The president of the Azerbaijan Society of Maine, Tarlan Ahmadov, asked Portland Mayor Kate Snyder to sign a “Khojala Remembrance Day” proclamation. The proclamation is historically inaccurate and victimizes those who have suffered persecution and genocide by Turkey and Azerbaijan for 130 years.

The stages of grief following loss are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Turkey and Azerbaijan refuse to recognize the Armenian Genocide of 1.5 million souls and continue an ongoing extermination and disinformation campaign targeting the descendants of genocide. This prevents acceptance of past events and perpetuates anger and depression among genocide descendants.

Mayor Snyder was unaware of the inaccuracy of the proclamation and the hurt it would cause. Her trusting nature and humanitarian instincts were cynically manipulated to advance a misinformation campaign orchestrated by the Azerbaijani government and their proxies.

Everyone should be sympathetic and mourn the loss of innocent Azerbaijani life in an active war zone. However, to equate Khojaly to the Armenian Genocide where 1.5 million Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac, Aramaen and Maronite Christians were systematically murdered in brutal and barbaric fashion is disingenuous. Calling Khojaly a genocide in the proclamation also trivializes the Holocaust and genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, and Myanmar.

Mr. Ahmadov, as leader of the Azerbaijani community, should publicly and unequivocally reaffirm U.S. House Resolution 296 and Senate Resolution 150, which officially commemorate the Armenian Genocide, and reject efforts to deny it. This would promote reconciliation. Failure to do so further erodes Mr. Ahmadov’s credibility.

Gary Zartarian, M.D.
West Bath