[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 930 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 930
Condemning the Government of Azerbaijan for perpetrating an ethnic
cleansing campaign against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December 17 (legislative day, December 16), 2024
Mr. Peters (for himself and Mr. Cassidy) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Condemning the Government of Azerbaijan for perpetrating an ethnic
cleansing campaign against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Whereas Nagorno-Karabakh is part of the traditional homeland of the Armenian
people and has been a center of Armenian life and culture for millennia;
Whereas the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh have continually sought to
exercise their right of self-determination and established a government
separate from Azerbaijan;
Whereas, on December 12, 2022, the Government of Azerbaijan initiated a grueling
blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh that deprived the region's population of
food, medicine, fuel, and other necessities for nearly 10 months;
Whereas, on September 19, 2023, the Government of Azerbaijan launched a full-
scale military offensive against the Armenian population of Nagorno-
Karabakh that took the lives of hundreds of soldiers and dozens of
civilians;
Whereas the Government of Azerbaijan used the threat of further violence to
coerce the Armenian leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh to surrender their
autonomy and dissolve their governing institutions;
Whereas over 100,000 Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, facing the threat of further
ethnic violence, fled to Armenia as refugees within 2 weeks of
Azerbaijan's assault;
Whereas the rhetoric of President Ilham Aliyev and other Azerbaijani officials
demonstrates a clear ethnic animus that continues to undermine efforts
to build a durable and dignified peace;
Whereas international legal experts, including former Chief Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo and former United
Nations genocide expert Juan Mendez, have determined that Azerbaijan's
blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh violated the United Nations Genocide
Convention;
Whereas Azerbaijan has a responsibility to protect ethnic Armenian cultural
heritage sites in Nagorno-Karabakh, including churches, monasteries,
cemeteries, and other cultural monuments and should support UNESCO to
assess and catalog the region's many culturally significant sites;
Whereas the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
recommends that Azerbaijan be designated as a country of particular
concern, in part because of the destruction of Christian religious sites
in Nagorno-Karabakh;
Whereas, according to the Government of Armenia, dozens of Armenian prisoners of
war, civilian captives, and members of the political leadership of
Nagorno-Karabakh are now unjustly imprisoned in Azerbaijan on
politically motivated charges or no charges at all;
Whereas the political leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh now imprisoned by the
Government of Azerbaijan, including Davit Manukyan, Davit Babayan, Levon
Mnatsakanyan, Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arayik Harutyunyan, Davit
Ishkhanyan, and Ruben Vardanyan, should be afforded due process in
accordance with the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, to which Azerbaijan is a party;
Whereas there are still thousands missing from the over 30-year conflict in
Nagorno-Karabakh;
Whereas the Government of Azerbaijan has a well-documented record of subjecting
Armenian prisoners to torture, humiliation, and other violations of
fundamental rights afforded by the Geneva Conventions;
Whereas, as a result of Azerbaijan's ethnic cleansing campaign, over 100,000
displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh now seek refuge in Armenia
where, because of the country's limited resources, they face
difficulties accessing housing, food security, employment, and health
care;
Whereas the United States Government has announced more than $10,700,000 in
urgent humanitarian assistance to respond to the crisis, but much more
is needed;
Whereas international law provides for a right of return for populations
displaced from their country of origin, including under the 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1966 Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the European
Convention on Human Rights to which Azerbaijan is a party;
Whereas the International Court of Justice issued a binding provisional measure
in November 2023 requiring the Government of Azerbaijan to provide for
the safe, unimpeded, and expeditious return of Armenian refugees who
wish to return to their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh;
Whereas, in 2024, Freedom House, in partnership with Armenian and international
human rights organizations, issued a report that they hope will
contribute to the finding that the Azerbaijani authorities have engaged
in a systematic and deliberate campaign aimed at the ethnic cleansing of
the Armenian population from Nagorno-Karabakh, thereby committing
egregious violations of human rights and international law;
Whereas, prior to the Azerbaijani assault on Nagorno-Karabakh, Acting Assistant
Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia Yuri Kim testified before
Congress that the United States Government ``will not tolerate'' any
Azerbaijani attack on Nagorno-Karabakh;
Whereas the United States Government has yet to impose meaningful accountability
measures on Azerbaijan for perpetrating an inhumane blockade and
campaign of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh;
Whereas failing to hold the Government of Azerbaijan accountable for ethnic
cleansing emboldens Azerbaijan's leaders to engage in further anti-
Armenian aggression;
Whereas, in recent years, the Government of Armenia has sought to deepen its
ties to the United States and other liberal democracies and to distance
itself from Russia;
Whereas the Government of Azerbaijan illegally occupies approximately 200 square
kilometers of Armenia's internationally recognized territory, including
approximately 150 square kilometers captured during the aggressive
military actions from 2020 to 2023;
Whereas the United States Government has a special interest in ensuring that
Armenia's security is not jeopardized because of its embrace of
democracy and rejection of Vladimir Putin's murderous regime;
Whereas the Government of Azerbaijan continues to demand unilateral territorial
concessions from Armenia through the threat of force, often referring to
portions of sovereign Armenian territory as ``western Azerbaijan'';
Whereas the United States Government has taken a direct role in facilitating a
durable conflict-resolution process between Armenia and Azerbaijan; and
Whereas the Government of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia continue to
engage in talks that have yet to finalize a peace agreement, leaving
many concerned about potential for future violence: Now, therefore, be
it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the
atrocities perpetrated by the Government of Azerbaijan against
the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh;
(2) recognizes that Azerbaijan's blockade and subsequent
military offensive against the Armenian population of Nagorno-
Karabakh constitute acts of ethnic cleansing;
(3) affirms the fundamental right of displaced Armenians to
return to their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh with strong
protections in place to ensure their security; and
(4) calls on the President and the relevant Federal
agencies to take immediate action to--
(A) impose targeted sanctions on Azerbaijani
government officials complicit in human rights abuses;
(B) restrict United States military aid to
Azerbaijan consistent with 907 of the FREEDOM Support
Act (Public Law 102-511; 22 U.S.C. 5812 note);
(C) reaffirm the findings of the 2024 Freedom House
report which documented a deliberate campaign by the
Government of Azerbaijan to ethnically cleanse the
Armenian population from Nagorno-Karabakh and
recognizes that these actions against the Armenian
population of Nagorno-Karabakh constitute ethnic
cleansing;
(D) provide robust humanitarian assistance to
respond to the refugee crisis in Armenia and rally the
international community to do the same;
(E) continue to strengthen the United States-
Armenia security partnership as the Government of
Armenia bolsters its ties to Western allies; and
(F) facilitate diplomacy to achieve a just and
lasting peace in the South Caucasus that provides for
the release of all Armenians unjustly imprisoned by the
Government of Azerbaijan, establishes a right of return
and security guarantees for the displaced Armenians of
Nagorno-Karabakh, and preserves the Armenian cultural
heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh.
<all>