OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Letter to the Hon. Barack Obama, President of the United States - Suspend Azerbaijani Military Aid and Support Nagorno Karabakh

Letter

Date: April 7, 2016
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Foreign Aid

Dear President Obama:

We are writing as co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, amid the worst Azerbaijani attacks since the 1994 Nagorno Karabakh cease-fire, to call upon you to take action. We request that you condemn Azerbaijan's aggression, suspend U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan, provide emergency relief aid to Nagorno Karabakh, and send a State Department fact-finding mission to both evaluate the destruction inflicted by Azerbaijan's aggression and assess the humanitarian relief and reconstruction needs of Nagorno Karabakh's affected civilian population.

We are particularly troubled that President Aliyev chose to launch his country's latest assault only hours after meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry, both of whom called openly for a peaceful, non-violent resolution of status and security issues related to Nagorno Karabakh.

Azerbaijan's attacks represent a dramatic escalation in President Aliyev's destructive pattern of aggression, constant threats of renewed war, ongoing incitement of anti-Armenian hatred, and the military targeting of Armenian civilians in both Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia. They also reflect his desire to act with international impunity - as so clearly demonstrated by his rejection of common-sense, cease-fire monitoring and other accountability-oriented initiatives - such as the urgently-needed Royce-Engel peace proposals that are supported by your Administration.

We call upon you to abandon the current, flawed U.S. policy of false parity. In support of our American national interest in deterring renewed attacks and regional instability, we urge you to suspend all military aid to Azerbaijan, and, in keeping with American humanitarian values, we ask you to provide both emergency and longer-term relief aid to the civilian population of Nagorno Karabakh.

Thank you for your consideration of our concerns.


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