Armenian Forces

The greatest misrepresentation in Azerbaijani Ambassador Hafiz Pashayev’s distortion-laden letter (March 19), was his accusation that the pursuit of a “Greater Armenia” is why Armenians captured Azeri territory outside of Nagorno-Karabakh. The truth is, it was from those surrounding territories that Azeri troops were raining death and destruction on Karabakh’s civilian Armenian population. It was for self-defense that Karabakh forces were compelled to capture those territories. And it is for sheer survival that the severely outnumbered Armenians are now exerting a desperate effort to fend off renewed attacks by a foreign-trained Azeri army, which includes Afghan mercenaries from the camp of the violently anti-American Muslim fundamentalist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Pashayev also complains that Congress has imposed “a ban on direct aid” to Azerbaijan, “even for refugees.” Those unfortunate Azeri refugees certainly deserve sympathy from all of us, but are refugees the main concern of the Azeri ambassador? Or does he want Congress to lift the ban so his government can have extra American money in order to hire more anti-American mercenaries?

LEVON MARASHLIAN

Professor of History

Glendale Community College