USAN Letter: Dear member of Congress:

I am an Azerbaijani-American, who is concerned on the matters related to Caucasus and Caspian regions. I have recently found out that the Senate and House are working on reconciling their versions of the Presidential FY2010 foreign aid budget request.

I urge to keep or increase the Obama's and Senate's aid requests: 1) for IMET aid to Azerbaijan, 2) FMF funding for Azerbaijan, since US national interests and Pentagon assessments necessitate to give more in FMF aid to its strategic ally in the region than to Armenia, 3) economic, technical, humanitarian and democracy aid to Azerbaijan, and 4) very importantly, it should be stressed that direct aid to the Armenia-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh (NK) region of Azerbaijan should not be given at all. These are a military junta that occupied Azerbaijan and should not be rewarded with any aid under any pretext or guise.

It should be stressed that direct US assistance to the NK region creates and will further exacerbate the undue concern in allied Azerbaijan and especially among the Azerbaijani-Americans and their friends. Most importantly, any kind of direct assistance to the NK region inspires speculation that the United States is taking sides with Armenia, undermining its OSCE Minsk Group co-chair status, and attempting to change the NK region's status and promote separatism. As you know, the NK region, occupied by Armenia in the early 1990's (which displaced up to 50,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis from there, along with another 750,000 Azeris from its vicinity), is recognized by the US, as well as the UN and all other international organizations and states as an integral part of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

We urge the Congress to increase the amounts of economic, technical, military and security aid for Azerbaijan, as well as refrain from any direct aid to NK occupiers.

Despite the US Administration and Pentagon making determinations and assessments since 2002-2009 that Azerbaijan, which is on the forefront of the war against terror, needs more in FMF and IMET aid than Armenia, the aid was always equalized under the pretext of "parity" with Armenia, whose level of support for the US troops, and thus, assessed need, is several times less than Azerbaijan's. I urge you to keep or increase the need-based amounts for Azerbaijan, so that our troops could do their job more effectively with the Azerbaijani military. Doing otherwise undermines US national security, and its image in the Muslim world in general, and in Azerbaijan in particular -- the only predominantly Shi'a but secular ally of USA.

Likewise, the misguided approach of the so-called "parity" with Armenia is not based on any treaty obligations or commitments, and only reflects the wishes of one special interest group. Military aid to Azerbaijan and Armenia should be based solely on Pentagon determined national security needs, not on the imprudent and self-defeating concepts of so-called "parity".

As an American of Azeri origin, I urge you to consider Azerbaijan's serious concerns during the Subcommittee and Committee mark up, full floor voting and reconciliation process. The Armenia-Azerbaijan NK conflict is the most critical issue for Azerbaijan and regional stability, and Azerbaijan being a strategic ally of the US, with peacekeeping troops serving in Afghanistan, makes me sincerely hope and believe that my Congress will pay due attention to the concerns of its own national interest, to its strategic ally and to its citizens and voters, the Azeri-Americans and their friends, and will thus keep the need-based amounts of humanitarian, economic and especially military assistance, as well as not reward NK occupation with $10 million in direct aid. Thank you.

Sincerely,

USAN member