ANCA Congressional Testimony calls for $200mln aid for Artsakh refugees; sanctions for Azerbaijani war crimes
ArmInfo.The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) called on key Senate Committees to
pressure the Biden Administration to cut all military aid and sanction Azerbaijan's genocidal leaders while allocating $200 million in U.S. assistance to survivors of the Artsakh Genocide.
In testimony submitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and
Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, ANCA Government
Affairs Director Tereza Yerimyan explained that in the wake of
Azerbaijan's 2023 genocidal assault and ethnic cleansing of Artsakh's
150,000 indigenous Armenian population, Congress must take decisive
action. "We ask the Committee to press the Biden Administration to
abandon its reckless policy of false parity and, instead,
forthrightly condemn Azerbaijan's aggression by taking actions that
demonstrate a willingness to hold Baku accountable for its criminal
behavior," stated Yerimyan.
The ANCA testimony was timed with committee hearings this week
featuring Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is defending
President Biden's Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget request. Yerimyan
urged Congress to "continue full enforcement" of Section 907
restrictions on U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan. She went on to call
for Committee support for requesting a report on Azerbaijan's human
rights practices pursuant to Section 502B(c) of the Foreign
Assistance Act through passage of S.Res.540. "The findings of this
report will strengthen the case to cut all military assistance to
Azerbaijan and hold other allies, like Turkey, accountable for
selling or transferring U.S. arms to Azerbaijan for use against
innocent Armenian civilians," argued Yerimyan.
The ANCA called on Committees to "conduct oversight of the
Administration's low levels of humanitarian assistance to Artsakh's
150,000 refugees" and urged their FY2025 foreign aid legislation to
include $200 million U.S. aid to Artsakh refugees, reiterating their
right to return to their homes under international guarantees. "Our
current failed U.S. policy in the Caucasus features lectures on
democracy to democratic Armenia, ships U.S. tax-payer funded military
aid to dictatorial Azerbaijan, and provides almost no assistance at
all to at-risk Artsakh refugees. That must change," stated Yerimyan.
The ANCA also urged the Congressional committees to follow up on
Armenian Legal Center for Justice and Human Rights submissions to the
Departments of State and Treasury, detailing evidence and demanding
Global Magnitsky sanctions on 40+ senior Azerbaijani officials for
war crimes and rights abuses during their blockade and aggression
against Artsakh.
Yerimyan condemned the Biden Administration's decision to send U.S.
Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mark Libby to the ethnically cleansed
Artsakh city of Shushi, despite an expressed U.S. policy of
suspending high-level meetings while Azerbaijan illegally imprisons
Artsakh leaders and Armenian POWs, continues to occupy sovereign
Armenian territory, and uses coercion to unilateral Armenian land
concessions. "As long as Azerbaijan believes there is more to gain
through coercion than through negotiations, Armenia will face a
threat to its very existence," argued Yerimyan.