Washington, D.C. – The Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) welcomed today’s introduction of bipartisan legislation spearheaded by Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA), which condemns the government of Azerbaijan for perpetrating a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, and calls on the Administration to “impose targeted sanctions on Azerbaijani government officials complicit in human rights abuses.”
“The Assembly applauds Senator Peters and Senator Cassidy for continuing to expose Azerbaijan’s genocidal campaign and ethnic cleansing against the Armenian people of Artsakh, and to hold Azerbaijan accountable,” said Assembly Congressional Relations Director Mariam Khaloyan. “We urge its swift passage.”
The resolution urges the Administration to prohibit the waiver to Section 907, and to “strengthen the United States-Armenia security partnership through the provision of military aid, joint military exercises, and intelligence and logistical support.”
It also calls for “robust humanitarian assistance to respond to the refugee crisis in Armenia,” and urges facilitation of “diplomacy to achieve a just and lasting peace in the South Caucasus that provides for the release of all Armenians unjustly imprisoned by the Government of Azerbaijan, establishes a right of return and security guarantees for the displaced Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, and preserves the Armenian cultural heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
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The resolution “recognizes that Azerbaijan’s blockade and subsequent military offensive against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh constitute acts of ethnic cleansing,” and “condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the atrocities perpetrated by the Government of Azerbaijan against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
On September 19, 2023 the Government of Azerbaijan “launched a full-scale military offensive against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh that took the lives of hundreds of soldiers and dozens of civilians,” according to the resolution, despite the fact that the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh – which has been the center of Armenian life and culture for millennia – established a de facto independent republic following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The full-scale military offensive followed a “grueling blockade” for nearly 10 months that was initiated on December 12, 2022, by Azerbaijan, that deprived the region’s population of food, medicine, fuel, and other necessities.
As Azerbaijan used the “threat of further violence to coerce the Armenian leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh to surrender their autonomy and dissolve their governing institutions…over 100,000 Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, facing the threat of further ethnic violence, fled to Armenia as refugees within 2 weeks of Azerbaijan’s assault.”
The Aliyev regime’s anti-Armenian aggression was underscored, as well as Azerbaijan’s systematic destruction of Armenian cultural heritage sites in Nagorno-Karabakh, including churches, monasteries, cemeteries, and other cultural monuments. The continued imprisonment of Armenian prisoners of war, civilian captives, and members of the political leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh, who remain unjustly imprisoned in Azerbaijan, was also emphasized.
Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a strictly non-partisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.
Armenian Assembly of America
On the photo: Assembly Co-Chair Oscar Tatosian, Executive Director Bryan Ardouny, Assembly Grassroots Associate Bettina Saraydaroglu, and Assembly Congressional Relations Director Mariam Khaloyan meet with Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) the day he introduced the resolution