Baku-born Armenians outraged with Kocharian's election

Russian "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" has published an open letter signed by 14 Baku-born Armenians, now citizens of Russia, to the presidents of the CIS Collective Security Treaty (CST) member-states (Russia, Kazakhstan, Byelorussia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Armenia).

The address follows a recent CST summit in Yerevan, where Armenia was elected to lead the Collective Security Council.

Authors of the letter say that "to elect someone responsible for innumerable tragedies inflicted upon the two neighboring nations, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as chairman of the Council causes a great deal of frustration".

"Ethnic separatism in Garabagh has turned the peoples of Azerbaijan and Armenia into implacable enemies and hostages of a political game, and erased everything noble and kind that the two nations had historically shared. As a result of the armed conflict, which has claimed tens of thousands of innocent lives, Armenia now controls not only Garabagh, but also adjacent Azeri provinces", the authors say.

Who has benefited from all this? Certainly, not ordinary Armenians living in Armenia, as the country's population has shrunk in half due to a massive exodus, while in Garabagh only 20,000 remain of what used to be the population of 160,000.

Armenia itself is to blame for the "hostile attitude" and "economic blockade", as one cannot expect kind treatment from a country a portion of which one has captured, authors say.

Addressing the CST presidents, Azeri-born Armenians say that Germany is still paying the bill for what was perpetrated by the Nazi.

"We hope you can take the steps giving our children the opportunity of living as happily throughout the Commonwealth as we used to in the Soviet times", the addresses concludes.