Denialist nominated as US Ambassador to Azerbaijan‏

WHITE HOUSE MAKES BRYZA NOMINATION OFFICIAL
Tert.am
10:34 26.05.10

The White House on Tuesday officially nominated Matthew Bryza as the
next US Ambassador to Azerbaijan, reports Asbarez.com.

Bryza currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary of European and
Eurasian Affairs, and until recently was the US co-chairman of the
OSCE Minsk Group that is mediating the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

As co-chairman, Bryza, who is married to Turkish author Zeyno Baran,
enjoyed a rich relationship with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and his
close circle of leaders and advisers. Often times his controversial
tenure as the US co-chairman was marred by his obvious support

for Azerbaijan in the peace process and his denial of the Armenian

Genocide in the wanning days of the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

"We look to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the full U.S.
Senate to carefully scrutinize Mr. Bryza's record, his formal
testimony, and responses to the inquiries that he will face during
his confirmation process," said Armenian National Committee of America
Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

"As we have outlined publicly on a number of occasions, we continue to
have an array of concerns about Mr. Bryza's conduct of U.S. diplomacy
- as an NSC official, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, and
as the U.S. negotiator in the Nagorno Karabagh peace process - and,
as such, look forward to a vigorous process of advice and consent by
the Senate."

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will first tackle the
nomination, and if approved, it will go to a vote to entire Senate.

The ANCA is urging Armenian Americans to appeal to their senators for
scrutiny on Bryza's nomination by joining the urgent action alert:
http://www.capwiz.com/anca/issues/alert/?alertid=15062881&type=CO

SENATE SHOULD SCRUTINIZE BRYZA BEFORE CONFIRMING HIM

AS AMBASSADOR TO BAKU: SASSOUNIAN
By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier
Tert.am
12:20 26.05.10

After a lengthy delay, Azerbaijan consented last week to the
appointment of Matthew Bryza as U.S. Ambassador to Baku, an unnamed
American official told EurasiaNet.org. The California Courier confirmed
Bryza's nomination through its own Washington sources.

It is noteworthy that there has not been an American Ambassador in
Azerbaijan since last July. When John Evans was recalled as Ambassador
to Armenia in 2006 for using the term Armenian Genocide, the Bush
administration pressured the Senate to quickly confirm his successor,
claiming that the United States urgently needed an Ambassador in that
country. Surprisingly, there has not been a similar sense of urgency
in Washington, during the year-long absence of a U.S. Ambassador from
Azerbaijan! Pres. Aliyev must have viewed this holdup as a snub to
his country.

Until 2009, Matthew Bryza served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State and U.S. Co-Chair of the Minsk Group negotiators on the Karabagh
(Artsakh) conflict. Interestingly, he was dubbed by colleagues as
"Baby DAS" (Deputy Assistant Secretary) for his swift promotion,
despite his youthful age and limited diplomatic experience.

The delay in his appointment to Baku could be attributed to
Azerbaijan's misgivings concerning Bryza and discontent with recent
U.S. foreign policy initiatives. During the course of his upcoming
Senate confirmation, Bryza should be questioned regarding his past
actions and recent tensions between Azerbaijan and the United States.

Here are some questions that members of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee should consider asking Bryza during his nomination process:

-- Why did it take so long for Azerbaijan to consent to your
appointment? What complaints did Azerbaijan have against you and
against U.S. foreign policy in the region? What assurances were
given by the United States to Azerbaijan to allay its concerns before
consenting to your appointment?

-- Despite your and Minsk Group's persistent efforts to resolve the
Karabagh conflict, Armenia and Azerbaijan are still far from reaching
a peace agreement. What do you think are the remaining obstacles
to resolving this conflict? Given your expertise in this region,
what steps would you take as U.S. Ambassador to secure Azerbaijan's
consent to a peaceful resolution of the Karabagh conflict rather than
resorting to war?

-- Pres. Aliyev has been pressuring Turkey not to lift its blockade
of Armenia. How would you dissuade Azerbaijan from undermining
Armenia-Turkey relations?

