WASHINGTON — The Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) welcomed the introduction of bipartisan legislation spearheaded by Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on December 17, 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.”
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.
