September 19, 2024

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"[EXCERPT] At our best, America does not whitewash human rights violations, and our first request is that the co-chairs of this Commission go on record officially to recognize and call for the reversal of the genocidal ethnic cleansing of Christian Armenians, specifically stating that Armenians need to be returned to their homes, churches, cemeteries, and other homeland attributes in freedom and security. For decades, Nagorno Karabakh was internationally recognized as disputed territory and subject to peaceful resolution, namely through the OSCE Minsk Group process, with the Nagorno Karabakh government represented. We appreciate the different Congressional Resolutions that are pending but are aware that their progress to passage is unrelated to their merits in today’s Congress. A joint statement with the imprimatur of this Commission is a simple but achievable and powerful act.

As exhibited in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and quoted by many in Congress and around the world, Hitler’s 1939 rationale of “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” is the same frame of mind which animates much of the troubles this Commission has been working on recently. To be specific, for today’s subject matter, it animates the thinking of President Aliyev and his regime. Despite having signed the November 2020 document establishing armistice lines (with Russian peacekeepers and Turkish monitors) beyond which forces would not cross, they proceeded to brutally attack and depopulate the Armenian civilian population and expect people to believe that it was a justifiable anti-terrorism action."

For more information: humanrightscommission.house.gov/events/hearings/human-rights-azerbaijan-fall-nagorno-karabakh