Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Aram Hamparian made the following statement after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s press conference with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian held in Yerevan on Sunday.

“We were disappointed to see Secretary Clinton – in Baku and again in Yerevan – repeat the State Department’s generic call on all parties to refrain from the use of force, when it has been Baku alone that has both threatened and acted upon its warnings of renewed war. This type of diplomatic language may, at least superficially, appear evenhanded, but, in terms of U.S. interests in regional stability, is actually counter-productive, in that it ignores and even encourages continued Azerbaijani aggression.

Inspired by our American Independence Day, we had hoped that Secretary Clinton would issue an open call for a lasting resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict based on the fundamental values of democracy and self-determination. After all, if the founding father were following the State Department’s logic in 1776, the U.S. would still be a British colony,” the statement reads.