[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 16 (Wednesday, February 1, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E110]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               REMEMBERING THE NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

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                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 1, 2012

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, in 1994 I was part of a delegation, organized 
by Christian Solidarity International, that visited Nagorno-Karabakh, 
Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
  In Nagorno-Karabakh, I saw horrible conditions: doctors operating 
without anesthesia using only a stiff dose of cognac; land mines 
planted by the retreating Azeri army which resulted in injury and 
amputation of limbs of women and children as well as soldiers and 
people living in hazardous partially bombed-out apartment buildings in 
the cities and in lean-tos among the debris of demolished villages.
  Upon my return, I urged Congress not to forget the long-suffering 
people of Nagorno-Karabakh. And I rise today to do the same.
  In 1921, Joseph Stalin, then the comissar for nationality affairs in 
the Transcaucasia Bureau of the Communist Party, declared Nagorno-
Karabakh to be an autonomous region controlled by Azerbaijan as part of 
his divide and rule strategy. Historically, the majority of the 
population in Nagorno-Karabakh has been Armenian and the people have 
always had close ethnic, religious and familial ties with Armenia.
  In the years leading to the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Karabakh 
Armenians petitioned in 1987 for inclusion of Nagorno-Karabakh in the 
state of Armenia. In 1991, they petitioned for independent state 
status. To date, the situation remains unresolved.
  Shortly after the break-up of the Soviet Union, Armenians in 
Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh endured great hardship, including 
pogroms in Sumgait (February 1998), in Kirovabad (November 1988) and in 
Baku (January 1990).
  A January 19, 1990, New York Times article described the Baku pogrom 
as a ``massacre.'' That same article also pointed to the violence in 
1988, when, ``armed Azerbaijanis rampaged through the town of Sumgait 
and slaughtered 32 people, mostly Armenians.''
  These horrific acts of targeted violence are as deplorable today as 
they were more than two decades ago. Tragically, tensions remain high 
in the region. A January 16 Bloomberg article reported that, 
``Azerbaijan is buying up modern weaponry to be able to regain control 
of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region quickly and with few losses 
should peace talks with neighboring Armenia fail, President Ilham 
Aliyev said.''
  Such acts of aggression would have a devastating impact. It is 
critical that the U.S. works toward a lasting, peaceful and democratic 
solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

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