Interview with Yusif Babanli, board member of Azerbaijani American Council (AAC) and co-founder of the US Azeris Network (USAN).
Q: In fact, the fact that the parliament of the US State of Texas adopted a resolution recognizing Khojaly massacre, which is very important event in essence, almost went unnoticed on the backdrop of the latest processes in the world and Azerbaijan. Please, tell us about this in detail.
A: And indeed, Texas became the first state which adopted a resolution on Khojaly. This is the only parliament which raised a question to all deputies and the resolution was adopted by majority of votes.
Previously, we had a lot of individual resolutions from congressmen, that is, they put forward resolutions themselves and made the corresponding speech. Thus, one of the congressmen made a speech about the 20 January events to the congressmen in January.
But it was an individual resolution and they did not put it to vote. But this time, on 3 March, the resolution on Khojaly was put to the vote and it was adopted by majority of votes. This is the first state to do this. We have 49 states ahead. So, we will continue efforts.
Q: So, the diaspora will seek adoption of this resolution by all American states?
A: Yes, of course.
Q: How important is this resolution? After all, it is non-binding.
A: Yes, it is non-binding resolution, as most of the genocide resolutions. Yes, it has no legal force, and if you refute it, you do not go to jail. But here is indicative of the history how Armenians began to impose "Armenian genocide" on the world. They wrote much about it and prepared a database until 1965. They came to the parliament of Uruguay in 1965 with this database. It was the same kind as ours. It said it honored memory of victims of "genocide" that allegedly occurred 50 years ago and then they used and referred to this resolution.
If I am not mistaken, nine years later a similar resolution was adopted in Cyprus and in the process they referred to the Uruguayan resolution. The precedent was set. And in 2004, Uruguay adopted a law that the "Armenian genocide" should get into the textbooks and part of the TV programs should be devoted to "genocide" on this day.
Q: How soon can we achieve a breakthrough in US Congress recognition of Khojaly genocide?
A: Naturally, this experience shows that we can not expect quick results. For example, we worked around one and a half before the Parliament of Texas adopted a resolution on events in Khojaly. And if we have achieved adoption of this resolution, this resolution may tomorrow be accepted in another state, referring to the first resolution as a precedent. Similarly, today Azerbaijan refers to the four UN Security Council resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
So, the most important is that a precedent has already been set in America and we will use this. Even we don’t live that long to see results, the federal Congress will also adopt a resolution in 100 years. This is very important.
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