{"id":2360,"date":"2024-03-22T14:57:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T10:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/?p=2360"},"modified":"2024-03-29T02:59:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T22:59:59","slug":"anca-chairman-urges-congressional-leaders-to-publicly-demand-biden-hold-azerbaijan-accountable-for-artsakh-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/?p=2360","title":{"rendered":"ANCA Chairman Urges Congressional Leaders to Publicly Demand Biden Hold Azerbaijan Accountable for Artsakh Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON, DC \u2013<\/strong> 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\u2019s Armenians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s failure to prevent Azerbaijan\u2019s genocide of Artsakh\u2019s Armenians and its ongoing refusal to hold its dictatorial regime accountable for its aggression, noting the Administration\u2019s refusal to heed the calls of dozens of bipartisan lawmakers in a series of letters and resolutions urging an immediate response to Azerbaijan\u2019s blockade of Artsakh last year \u2013 which saw the region\u2019s 120,000 Armenians deprived of access to food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian goods for 10 months. Hamparian stated the Biden Administration \u201cnot only failed to constrain Azerbaijan \u2013 but repeatedly enabled and emboldened Baku\u2019s aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, the letter highlighted the Biden Administration\u2019s refusal to impose meaningful costs on Azerbaijan by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Reauthorizing military assistance to Azerbaijan despite a campaign promise to enforce Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, even in the wake of Azerbaijan\u2019s occupation of sovereign Armenian territory in 2021 and its blockade on Artsakh in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Failing to declare Azerbaijan\u2019s 10-month siege of Artsakh a humanitarian crisis \u2013 legitimizing Baku\u2019s use of starvation as a tool of negotiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Ruling out the use of sanctions to constrain Azerbaijan\u2019s aggression in a public statement by Special Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations Lou Bono \u2013 undermining U.S. leverage over Baku.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 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 \u201cnot countenance any attempt at ethnic cleansing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Committing only $15 million in humanitarian assistance to the 120,000 refugees forced from their homes by Azerbaijan \u2013 incommensurate with the dire needs of those displaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Resuming high-level engagement with Azerbaijan in the absence of accountability \u2013 despite a commitment by Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia James O\u2019Brien that there would be \u201cno business as usual\u201d with Azerbaijan following its assault on Nagorno-Karabakh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Legitimizing a fundamentally asymmetric and unjust \u201cpeace process\u201d between Armenia and Azerbaijan without demanding the immediate withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces from Armenian territory or an internationally guaranteed right of return for Artsakh\u2019s Armenians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Authorizing the sale of F-16s and other defense articles to the Republic of Turkey, despite Turkey\u2019s track record of regional destabilization \u2013 from its occupation of Cyprus, attacks on Kurdish populations in Syria and Iraq, and its support for Azerbaijan\u2019s ethnic cleansing of Artsakh and occupation of sovereign Armenian territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamparian also drew attention to the electoral impact of President Biden\u2019s abandonment of Artsakh\u2019s Armenians, which will be front of mind for the million-strong Armenian American electoral constituency come November \u2013 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\u2019s appeasement of Azerbaijan\u2019s genocidal regime by voting \u201cuncommitted\u201d in key swing states \u2013 as reported in the New York Times, Washington Post, POLITICO, and USA Today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s human rights abuses and reassert Congressional oversight over military assistance to Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis Administration\u2019s failure to impose meaningful costs on Azerbaijan for its genocide of Artsakh only incentivizes further aggression,\u201d Hamparian stated. \u201cWith the Aliyev regime publicly rejecting Washington\u2019s mediation efforts, and withdrawing from multilateral peace talks, it is clear Baku believes there is more to gain through war than through peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s political leaders and reaffirm the right of return for the indigenous Armenians of Artsakh \u2013 including safeguarding their individual and collective property rights and the full protection of religious and cultural heritage sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The texts of the ANCA letters are available here:
Senate: https:\/\/anca.org\/assets\/pdf\/032124_ANCA_Senate_MajorityLeader_Schumer.pdf<\/a>
House: https:\/\/anca.org\/assets\/pdf\/032124_ANCA_Speaker_Mike_Johnson.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 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\u2019s Armenians. In a March 21st letter to the […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,45,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-en","category-news-en","category-home_slide"],"acf":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2362,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360\/revisions\/2362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}