WASHINGTON, DC – Over thirty Members of the U.S. House joined Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) today in expressing concern about a provision of President Bush’s FY 2005 budget proposal which would undermine the agreement between the White House and Congress to maintain parity in military aid levels to Armenia and Azerbaijan, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

If the Administration’s request is eventually adopted by Congress, Azerbaijan would receive $8.75 million in U.S. military assistance, $6 million more than neighboring Armenia.

“We thank Congressman Pallone and his colleagues for urging the President to honor his commitment to maintain parity in military aid levels to Armenia and Azerbaijan,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “The need for this balance has been made all the more clear in recent weeks, with the growing calls from the Azerbaijani government for renewed aggression and its increasingly violent anti-Armenian rhetoric. The recent brutal murder of an Armenian soldier by his Azerbaijani counterpart during a NATO training program underscores this point. In this environment, the Bush Administration, rather than rewarding Azerbaijan with additional military aid, should be taking serious measures to press the new leadership in Baku to step back from the dangerous and destabilizing path they have chosen.”

In their letter to President Bush, House Members noted that they are “troubled that the Administration is abandoning its own agreement with Congress and a decade long U.S. policy of maintaining parity in foreign military aid levels to Armenia and Azerbaijan. We strongly believe that your request in this area would undermine the stability in the South Caucasus region, and would weaken the ongoing peace negotiations regarding the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.”

House Democrats joining Rep. Pallone in co-signing the letter to the President include: Rob Andrews (D-NJ), Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Howard Berman (D-CA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Michael Capuano (D-MA), John Conyers (D-MI), Jerry Costello (D-IL), Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Bob Filner (D-CA), Barney Frank (D-MA), Martin Frost (D-TX), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Michael Honda (D-CA), Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Dale Kildee (D-MI), James Langevin (D-RI), Sander Levin (D-MI), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Edward Markey (D-MA), Karen McCarthy (D-NY), James McGovern (D-MA), Michael McNulty (D-NY), Martin Meehan (D-MA), Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Collin Peterson (D-MN), Steve Rothman (D-NJ), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-OH), Edolphus Towns (D-NY), Peter Visclosky (D-IN), Diane Watson (D-CA), Henry Waxman (D-CA), and Anthony Weiner (D-NY).

On February 11th, Representatives McCotter, Napolitano, Schiff and Sherman pressed Secretary of State Colin Powell to explain the Administration’s reasoning for the proposed break in Armenia-Azerbaijan military parity in spoken and written statements submitted during his testimony before the House International Relations Committee. In a letter to Secretary Powell, Rep. McCotter explained, “With the new untested government in Azerbaijan and the uncertainty they have brought to the peace process, the continuation of the Armenia-Azerbaijan military aid parity agreement means even more today than when it was first put in place. By tilting the military balance toward the Azerbaijani leadership, they may be emboldened to carry out threats of a military solution to the Nagorno Karabagh conflict.”

Prior to FY 2002, military assistance to Azerbaijan was prohibited according to Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, a provision that restricted U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan due to its ongoing blockades of Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh. Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Azerbaijan conditioned its cooperation with the United States in the war against terrorism on the removal of Section 907. In response, the Administration pressed Congress to provide the President with the authority to waive Section 907 annually. Part of the understanding reached between the White House and Congress was an unwritten agreement that military aid levels to Armenia and Azerbaijan would remain even. As a result of this agreement, in FY02, FY03 and FY04 the military aid levels proposed by the Administration and appropriated by Congress have been identical.

Upon the release of the President’s FY 2005 budget proposal, the ANCA issued a briefing paper, distributed to Congressional offices and other elements of the Washington, DC foreign policy community, outlining the negative implications of the budget figures for stability in the Caucasus and the prospects for a negotiated settlement of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict.

The President’s FY 2005 budget allows both Armenia and Azerbaijan to receive Excess Defense Articles (EDA). These are surplus or obsolete U.S. weapons that are given away for free or at a dramatically reduced cost to foreign governments.

The full text of the Congressional letter to President Bush follows.

TEXT OF CONGRESSIONAL LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH

February 24, 2004

Sincerely,