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ANCA CALLS FOR INCREASED ARTSAKH AID DURING CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY
Thursday, March 26th, 2015 | Posted by Contributor
ANCA Government Affairs Director Kate Nahapetian testifies before
the U.S. House Foreign Aid Panel
Government Affairs Director Kate Nahapetian Advocates for Full Range
of Armenian American Foreign Aid Priorities
WASHINGTON--Armenian National Committee of America Government Affairs
Director Kate Nahapetian testified yesterday before a key Congressional
panel in support of increased U.S. assistance to Nagorno Karabakh,
Armenia, at-risk Middle Eastern Armenian communities, and the Javakhk
region of Georgia.
In her opening remarks, Nahapetian thanked House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Foreign Operations Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-TX),
Ranking Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), and their colleagues for the
vital role of the U.S. Congress in supporting Artsakh with direct
aid, while also noting that much more needs to be done. Nahapetian
stressed: "According to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the war caused
an estimated over $5 billion in damages. More than twenty years since
the cease-fire established in 1994, Karabakh is still suffering from
significant infrastructure damage, including the shortage of safe
drinking water. In addition, Nagorno Karabakh continues to suffer
one of the highest per capita landmine accidents in the world."
Nahapetian's calls come in the face of disturbing reports from Capitol
Hill sources of budget pressure and aggressive lobbying efforts by
the increasingly undemocratic government of Azerbaijan to cut Nagorno
Karabakh assistance. The ANCA has initiated an online campaign --
anca.org/foreignaid - urging Senate and House members to expand Artsakh
assistance and support a range of other ANCA foreign aid priorities.
During her remarks before the U.S. House panel responsible for foreign
aid, Nahapetian explained that the support of Congress for a series of
seven funding and policy-related provisions will represent a strategic
investment in strengthening U.S. diplomacy, advancing our national
interests, and promoting core American values in the Caucasus region.
Other organizations testifying before the influential House foreign
aid panel on Caucasus concerns included the Armenian Assembly of
America and U.S. Azerbaijan Network.
The full text of the ANCA's written testimony is provided below.
The Armenian American Community & U.S. Foreign Assistance Policy For
Fiscal Year 2016
Presented by Kate Nahapetian - Government Affairs Director Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA)
The Armenian American community requests:
1. At least $5 million in U.S. developmental aid to Nagorno Karabakh.
2. Zero-out U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan until it agrees with OSCE
Minsk Group calls to pull back its snipers, ceases its aggression,
renounces violence, and commits to a purely peaceful resolution of
regional conflicts.
3. At least $40 million in U.S. economic assistance to Armenia.
4. A special focus on addressing the difficulties in providing
humanitarian and resettlement aid to Armenian, Assyrian and other
at-risk minorities in Syria, as well as targeted aid to help Armenia
settle thousands fleeing from Syria.
5. At least 10% of U.S. assistance to Georgia to be used for job
creation programs in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of that country.
6. Language strengthening Section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to
Azerbaijan.
7. Ending the Exclusion of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh from the
peace process:
1. At least $5 million in development assistance for Nagorno Karabakh:
Since FY 1998, direct U.S. aid to Nagorno Karabakh has represented a
powerful investment in peace and an enduring expression of America's
leadership in supporting a negotiated and democratic resolution
of security and status issues related to the Republic of Nagorno
Karabakh. This direct aid has met pressing humanitarian needs,
providing, most recently, desperately needed clean water to families
and the clearing of villages and farmlands of mines and unexploded
ordnance. According to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the war caused
an estimated over $5 billion in damages. More than twenty years since
the cease-fire established in 1994, Karabakh is still suffering from
significant infrastructure damage, including the shortage of safe
drinking water. In addition, Nagorno Karabakh continues to suffer
one of the highest per capita landmine accidents in the world.
We urge the Subcommittee to expand this vital assistance program,
to support a needy population that has strived mightily, against
aggression and blockades, to build a strong democracy, develop a
free market economy, and work toward an enduring peace for all the
peoples of this region. Since 1991, Nagorno Karabakh has successfully
conducted five parliamentary and five presidential elections -
that have been praised by international observers as free, fair and
transparent. The most recent presidential election held in July 2012
was favorably received by more than 80 international observers from
two dozen countries, including the United States.
