In his letter, “Azerbaijani Remembrance Day” (in the April 7 edition of the Daily Journal), Pari Howard accuses Armenians of genocide against Azerbaijan throughout the 20th century. Howard states that the Armenian Revolutionary Federation assisted Russian Bolsheviks in killing 12,000 Azerbaijanis in 1918. Although these massacres occurred, possibly with the help of rogue Muslim extremists of Armenian decent, the Armenian people did not participate in these killings. Furthermore, Howard failed to mention that in response, Azerbaijan massacred over 20,000 Armenians living in Baku.
Howard claims the Armenians expelled more than 600,000 Azerbaijanis from their “historical homeland” during the Nagorno-Kharabakh War from 1988 to 1994. This is also false. Nagorno-Karabakh has been populated by ethnic Armenians, not Azerbaijanis, for the past 2,000 years. These “expulsions” were evacuations conducted by the Azeri government to remove its people from the conflict zone in February 1988. Also, Howard accuses the Armenians of massacring Azerbaijani civilians during the war. In fact, Azerbaijan committed acts of genocide by killing hundreds of Armenians in the villages of Sumgait and Askeran in 1988. Today, Azerbaijaini snipers on the border of Nagorno-Kharabakh target Armenian civilians and soldiers daily, violating the armistice of 1994. Just recently, an Armenian girl was shot in the chest by an Azeri sniper and an Armenian soldier was killed.
On behalf of the Carlmont High School Armenian Club, we encourage Mr. Howard and the readers of the San Mateo Daily Journal to carefully consider the historic evidence of Azerbaijan’s acts of genocide against the Armenians.
Claudia Leist and Raffi Samurkashian
Carlmont Armenian Club vice president and president
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.