YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is calling on the Trump Administration – through the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) – to enforce crippling sanctions against Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Turkish President Recep Erdogan, and their senior military leaders for wars crimes committed against civilians in both Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), ANCA reports.

“President Trump – with the bipartisan support of Congress – must immediately direct U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to enforce sanctions against Ilham Aliyev and Recep Erdogan – both demonstrably guilty of directing a premeditated surprise attack and sustained assault on civilians in Armenia and Artsakh,” said ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian. “We look to the Treasury Department to move with dispatch to enforce these sanctions against Recep Erdogan and Ilham Aliyev. Both are war criminals, and should be treated as such by the U.S. Government.”

Should the U.S. Department of Treasury enact sanctions called for by the ANCA, all of Erdogan’s and Aliyev’s property and interests in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons would be blocked or frozen and reported to OFAC.

Starting on September 27th the Azerbaijani military, after considerable planning and deliberation, launched missiles, artillery shells, and suicide drones against civilian populations in Artsakh’s capital Stepanakert as well as other civilian populations in and around Artsakh, as well as against certain areas of the Republic of Armenia’s town of Vardenis, causing death and injury to dozens of civilians. This deliberate targeting of civilians constitutes a vicious and cold-blooded violation of international humanitarian law and basic human rights.  Turkey has also recruited foreign jihadist terrorists to fight alongside Azerbaijan in this anti-Armenian campaign, ANCA said.