YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 18, ARMENPRESS. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a powerful call for renewed U.S. leadership in the face of Turkish and Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia and Artsakh, urging $100 million in U.S. assistance to prevent a humanitarian disaster, re-engagement in the OSCE Minsk Group negotiation process, and the end to U.S. arms sales to Ankara and Baku, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

Speaking on the U.S. Senate floor, Senator Menendez shared his solidarity with Armenian worldwide, in the face of “the devastation inflicted on the region by Azerbaijani President Aliyev, with the full support of President Erdogan of Turkey,” and decried the lack of American leadership “which could have averted much of this tragedy.”

Menendez continued that “the security of the Armenian people, who have already suffered brutal violence at the hands of Presidents Aliyev and Erdogan, now rests with ‘peacekeepers’ sent by Vladimir Putin – a flawed agreement that does nothing about the jihadists sent there by Turkey, who if allowed to remain, could commit further atrocities against Christian Armenians.”

In response, Senator Menendez offered four key areas of renewed U.S. leadership including a call for $100 million in U.S. humanitarian and development assistance.

“Second, the United States must immediately suspend the provision of defense articles to Turkey and Azerbaijan. We cannot and must not enable any future atrocities by either of these authoritarian countries,” stated Senator Menendez, who called for passage of his measures – S.Res.754 and S.Res.755 – which would block arms sales to Erdogan and Aliyev based on their human rights records.

Third, Senator Menendez called for the end of the annual U.S. presidential waiver of Section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, based on their continued aggression against Armenia and Artsakh.

Fourth, Turkey’s aggression must be addressed, argued, Senator Menendez, who called for U.S. sanctions against Ankara. “President Erdogan clearly aspires to be a modern-day Ottoman sultan, putting down stakes in Libya, in Syria, across the Eastern Mediterranean, and now in the south Caucasus.”

Senator Menendez argued for broader U.S. leadership in the OSCE Minsk Group Artsakh peace negotiations. “Though the OSCE Minsk Group Process appears to be on life support, we can and must reinvigorate it with senior-level engagement. We must send a clear message to Ankara, Baku, and Moscow that violence as a means to ‘solve’ the conflict will not succeed, and pressure on Armenia from its eastern and western borders will not be tolerated.”