Members of Congress Warn Biden Administration of Possible Azerbaijani Aggression Against Armenia

WASHINGTON – The Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair, Frank Pallone (D-NJ), along with Representatives Jim Costa (D-CA) and Brad Sherman (D-CA), were joined by a bipartisan group of U.S. House legislators in urging the Biden Administration to promptly take action to prevent a potential Azerbaijani invasion of Armenia.

In a letter directed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID Administrator Power, U.S. Representatives emphasized that the window of opportunity to avert further aggression from Azerbaijani forces and the looming specter of an all-out conflict in the South Caucasus is rapidly closing. They also pointed out that President Aliyev’s actions suggest that his campaign of ethnic cleansing is unlikely to cease following his military attacks on Artsakh.

The U.S. lawmakers put forth four concrete strategies for deterring Azerbaijani aggression, which include:

• Use the Global Magnitsky Act and other statutory authorities to sanction President Aliyev and other Azerbaijani officials for their role in the military attack on and dissolution of Artsakh and associated atrocities and human rights violations.
• End all U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan by enforcing Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act.
• Provide strong security assistance to Armenia, who cannot count on Russia or its other neighbors to maintain peace and stability in the region.
• Create an international monitoring and peacekeeping force in Armenia to prevent the invasion. The Russian peacekeeping force is an arm of Putin’s foreign policy.

The following is the entire text of the letter:

Dear Secretary Blinken and Administrator Power,

As the world continues to respond to Azerbaijan’s military attack on Artsakh, we write to urge you to continue to promote peace in the South Caucuses and take concrete steps to preserve the territorial integrity of Armenia. During this critical moment, the United States must take bold actions to help democratic Armenia to protect itself against destabilizing, autocratic regimes like Azerbaijan and Russia.

We appreciate the administration’s announcement of $11.5 million in humanitarian aid to help communities impacted by the Azerbaijani military attack on Artsakh. We further encourage continued U.S. diplomatic engagement as shown by Administrator Power, Assistant Secretary Yuri Kim, and Senior Advisor Lou Bono’s to Armenia last week.

The opportunity to prevent further aggression by Azerbaijani forces and an all-out war in the South Caucasus is running out. Armenia continues to make efforts to engage diplomatically and find peace. Prime Minister Pashinyan committed to attend a meeting with Azerbaijan President Aliyev organized by the European Union in Granada, Spain, on Thursday, October 5. Meanwhile, Aliyev announced he will skip the meeting, demonstrating further reason to doubt Azerbaijan’s commitment to peace in the region.

Signals from Aliyev indicate that his campaign of ethnic cleansing will not cease with his military attacks on Artsakh. We have heard reports that Putin, Erdogan, and Aliyev have recently agreed to a deal in principle to dismantle the current Armenian state by allowing Azerbaijan to invade southern Armenia with full impunity. If these reports are accurate, this plan would trigger the full-scale invasion of a sovereign, democratic country whose foreign policy has made a sharp turn to the U.S. and the West.

The U.S. lawmakers put forth four concrete strategies for deterring Azerbaijani aggression, which include:

• Use the Global Magnitsky Act and other statutory authorities to sanction President Aliyev and other Azerbaijani officials for their role in the military attack on and dissolution of Artsakh and associated atrocities and human rights violations.
• End all U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan by enforcing Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act.
• Provide strong security assistance to Armenia, who cannot count on Russia or its other neighbors to maintain peace and stability in the region.
• Create an international monitoring and peacekeeping force in Armenia to prevent the invasion. The Russian peacekeeping force is an arm of Putin’s foreign policy.

We cannot achieve peace without setting minimum conditions for Armenia’s protection. Any final peace settlement must include security protections for Armenia’s territorial integrity, the delineation of sovereign territory based on specific Soviet military maps from 1975-76, and assurances that transportation links, including those along the Southern corridor, remain part of Armenia’s sovereign territory and under Armenian administration.

The United States must continue providing additional humanitarian assistance to Armenia to aid refugees who fled to Armenia from Artsakh, in coordination with the European Union, and other reputable nongovernmental organizations on the ground, on humanitarian response efforts. We should also call for the unconditional release of and amnesty for captured Artsakh government officials and Armenian prisoners of war.

The United States must demonstrate a willingness to support democracies that stand up to Putin. We urge you to continue demonstrating U.S. global leadership by taking strong actions to deter threats to the free, sovereign, and democratic Republic of Armenia.