We specifically encourage the Department of State and USAID to fund, at
the earliest opportunity, a comprehensive humanitarian and development
needs assessment for the coming five years.
2. Suspension of U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan: The Azerbaijani
government of Ilham Aliyev neither needs nor deserves American military
aid. It does not serve our national interests or advance our values
to provide aid to a military whose leadership frequently threatens to
start a new war and regularly launches cross-border attacks not only
into Nagorno Karabakh, but also Armenia, a NATO Partnership for Peace
country, where border villages report being under siege by growing
sniper fire from Azerbaijan.
In addition to threatening to renew full-scale hostilities, President
Aliyev refuses U.S. and international calls to pull back snipers, has
made land claims on all of Armenia, and openly incites anti-Armenian
hatred, including against Americans of Armenian descent. Our State
Department warns that not all Americans are safe in Azerbaijan,
noting that Americans of Armenian heritage will likely be denied a
visa, because Azerbaijan cannot guarantee their safety.
As was widely reported in the international media, on August 31, 2012,
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev personally pardoned an unrepentant,
convicted axe-murderer for killing a NATO Partnership for Peace
participant (while he slept) because he was Armenian. Immediately
after his pardon, this convicted killer received a promotion in the
Azerbaijani military, an apartment, and years of back pay for his
prison time. The pardon was condemned around the world, including by
President Obama, Members of Congress, the European Parliament, OSCE,
Council of Europe, and NATO.
Azerbaijan's regional aggression is closely tied to its pattern of
domestic abuse, including its brutal crack-down on dissent. As is well
known by this panel, government forces have raided and shut down the
offices of U.S.-supported Radio Free Europe, unjustly imprisoned a
Radio Free Europe reporter, as well as several other civil society
leaders, including Arif and Leyla Yunus, who supported U.S. calls
to promote Armenia-Azerbaijan Track II dialogue and have been denied
medical care during their pretrial detention.
We respectfully call upon the Subcommittee to suspend the appropriation
of Fiscal Year 2015 U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan until its
government agrees to pull back its snipers, ceases cross-border
attacks, ends its threats of renewed war, and agrees to a settlement
of regional conflicts through peaceful means alone.
3. At least $40 million in Assistance to Armenia: As members of the
Subcommittee know, Armenia, a crucial ally in a strategic region of
the world, has extended robust support for U.S.-led peace-keeping
deployments in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo, and is cooperating with
the U.S. on a broad range of regional and security challenges. In June
2011, as countries were pulling out of Afghanistan, Armenia actually
tripled its troop deployment there. In February 2014, Armenia pledged
to keep its military contingent in Afghanistan even after NATO's
mission is concluded in order to support the U.S.-led alliance to
train and assist the Afghan army. Armenian Defense Minister Seyran
Ohanian stated that Armenia is committed to "continuous contribution to
coalition efforts to establish lasting security in Afghanistan." In
addition, Armenia is regularly ranked highly by the Wall Street
Journal/ Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom.
At the same time, the people of landlocked Armenia, the world's first
Christian state, continue to face the devastating impact of Turkey and
Azerbaijan's dual economic blockades. Our assistance has played a vital
role in helping alleviate these blockades (among the longest in modern
history) and promoting Armenia's free market system and democratic
development. It is for this reason that we ask the Subcommittee to
appropriate no less than $40 million in overall FY15 economic aid
(including Economic Support Fund, International Narcotics Control
and Law Enforcement, and Global Health Programs) for Armenia.
4. Assistance to Christian and other minority communities in and from
Syria: As has been widely reported, more than ten thousand from Syria
have sought safe-haven in Armenia, a state, which despite being one
of the poorest nations accepting Syrian refugees, has only received
very modest levels of U.S. and international relief and resettlement
assistance. Armenia has generously provided full citizenship rights
to Armenian Syrian refugees.
