U.S. Members of Congress, international NGOs, and the full European
    Parliament.

    Conflict of Interest:

    In response to concerns by Sen. Menendez regarding conflict of
    interest issues that arose regarding Bryza's wife, Zeyno Baran, and
    her professional work at the Hudson Institute advocating on U.S.
    policy toward Azerbaijan and the Caspian region, Bryza argued that,
    since January 2009, Baran had "shifted the focus of her work" from
    the South Caucasus to "Islam, democracy and extremism in Europe and
    the United States." (A Google search reveals numerous instances of
    public commentary by Baran regarding the South Caucasus since
    2009.)

    The source of the funding for Baran's Center for Eurasia Policy
    program at the Hudson Institute remains unclear. The Hudson
    Institute has, as of today, refused to respond to a June 3, 2010
    written request from the ANCA that it publicly share its sources of
    funding from Turkey and Azerbaijan.

    Fast-tracking of Nomination

    An editorial published today in The Armenian Weekly voiced the
    Armenian American community's frustration with the Senator Kerry's
    fast-tracking of the Bryza nomination. "All citizens and Senators
    deserve a chance to meaningfully participate in the important
    Constitutional process of ambassadorial confirmations, especially
    when vital life-and-death issues are at stake, as they are in
    Nagorno Karabagh," noted the Weekly. "As Chairman of the Senate
    Foreign Relations Committee and a Senator representing America's
    oldest and one of its largest Armenian American communities, John
    Kerry should put the brakes on the Bryza nomination."

    The full text of The Armenian Weekly editorial can be found at:
    http://www.armenianweekly.com/2010/07/30/whats-the-rush-senator-
    kerry/

    Armenian Americans have been contacting their Senators to oppose
    the Bryza nomination through an ANCA action alert:
    http://www.capwiz.com/anca/callalert/index.tt?alertid=15249851

    Links to Sen. Reid's letter, and Responses to Questions submitted
    by Senators Boxer and Menendez are posted on the ANCA website -
    www.anca.org




    From: A. Papazian
Working...
X