YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. Speaking on behalf of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, Co-Chairs Robert Dold (R-IL) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) on April 7 issued strong, bipartisan calls, asking President Obama to forcefully condemn Azerbaijan’s military offensive and urging top U.S. House appropriators to zero-out U.S. military assistance to Ilham Aliyev’s armed forces, “Armenpress” reports, citing the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“We echo the powerful, pro-peace message the Armenian Caucus delivered today to President Obama and key U.S. House appropriators,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We join with them in supporting a shift in U.S. policy that challenges Aliyev’s aggression and protects American taxpayers from subsidizing an Azerbaijan military that is killing innocent Armenians, destabilizing a vital region, undermining U.S. interests, very likely committing war crimes, and risking the outbreak of an even larger regional conflict. Stated simply: Ilham Aliyev doesn’t need U.S. military aid, he doesn’t deserve U.S. military aid, and he shouldn’t get U.S. military aid.”

In their letter to the President, in addition to calling for a forthright condemnation of Baku’s belligerence, the two Co-Chairs asked that he “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.” They noted that, “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.”

In their bipartisan appeal to the leadership of the State-Foreign Operations subcommittee, the panel that writes the foreign aid bill, the Co-Chairs urged Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-TX) and Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-NY) to include a provision in this measure ensuring “the suspension of military aid [to Azerbaijan] until its government ceases cross-border attacks, ends its threats of renewed war, and agrees to a settlement of regional conflicts through peaceful means.” They added, “Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has made it abundantly clear through his country’s escalating aggression that Azerbaijan believes it can continue to receive American military aid no matter its actions. This belief is wrong. While the United States provides military assistance for a number of reasons, our assistance should never be taken for granted, and we should never tolerate its unacceptable misuse by foreign nations.” The letter closed with the two legislators stressing that, “In calling for a suspension of military aid to Azerbaijan, we are mindful that Azerbaijan’s regional aggression both reflects and reinforces its pattern of domestic abuse, including its brutal crack-down on dissent. Rather than providing military aid to Azerbaijan we should be putting pressure on the country to cease its undemocratic policies.”

Along the entire length of the contact line of Nagorno Karabakh- Azerbaijani opposing forces, on April 1 and throughout the morning of April 2, the adversary undertook large-scale offensive military actions, during which the adversary shelled with missile-artillery units not only Armenian defense positions, but also civilian settlements.

According to the data of the Defense Army, the Azerbaijani armed forces fired MM-21 (Grad) multiple rocket launcher on April 2, at 08: 30 in the direction of Martuni (NKR), killing 12 year old Vaghinak Grigoryan and wounding two other children. 4 other civilians were wounded later.On April 3 the subversive group of Azerbaijan brutally killed 3 elderly and vandalized their corpses in Talish village. 

The Armenian side has 36 losses, 21 soldiers missing, 122 wounded. 5 more people including the heads of two rural communities of Syunik Marz, were killed on their way to Martakert on April 4.

Due to the timely and professional actions of the Nagorno Karabakh Defense Army, it was possible to take the situation under control, and make the enemy suffer considerable losses. On April 1-5 as a result of the crushing counterattacks by the Armenian side against the military aggressions towards the Nagorno Karabakh Azerbaijan lost 2 helicopters, 24 tanks, 3 infantry fighting vehicles, 7 UAVs, 1 21-MM multiple rocket launcher system. During military operations the Azerbaijani armed forces had more than 300 causalities, nearly 2000 wounded. On April 5 at 12:00, the fire was ceased in the line of contact between Karabakh and Azerbaijani opposing forces. The agreement of ceasing the fire was reached at the meeting of the Chiefs of General Staff of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow on April 5.

Azerbaijan intensively violates the ceasefire. In the early morning of April 7, two sabotage penetration attempts were made by Azerbaijan.

 The Azerbaijani armed forces fired towards civilian settlements and military units of the Armenian Vardenis city on April 6, 10:35-23:00. In particular, besides firing various caliber weapons, the Azerbaijani side fired large caliber heavy machine guns and 60mm mortars. The Armed Forces of Armenia did everything for maintaining the ceasefire agreement.