Congressional Sign-On Letter Calls for Sniper Withdrawal, Additional Observers, Deployment of Gunfire Locators
— Ask your U.S. Representative to Support Bipartisan Life-Saving Initiatives: www.anca.org/nkpeace
WASHINGTON—Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee are asking their congressional colleagues to join a bipartisan call for renewed U.S. leadership in keeping the peace along the Nagorno-Karabagh (Artsakh) Line of Contact, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
The two senior legislators are currently collecting congressional signatures on a letter addressed to Ambassador James Warlick, the U.S. representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group tasked with reaching a resolution to Karabagh-related security and status issues. In their letter, they specifically call for the U.S. and OSCE to abandon their failed policy of false parity in responding to acts of aggression, noting that, “The longstanding U.S. and OSCE practice of responding to each new attack with generic calls upon all parties to refrain from violence has failed to de-escalate the situation. Instead, this policy of artificial evenhandedness has dangerously increased tensions. There will be no peace absent responsibility.”
The letter proposes three concrete pro-peace steps that would, “in the short-term, save lives and help to avert war. Over the longer term,” the letter notes, “these steps could contribute to a comprehensive and enduring peace for all the citizens of the region”:
– An agreement from all sides not to deploy snipers along the line of contact.
– The placement of OSCE-monitored, advanced gunfire-locator systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the Line of Contact.
– The deployment of additional OSCE observers along the Line of Contact to better monitor cease-fire violations.
Armenia and Nagorno-Karabagh have both expressed support for these life-saving initiatives; Azerbaijan has not.
“We want to thank Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel for their leadership in keeping the peace, averting war, and promoting a durable and just negotiated settlement of status and security issues related to Nagorno-Karabagh,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We join with Armenia and Artsakh in supporting each of their three concrete peace-keeping proposals, and welcome—in the wake of yet another round of Azerbaijani aggression—their principled advocacy for replacing the U.S. and OSCE’s failed policy of artificial evenhandedness with an accountability-based approach to peace-keeping.”
The ANCA Royce-Engel action alert is available at http://www.anca.org/nkpeace.
Schiff to Warlick: Ignoring Azerbaijan’s Increasing Belligerence Does Not Serve Peace
In a related move, U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Ranking Democrat Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has called upon the State Department to refrain from responding to future acts of Azerbaijani aggression with statements suggesting a “false equivalence between Azeri and Armenian behavior. In a letter sent this week to Ambassador James Warlick, Schiff warned that any “unwillingness to speak plainly about the aggressor in this conflict sends the message to Azerbaijan that it can act with impunity.”
Schiff stressed that, while he joins with Warlick in seeking a peaceful and durable resolution to the Karabagh issue, “I do not believe the cause of peace is served by ignoring Azerbaijan’s increasing belligerence and the suggestion that both parties are equally to blame for violence along the Line of Contact when that is not the case.”
The full text of the Royce-Engel Congressional Sign-On Letter to Ambassador Warlick follows.
***
The Honorable James Warlick
U.S. Co-Chair
OSCE Minsk Group
Dear Ambassador Warlick:
We are writing out of concern over the escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh, resulting in deaths on both sides of the conflict. It is our hope that the United States, through its role in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group, as well as through direct diplomacy with both Armenia and Azerbaijan, will immediately advocate for several steps to promote peace in the region.
We believe that securing the full and public support of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Nagorno-Karabagh for the following steps would, in the short-term, save lives and help to avert war. Over the longer term, these steps could contribute to a comprehensive and enduring peace for all the citizens of the region.
An agreement from all sides not to deploy snipers along the line of contact.
The placement of OSCE-monitored, advanced gunfire-locator systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the line of contact.
The deployment of additional OSCE observers along the line of contact to better monitor cease-fire violations.
We also urge you to publicly condemn specific acts of aggression along the line of contact. The longstanding U.S. and OSCE practice of responding to each new attack with generic calls upon all parties to refrain from violence has failed to de-escalate the situation. Instead, this policy of artificial evenhandedness has dangerously increased tensions. There will be no peace absent responsibility.
Thank you for your consideration of these recommendations. We continue to support your efforts to reach a durable and just resolution to this conflict and look forward to your response.
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I sincerely hope and pray that these actions culminate in concrete actions and positive developments. Admittedly I personally am skeptical for the following reasons.
1- The US presently is confronted with major issues. Their policy and strategy in Syria and Iraq has failed miserably and cannot figure out what is the right thing to do.
2- Relations with Russia and Putin are at their lowest ebb. It is obvious that Putin has decided to implement his agenda without any regard to Obama.
3- Europe is in a mess with the massive immigration issue. Now Germany is entangled in the VW deceipt and mess.
4- It is not clear what the relations with China is.
5- On the domestic front, total polarization between the parties and a government shutdown looming.
It is sad to say, but with all these problems, the Azeris feel shielded.
The only and only solution is a strong response by Armenia/NKR to the next Azeri aggression.
Vart Adjemian