No official summary available for this bill.
[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1327 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1327
Condemning Azerbaijan for perpetrating an ethnic cleansing campaign
against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 27, 2024
Ms. Eshoo (for herself and Mr. Smith of New Jersey) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign
Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Condemning 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, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Armenian
population of Nagorno-Karabakh established a de facto independent
republic, known as the Republic of Artsakh, to exercise self-
determination in their homeland;
Whereas, on December 12, 2022, 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, 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 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 the territory 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 motivating their anti-Armenian
aggression;
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 Azerbaijani forces have systemically destroyed Armenian cultural
heritage sites in Nagorno-Karabakh, including churches, monasteries,
cemeteries, and other cultural monuments;
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 Armenian Government, 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 Azerbaijan
include Davit Manukyan, Davit Babayan, Levon Mnatsakanyan, Arkadi
Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arayik Harutyunyan, Davit Ishkhanyan, and
Ruben Vardanyan;
Whereas the true number of Armenians held captive by Azerbaijan is likely higher
than the Armenian Government's count given the many individuals who are
still missing and the lack of transparency surrounding Azerbaijan's
detention practices;
Whereas 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
they face difficulties accessing housing, food security, employment, and
health care;
Whereas the United States has provided a vastly insufficient amount of
humanitarian aid to respond to the refugee crisis in Armenia;
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 Azerbaijan to provide for the safe,
unimpeded, and expeditious return of Armenian refugees who wish to
return to their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh;
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 ``will not tolerate'' any Azerbaijani
attack on Nagorno-Karabakh;
Whereas the United States 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 Azerbaijan accountable for ethnic cleansing emboldens
Azerbaijan's leaders to engage in further anti-Armenian aggression;
Whereas, in recent years, Armenia has sought to deepen its ties to the United
States and other liberal democracies and to distance itself from Russia;
Whereas the United States has a special responsibility to ensure that Armenia's
security is not jeopardized because of its embrace of democracy and
rejection of Vladimir Putin's murderous regime;
Whereas Azerbaijan illegally occupies 83 square miles of Armenia's
internationally recognized territory that it captured in an unprovoked
assault on Armenia in September 2022;
Whereas 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 has taken a direct role in facilitating a durable
conflict-resolution process between Armenia and Azerbaijan; and
Whereas Azerbaijan's ongoing aggression against the Republic of Armenia and its
refusal to adhere to international law undermine efforts to achieve a
just peace in the region: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the
atrocities perpetrated by 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) prohibit the provision of United States
military aid to Azerbaijan pursuant to section 907 of
the FREEDOM Support Act;
(C) make a public determination as to whether the
atrocities committed by Azerbaijan 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) strengthen the United States-Armenia security
partnership through the provision of military aid,
joint military exercises, and intelligence and
logistical support; 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
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>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Llama 3.2 · runs locally in your browser
Ask anything about this bill. The AI reads the full text to answer.
Enter to send · Shift+Enter for new line