Dear Representative:
I write to you – amid growing Azerbaijani and Turkish threats against the Armenian homeland – to ask you to support four priorities of urgent concern to Armenian Americans, our coalition partners, and the many allies we are proud to have in cities, towns, churches, and communities across America:
1) Co-sign the Armenian Caucus letter on the FY23 foreign aid bill
2) Cosponsor the bipartisan Armenian Genocide Education Act
3) Address April 27th Capitol Hill Armenian Genocide remembrance
4) Demand Presidential enforcement of Section 907 restrictions on Azerbaijan
I encourage you to cosign the Congressional Armenian Caucus letter asking the State-Foreign Operations Subcommittee to include four key provisions in the FY23 foreign aid bill: a ban on U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan, robust U.S. aid to Artsakh ($50 million) and Armenia ($100 million), and Azerbaijan’s release of Armenian POWs.
Please also cosponsor and work for the timely passage of the Armenian Genocide Education Act – introduced in the wake of U.S. Congressional and Presidential recognition of the Armenian Genocide – supports educational programs regarding Turkey’s systematic and deliberate state-sponsored mass murder, national dispossession, cultural erasure, and exile of millions of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians, between 1915 and 1923.
It would hold great meaning for me and my family for you to attend and offer remarks at the Capitol Hill Armenian Genocide remembrance – under the leadership of the Congressional Armenian Caucus – which will be held on Wednesday, April 27 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. Members are invited to speak, starting at 6:30 pm.
In closing, I ask that you apply public pressure to the White House to fully enforce Section 907 restrictions on U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan. Our U.S. Congress – having passed this law more than two decades ago – must reclaim its legitimate authority from the Executive Branch, which has recklessly waived enforcement of this statute, clearing the way for over $164,000,000 in military assistance to oil-rich Azerbaijan’s violently anti-Armenian Aliyev regime.
Thank you for your attention to these concerns. I look forward to learning of your support for the Armenian Caucus letter, your co-sponsorship of the Armenian Genocide Education Act, and your participation in the Capitol Hill remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.
Sincerely,
