“The resolutions authored by our congressmen are important because they are special and send a clear, strong message to Azerbaijan. In addition to that, the fact that the US federal government is ready to provide military support to Armenia is no less important, but we cannot provide Armenia with weapons that will fall into the hands of Russia. That’s why our hands are tied in a way,” declared Jackie Speier, co-chair of the Committee on Armenian Affairs, during the online meeting held at the initiative of the Armenian Assembly of America.
She cited the example of Ukraine, expressing hope that Armenia will also follow the path of that country and “counterattack Russia.”
Jackie Speier, who has Armenian heritage, stated that she considers Armenia to be her motherland and noted that she does not want it to return to the times of the Soviet Union. In response to the question about what can the USA do to prevent arms being supplied to Azerbaijan, the congresswoman hopefully stated that taking into account Resolution 907, no more funding will be provided to Azerbaijan soon.
Meanwhile, the support given to Armenia has increased from 45 million dollars to 60 million USD. Answering questions about relations with Turkey, Jackie Speier said, “Let’s record that decades after the resolution criminalizing the Armenian Genocide was passed, the US president finally used the word genocide. In my opinion, Turkey now has very unstable relations with the USA.
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It is a member of NATO, but I think that our relations with Turkey are weaker now than before. But our goal is to protect Armenia. If Turkey does something to harm Armenia, then we must react. If Azerbaijan harms Armenia, we must react. We should focus more on the issue of how to make Armenia a country that can defend itself. Small countries should try to find ways to protect themselves.
For example, Israel did it. I thought that Armenia wanted the Russian Federation to be its protector, but now there is the realization that the Russian Federation wants that more than Armenia does. In fact, the CSTO did not respond either. I think we should focus on the idea of having a strong, protected, and democratic Armenia in the community of dictatorial countries. We are ready to provide military support to Armenia if needed, but we do not have troops there. We have to build defense in Armenia, so to speak.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
