Friday, March 22 2024 11:37

ArmInfo. Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Chairman Raffi Hamparian called on Congressional leaders to publicly pressure the Biden Administration to take immediate action to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its genocide of Artsakh, and forcefully advocate for the safe and secure right of return for Artsakh's Armenians.

    In a March 21st letter to the leadership of the House and Senate, in  addition to the leadership of the House and Senate Committees on  Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, and Appropriations, Hamparian issued  a scathing rebuke of the Biden Administration's failure to prevent  Azerbaijan's genocide of Artsakh's Armenians and its ongoing refusal  to hold its dictatorial regime accountable for its aggression, noting  the Administration's refusal to heed the calls of dozens of  bipartisan lawmakers in a series of letters and resolutions urging an  immediate response to Azerbaijan's blockade of Artsakh last year -  which saw the region's 120,000 Armenians deprived of access to food,  fuel, medicine and humanitarian goods for 10 months. Hamparian stated  the Biden Administration "not only failed to constrain Azerbaijan -  but repeatedly enabled and emboldened Baku's aggression."

    Specifically, the letter highlighted the Biden Administration's  refusal to impose meaningful costs on Azerbaijan by: 

  -- Reauthorizing military assistance to Azerbaijan despite a campaign  promise to enforce Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, even in  the wake of Azerbaijan's occupation of sovereign Armenian territory  in 2021 and its blockade on Artsakh in 2023. 

  -- Failing to declare Azerbaijan's 10-month siege of Artsakh a  humanitarian crisis - legitimizing Baku's use of starvation as a tool  of negotiation. 

  -- Ruling out the use of sanctions to constrain Azerbaijan's  aggression in a public statement by Special Advisor for Caucasus  Negotiations Lou Bono - undermining U.S. leverage over Baku.  

-- Refusing to impose consequences on Azerbaijan following its  military assault on Artsakh, despite having indicated during a  hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the U.S.  would "not countenance any attempt at ethnic cleansing." 

-- Committing only $15 million in humanitarian assistance to the  120,000 refugees forced from their homes by Azerbaijan 

- incommensurate with the dire needs of those displaced.  

-- Resuming high-level engagement with Azerbaijan in the absence of  accountability - despite a commitment by Assistant Secretary of State  for Europe and Eurasia James O'Brien that there would be "no business  as usual" with Azerbaijan following its assault on Nagorno-Karabakh.  

-- Legitimizing a fundamentally asymmetric and unjust "peace process"  between Armenia and Azerbaijan without demanding the immediate  withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces from Armenian territory or an  internationally guaranteed right of return for Artsakh's Armenians.  

-- Authorizing the sale of F-16s and other defense articles to the  Republic of Turkey, despite Turkey's track record of regional  destabilization 

- from its occupation of Cyprus, attacks on Kurdish populations in  Syria and Iraq, and its support for Azerbaijan's ethnic cleansing of  Artsakh and occupation of sovereign Armenian territory.  Hamparian  also drew attention to the electoral impact of President Biden's  abandonment of Artsakh's Armenians, which will be front of mind for  the million-strong Armenian American electoral constituency come  November 

- with significant communities in key swing states, including Nevada,  Michigan, and Pennsylvania poised to play an influential role in the  federal elections. Armenian Americans have already voiced their  dissatisfaction with the Biden Administration's appeasement of  Azerbaijan's genocidal regime by voting "uncommitted" in key swing  states 

- as reported in the New York Times, Washington Post, POLITICO, and  USA Today.  The letter reaffirmed the need to ensure the immediate  passage of H.R.7288, to repeal the presidential waiver authority of  Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act and permanently enforce  statutory prohibitions on military assistance to Azerbaijan; and  S.Res.540 to force an investigation into Azerbaijan's human rights  abuses and reassert Congressional oversight over military assistance  to Azerbaijan.  

"This Administration's failure to impose meaningful costs on  Azerbaijan for its genocide of Artsakh only incentivizes further  aggression," Hamparian stated. "With the Aliyev regime publicly  rejecting Washington's mediation efforts, and withdrawing from  multilateral peace talks, it is clear Baku believes there is more to  gain through war than through peace." In calling for Congressional  leaders to publicly urge the Administration to take tangible action  to hold Azerbaijan accountable, the letter also stressed the need to  ensure the immediate and unconditional release of illegally detained  Armenian prisoners of war and Nagorno-Karabakh's political leaders,  and reaffirm the right of return for the indigenous Armenians of  Artsakh 

- including safeguarding their individual and collective property  rights and the full protection of religious and cultural heritage  sites.