News - Senators introduce resolution on review of human rights situation in, US military assistance to, Azerbaijan

US Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have introduced a bipartisan resolution requesting a report on Azerbaijan’s human rights practices pursuant to Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act, reported the Armenian National Committee of America. The resolution requests information from the US State Department on Azerbaijan’s human rights abuses both within the country, as well as during its sustained military assault against Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) that last year resulted in the ethnic cleansing of its entire indigenous Armenian population. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Gary Peters (D-MI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Peter Welch (D-VT) have joined as original cosponsors. “The need to hold Azerbaijan’s government accountable and forge a peaceful path forward is long overdue,” said Senator Markey. “Military action has never been the solution to peace and stability in Nagorno-Karabakh. This resolution puts pressure on Azerbaijan’s government to uphold human rights and stop committing crimes against ethnic Armenians in the region. We must protect the will, the rights, and the bedrock freedoms of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.” “Azerbaijan has already been bulldozing holy sites and starving Armenian communities. This is the type of country the Biden administration wants supplying LNG to Europe instead of Louisiana natural gas?” said Dr. Cassidy. The Markey-Cassidy resolution will require the Department of State to provide a detailed description of widely documented human rights abuses perpetrated by Azerbaijan, including unlawful or arbitrary killings, torture of detainees, the displacement of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, and the destruction of religious and cultural sites—in addition to violations of internationally recognized human rights including freedom of speech, assembly, political participation, and religious freedom. Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act is a long-standing yet underutilized statute that prohibits U.S. security assistance to “any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violation of internationally recognized human rights.” If the Markey-Cassidy resolution passes, it will mark the first time that Congress has requested a report under Section 502B(c) since 1976.