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YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has called on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to take immediate action to stop all military assistance to Azerbaijan, which invaded Armenia this week and continues to ethnically cleanse indigenous Armenians from their Artsakh homeland, ANCA reports.
In a strongly worded letter sent on the eve of Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Armenia, ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian explained, “a halt to U.S. aid to Azerbaijan would also meaningfully challenge our State Department’s deeply flawed policy of answering every act of Azerbaijani aggression with generic calls upon all parties to refrain from violence. This failed policy of false parity is as destructive as it is dangerous, emboldening the aggressor and abandoning their victims.” Hamparian continued, “even more broadly, cutting off aid to Azerbaijan, in addition to protecting Armenians and promoting peace, would reinforce America’s commitment to centering human rights as a core tenet of our foreign policy.”
Speaking for the Armenian community and coalition partners, Hamparian urged the Speaker to take concrete legislative action to “secure enactment of stand-alone legislation, provisions in the FY23 State-Foreign Operations bill, the FY23 National Defense Authorization Act, or other legislative measures, repealing the President’s authority to waive Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, and/or statutorily prohibiting any funds appropriated or otherwise made available by the U.S. Congress to be provided to or for the Government of Azerbaijan for U.S. military or security programs.”
The full text of the letter isavailable here.