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[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>
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