Adam Schiff seeks to stop military aid to Baku
Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, today called on his House and Senate colleagues to cut all security assistance to Azerbaijan, reports the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
His request comes in the wake of the continuing scandal surrounding Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's pardon and promotion of Ramil Safarov, a confessed axe-murderer who killed an Armenian officer while he slept during a 2004 NATO Partnership for Peace training exercise in Hungary.
"We join with Congressman Schiff in opposing U.S. taxpayer subsidies to an openly aggressive Azerbaijani regime that makes heroes of racist murderers, and unapologetically threatens to use every military resource at its disposal to renew its aggression against both Artsakh and Armenia," said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. "If the Safarov scandal has taught us anything, it's that, rather than funding and arming the Azerbaijani military, the U.S. government should be using the full measure of America's geo-political leverage to block Baku's drive to plunge the entire Caucasus back into war."
Representative Schiff's request, which he sent in letters to Senators Patrick Leahy and Lindsey Graham, and Representatives Kay Granger and Nita Lowey, the Chairs and Ranking Members of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittees in the Senate and House, made the case that: "Azerbaijan has committed the most terrible subversion of justice - making a hero of a cold-blooded killer. Plainly the investment we have made in training Azeri forces has been worse than wasted. The United States must not tolerate any acts of aggression against Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh, and this hateful action by President Aliyev undermines all international efforts to bring about a peaceful solution in the region."
Congressman Schiff also emphasized, in his letter, that: "Azerbaijan must pay a high price for its actions. Baku treasures the security assistance that it receives from Washington, not because it needs the money (it does not), but because it signifies a certain closeness in the bilateral relationship. By cutting off military aid to Azerbaijan, the United States would signal its disgust with the Safarov affair, while also reminding Aliyev that the United States will not tolerate any acts of aggression against Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh."
