President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has thanked President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Day: September 19, 2023
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ), as well as his colleagues Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in statements condemned Azerbaijan’s large-scale military attack on Artsakh.
Menendez condemned “Azerbaijan’s brazen assault today on innocent civilians.”
“President Aliyev has now made abundantly clear that he will stop at nothing to try to eradicate Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. For months, he has imposed a blockade on the Lachin Corridor, denying residents of Nagorno-Karabakh food, medicine, and other essential goods, while threatening the very existence of Armenia and Armenians with incendiary rhetoric. Over the past two weeks, I have sounded the alarm – addressing the full Senate, and convening a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to impress upon the U.S. government and the world the urgency of this crisis,” Menendez said.
“For too long, we have pandered to Aliyev. For too long, we have not taken a strong enough stance to demand the rights, security, and freedoms of the Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. I will be introducing legislation in the coming days to hold Aliyev’s regime accountable for their aggression and to support Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh,” he added.
“We cannot stand by as Aliyev conducts his campaign of ethnic cleansing even as we, as a nation, have committed to ‘never again’ let dictators pursue campaigns of genocide. We must provide immediate support to Nagorno-Karabakh and work with international partners to bring pressure on Aliyev to stop his ruthless campaign,” Chairman Menendez emphasized.
In their joint statement, Padilla and Rubio condemned the attack against Armenians “under the false pretext of leading an ‘anti-terrorist operation’ and in violation of its own ceasefire obligations.”
“Azerbaijan’s regime is leading an unprovoked attack against Armenian civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh—a grave escalation in the steps the regime has taken to ethnically cleanse Armenians in the region. The Biden Administration, and our international allies, must forcefully condemn this military aggression and demand a peaceful resolution that puts a stop to these human rights violations. The United States should immediately halt all security assistance to Azerbaijan, as demanded under section 907 of the Freedom Support Act,” the senators said.
Last month, Padilla and Menendez sent a letter to United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, urging her to introduce a UN resolution calling for an immediate end to Azerbaijan’s eight-month blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, including allowing unrestricted humanitarian access to Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Padilla, Menendez, and Rubio also introduced a bipartisan Senate resolution earlier this year condemning the government of Azerbaijan for its blockade of the Lachin Corridor and urging the United States to take immediate steps to end the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Hit-and-run driver flees fatal crash with motorcycle stuck to front, Georgia cops say Raleigh News & Observer