-- Given the absence of democratic norms in Azerbaijan, known for
forged elections, lack of media freedom, and repressive measures
against opposition parties and minorities, how would you persuade
Azerbaijan's leaders to establish rule of law?

-- What messages did you convey to Georgia's leadership prior to
the Georgia-Russia war of 2008? Is there any truth to reports that
you had advised the Georgians that the United States would intervene
militarily in case of an attack by Russia?

-- Do you believe you can carry out your diplomatic duties
professionally and objectively, given your wife's outspoken

views on Armenian, Azeri and Turkish issues? [Bryza married

Zeyno Baran, a Turkish-born foreign policy analyst at the

Hudson Institute. Their wedding took place at the former home

of the prominent Balian family of architects on an island near

Istanbul. It was attended by Azerbaijan'sForeign Minister Elmar

Mammadyarov and high-ranking Turkish, Georgian,
and American officials].

-- Did you have any role in the recall and premature retirement

ofAmb. John Evans? Do you think that an Ambassador should

be firedsimply for using the term Armenian Genocide? What are

your own views on the Armenian Genocide? Do you think it is

appropriate for Pres.Obama to break his campaign promise to

acknowledge the Armenian Genocide?

-- In a letter to Secretary Clinton, the Armenian National Committee
of America accused you of not being impartial on "Armenia-related
matters," harboring a "pro-Azerbaijani bias in the Nagorno Karabagh
peace process," and advocating "U.S. complicity in Turkey's denials
of the Armenian Genocide." What assurances can you give the American
people that you would fairly and objectively carry out your diplomatic
duties in Azerbaijan as the official representative of the United
States?

The members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should closely
scrutinize Bryza's nomination to ensure that, if confirmed, he
represents U.S. interests in Baku, and not the other way around,
since both he and his wife, Zeyno Baran, have had extensive ties
with both Turkey and Azerbaijan. In her 2005 Senate testimony,
Baran expressed her opposition to the congressional resolution on
the Armenian Genocide, while her husband, Bryza, told a reporter that
Turkey was his "second home."

ARMENIANS ANNOYED
James Morrison
Washington Times
May 26 2010
Embassy Row

Armenian-Americans are skeptical over President Obama's nomination
of an ambassador to Azerbaijan, suspecting him of bias against a
disputed ethnic-Armenian enclave within the southwestern Asian nation
that led to war in the 1990s.

Mr. Obama's selection of Matthew Bryza, a career diplomat, this week
"drew comment and concern in Armenian political circles [for] ...

holding unconcealed affection towards Azerbaijan," according to a
report in ArmeniaNow.com on reaction from Armenian analysts.

The entangled conflict between Armenia, which is 95 percent Christian,
and Azerbaijan, which is 95 percent Muslim, dates back centuries. But
the ethnic-Armenian claims to Nagorno-Karabakh in 1991 sparked a
war that claimed thousands of casualties and displaced hundreds of
thousands on both sides.

Fighting broke out between Azerbaijan and ethnic-Armenians who declared
Nagorno-Karabakh an independent nation and eventually drew Armenia
into the conflict before Azerbaijan agreed to a cease-fire in 1994,
with Armenians in control of 14 percent of the country.

In 2006, Mr. Bryza, a specialist in Europe and Eurasian affairs,
was assigned as a co-chairman of a committee of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) created to negotiate
a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

Armenian-Americans say Mr. Bryza displayed a pro-Azerbaijani bias
during those peace talks.

"We look to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the full U.S.

Senate to carefully scrutinize Mr. Bryza's record, his formal testimony
and responses to inquiries that he will face during his confirmation
process," Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National
Committee of America told ArmeniaNow.

Azerbaijani officials, while not critical of Mr. Bryza, were
disappointed with the U.S. position in the so-called Minsk Group
of the OSCE. Ali Hasanov, an aide to President Ilham Aliyev, has
complained that the United States was biased toward the Armenians
in Nagorno-Karabakh.