WASHINGTON—Earlier today, senior representatives of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) consulted at the State Department with Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, head of the Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, to discuss urgent Armenian-American calls for U.S. leadership in response to Azerbaijan’s major offensive targeting civilians and soldiers in the Nagorno-Karabagh Republic (NKR/Artsakh).
“We have, since April 2, actively engaged with senior administration officials and leading legislators to press for a principled American response to Azerbaijan’s reckless attack against Artsakh,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We will, in the hours and days to come, continue to make sure that the Armenian-American voice is heard—and respected—in the halls of power here in our nation’s capital.”
Among the high-priority issues shared by the ANCA—represented by Hamparian, Government Affairs Director Kate Nahapetian, and Legislative Affairs Director Raffi Karakashian—were the following:
– Vice President Joe Biden’s and Secretary of State John Kerry’s meetings in Washington, D.C., with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev represented a missed opportunity to press for peace (such as ending Baku’s obstruction of the Royce-Engel proposals) and ultimately—through official U.S. silence on his regional aggression and domestic repression—served to embolden Aliyev, effectively serving as a green-light for him to continue and escalate his aggression.
– The administration knows very well (via Aliyev’s own words, the facts on the ground, his rejection of monitoring measures, and our own considerable U.S. intelligence capabilities) that Azerbaijan is initiating acts of aggression, yet persistently and counter-productively refuses to call Aliyev to account for reckless and fatal attacks that cause vast human suffering, destabilize the region, and raise the risk of a regional war.
– Armenian Americans, in the wake of the failure of the United States and the international community to challenge Aliyev’s latest assault, will—parallel to pro-peace initiative such as the Royce-Engel proposals—increasingly focus on global recognition of the NKR as a viable path toward peace.
The ANCA has activated Armenian Americans and other friends of Armenia in all 50 states, covering nearly every U.S. House district, in the days since Azerbaijan’s April 2 attacks—the largest and most fatal since the 1994 Karabagh ceasefire. These ANCA activists have targeted more than 30,000 messages to the White House, members of Congress, and to Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) representatives.
The ANCA has also strongly backed several congressional letters backing the Royce-Engel peace initiative, the suspension of military aid to Baku, and the need for forceful U.S. condemnation of Azerbaijani aggression. These letters have been supported collectively by more than 90 members of Congress—representing more than 53 million Americans.
Guest Contributor
Russia has supplied Azerbaijan with the weapons it is using to kill Armenians, while the only thing Russia does is call for “both sides” to cease fighting, as if Azerbaijan was not the aggressor.
Where’s the Armenian outrage against Russia?
Armenians are going to the US and Europe to complain. But it is Russia that is betraying Armenians. What kind of an ally is Russia?
The US also calls for “both sides” to cease fighting, as if Azerbaijan was not the aggressor. So do the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. I suggest you don’t take it out on Russia only.
Russia is the kind of ally that maintains a military base in Armenia against Turkish threat, guarantees the defense of Armenia based on the CSTO Treaty and bilateral Russian-Armenian agreements, supplies deterrent arms to Armenia at a steep discount and sometimes free of charge, and never allows herself to declare that “occupied territories should be returned to Azerbaijan”, as the US does.
What do the US and Europe do for Armenia’s security?
Dano, that’s how international relations work – nobody can back you 100% of the time. The US also supplies weapons to Saudi Arabia and Egypt besides Israel. Is there any country in the world that did overall more for the Armenians in the past century?
While I agree that you can’t expect a perfect (100%) cooperation even from your “strategic partner”, you should expect 90%, 80% or even 70%. What do we really get from Russian? Maybe 20-30% and we pay for their worthless military base in Armenia. We might as well not be partners.
{We might as well not be partners.}
Maybe your friend George Soros can help RoA and NKR.
His track record of “helping” is excellent: most recent successful project – Maidan in Ukraine.
Things have turned out great for Ukrainian people, haven’t they?
“What do we really get from Russia?”
“Worthless military base in Armenia”
“We might as well not be partners”
Sassoon Kosian, are you sure you’re an Armenian?
(Dano // April 6, 2016 at 7:40 pm // )
{…. while the only thing Russia does is call for “both sides” to cease fighting, as if Azerbaijan was not the aggressor.}
Russia is one of the 3 co-chairs of OSCE responsible for negotiations to “resolve” the NKR issue. (It has been already resolved: but that discussion is for some other time).
Neither Russia, nor US, nor France can appear to be partial to either side, while the phony negotiations drag on.
But only US openly sides with the terrorist regime of Baku.
And it is interesting that the same people who complain about Russia are very silent when US OSCE rep Warlick openly sides with the criminals of Azerbaijan, by calling for indigenous Armenians of Artsakh to leave the so-called “occupied” lands; by screeching about the alleged “territorial integrity” of Azerbaijan, while conveniently forgetting to mention the Right of Self Determination.
{ Russia has supplied Azerbaijan with the weapons it is using to kill Armenians}
So has Israel, and so has Turkey, and so have half a dozen other countries. If Russia does not sell, others will.
One of the most effective weapons of this short war was the Israeli supplied Harop ‘Kamikaze’ drone.
Not known yet how many of NKR’s armor and other hardware it is responsible for putting out of action.
But it is responsible for one of the deadliest single-event loss of life on our side: it hit a bus carrying veteran volunteers, and killed 7.
And as we said before: NKR and RoA have very little info on weapons others sell to Azerbaijan.
From all publicly available information, Harop was clearly a nasty surprise to our side.
{. But it is Russia that is betraying Armenians. What kind of an ally is Russia?}
How is Russia, quote, “betraying” Armenians?
What kind of ally is Russia? The kind that by the presence of its 5,000 Russian troops in Gyumri stops the Turkish 3rd army, the largest in Turkey, stationed in Erzincan (Armenian Երզնկա Yerznka), from invading RoA. How long do you think Armenians could fight a two front war? Against an army on RoA’s Western border that is An army 120,000 strong.
Finally: assuming everything you say about Russia is right.
Please list several other countries that can replace Russia, and which have the military capability and the geopolitical incentive to prevent certain invasion of RoA by Turkey.