ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian commented on recent statement by political observer David Petrosian, who was cited as saying, “soonest appointment of a new U.S. ambassador to Armenia, – be it Matthew Bryza or someone else, is important in restraining Azerbaijan’s ambitions.”

Aram Hamparian responded as follows, “Just to be clear, this is the same Mr. Bryza who was the primary U.S. adviser to the Georgian government of Mikheil Saakashvili as he stumbled into war with Russia; the same diplomat with controversial ties to top Azerbaijani leaders (Foreign Minister Elmar Mammedyarov served as a groomsman in his Istanbul wedding to Caspian energy expert/advocate Zeyno Baran), the same nominee backed by senior Azerbaijanis close to the Aliyev regime and by leaders of the Azerbaijani American community, and; the same U.S. official who has, for more than a decade, turned a blind eye to Azerbaijani threats, military aggression, and acts of cultural desecration.

When asked by Congressman Chris Smith, during a 2008 Congressional hearing, what he would do in the event that Azerbaijan acted on its threats to attack Nagorno Karabakh, he dodged the question, saying only that he wouldn't want to "speculate" about a penalty.”

”So, it would seem, that according to the logic attributed to Mr. Petrosian, Mr. Bryza, who, even under direct questioning during a Congressional hearing, refused to warn Azerbaijan away from war (and who did not say a public word about the video-taped desecration of the Djulfa cemetery until pressed for answers at a Yerevan press conference three months after the fact) is, apparently, the one who will stand in the way of Mr. Aliyev's march to war,” Aram Hamparian stressed.