WASHINGTON, DC – Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has introduced a powerful amendment that would end US presidential waiver authority of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, an Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) -backed measure that would effectively block US military aid to Azerbaijan.
The amendment (#4177) is one of three amendments to the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that deals with US aid to Azerbaijan as well as Azerbaijani and Turkish war crimes committed against Artsakh and Armenia during the 2020 war. The amendment removes all references to presidential waiver authority of Section 907, a provision first put in place in 2001, and utilized by successive US presidents – including President Biden, even in the wake of Azerbaijan’s 2020 brutal aggression against Artsakh in Armenia. Since 2016, the US has provided over $120 million in US military assistance to Azerbaijan in the face of objections by members of Congress and the ANCA, which has long raised alarms about the Aliyev regime’s belligerence in the region.
Senator Menendez also offered a second amendment (#4150) to the NDAA which calls for a joint State Department and Defense Department report on Turkey’s use of US technology in its Bayrakdar drones, with a special focus on whether their sale to third countries, like Azerbaijan, violates US export laws. The ANCA has identified a number of US parts used in Bayrakdar drones that targeted Artsakh and Armenian civilians during the 2020 Artsakh War. In addition to the ANCA, Amendment #4150 also has the support of a coalition of ethnic, civic and faith-based groups including the Hellenic American Leadership Council, American Friends of Kurdistan, the Hindu American Foundation and the Middle East Forum.
A third amendment (#4251) introduced by California Senator Alex Padilla (D) calls for a joint State Department and Defense Department report, in response to Azerbaijani war crimes during the 2020 Artsakh War, including the use of US technology during the attacks; the use of white phosphorous, cluster bombs and other prohibited munitions; and the hiring of foreign mercenaries.
“We thank Senators Menendez and Padilla for their principled leadership in holding Azerbaijan and Turkey accountable,” said ANCA executive director Aram Hamparian. “We are working—in Washington, DC and across each of our 50 states—to secure the adoption of their ANCA-backed amendments enforcing Section 907, investigating Azerbaijani war crimes and demanding answers about the US parts discovered in the Turkish drones deployed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh.”
Additional Armenian-related amendments to the NDAA may be introduced in the next several days. A Senate vote on the Menendez and Padilla amendments can come as early as next week.
Earlier this year, the US House adopted five ANCA-backed amendments to its version of the NDAA (H.R.4350), which demanded Baku’s release of Armenian prisoners of war (POWs), called for investigations into Azerbaijani war crimes, supported expanded US aid to Artsakh and urged Turkey’s Grey Wolves be designated a foreign terrorist organization.
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The USA has forgotten the contributions it’s Armenian American citizens have brought to their country, from technological and scientific advances to their dedication to defend our country in times of wars.After 100 years the US finally recognized the genocide of 1.500,000 Armenian perpetrated by the Turkish Ottoman empire, so why has it abandoned the Armenians in Artsakh? why has it stayed silent during the recent war in Nagorno Karabakh, and the atrocities committed by the Azerbaijani army, supported and aided by the Turkish government? Will it take another 100 years before our country, the USA recognises the dire conditions confronting Armenians,by the war initiated by Dictator Ilham Aliyev, and armed by Turkey,against the Democratic government of Artsakh?