We ask the Subcommittee to instruct the State Department and USAID
to ensure the allocation to Armenia of a proportional level of the U.S.
and international aid supporting the efforts to regional states to
resettle those fleeing from Syria.
We remain troubled that distribution gaps in need-based international
aid deliveries to Aleppo and throughout Syria have resulted in
desperately needed food, medicine, and other relief supplies not
reaching Armenians, Christian communities, and other at-risk and
vulnerable minorities. We ask the Subcommittee to formally call upon
the Administration to put in place policies and practices to ensure
that need-based aid reaches all at-risk populations.
5. Assistance to the Javakhk Region in Georgia: We join with the
Congressional Armenian Caucus in encouraging the Subcommittee,
as part of a robust U.S. aid package to Georgia, to ensure that
10% of U.S. assistance to Georgia is targeted to the largely
Armenian-populated region of Samtskhe-Javakheti (Javakhk) in
south-central Georgia, including funding for badly-needed job-creation
programs and ongoing improvements to transportation and communication
infrastructure.
6. Strengthening Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act: Enacted in
1992, Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act stands as a statutory
expression of U.S. opposition to Azerbaijan's blockades and other
aggressive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.
Since its enactment, Azerbaijan has not lifted its illegal blockades
and has ignored House Appropriations Committee Report language opposing
its destabilizing threats. The Congress should limit the President's
waiver authority in the face of these provocations by Baku by adding
the following certification requirement, effectively narrowing the
President's waiver authority: "In the last fiscal year, Azerbaijan has
not taken hostile action, either through military force or incitement,
including but not limited to threatening pronouncements by government
officials toward Armenia or Nagorno Karabakh, and has both stated and
demonstrated its commitment to pursuing a lasting peace with Armenia
and Nagorno Karabakh through solely non-violent means."
7. Ending the Exclusion of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh from the
Peace Process: The best and most sustainable path to peace requires
direct engagement with the people and government of Nagorno Karabakh,
whose fate and future are the subject of ongoing talks and whose
security will rest on the outcome of these negotiations. As is well
know, the Nagorno Karabakh Republic was one of the three parties
to the 1994 cease-fire, which ended military hostilities between
Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. In its aftermath, Nagorno Karabakh
participated in the OSCE Minsk Group peace process as a partner, along
with Armenia and Azerbaijan. Since 1998, however, at Baku's insistence,
Nagorno Karabakh has been excluded from the peace process. Nagorno
Karabakh should, in the interests of peace and common sense, be a
full participant in all talks regarding its very future.
In addition to these seven specific priorities, we would like, in
closing to add a final thought about the future of the U.S.-Armenia
economic relationship. In light of the downward trend in U.S. economic
aid to Armenia, we encourage the Subcommittee to encourage the
Administration to prioritize bilateral U.S.-Armenia trade and
investment promotion, including through the negotiation of a Trade
and Investment Framework Agreement, a Double Tax Treaty, and other
economic accords. The American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia and the
ANCA have formally called for expanding economic relations through
such agreements, as have U.S. businesses operating in Armenia, among
them Microsoft, FedEx, NASDAQ and Marriot.
The ANCA, as always, looks forward to working with the Subcommittee
to strengthen the U.S.-Armenia alliance and to promote stability in
the region.
http://asbarez.com/133372/anca-calls-for-increased-artsakh-aid-during-congressional-testimony/
From: A. Papazian
Thursday, March 26th, 2015 | Posted by Contributor
ANCA Government Affairs Director Kate Nahapetian testifies before
the U.S. House Foreign Aid Panel
Government Affairs Director Kate Nahapetian Advocates for Full Range
of Armenian American Foreign Aid Priorities
WASHINGTON--Armenian National Committee of America Government Affairs
Director Kate Nahapetian testified yesterday before a key Congressional
panel in support of increased U.S. assistance to Nagorno Karabakh,
Armenia, at-risk Middle Eastern Armenian communities, and the Javakhk
region of Georgia.
In her opening remarks, Nahapetian thanked House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Foreign Operations Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-TX),
Ranking Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), and their colleagues for the
vital role of the U.S. Congress in supporting Artsakh with direct
aid, while also noting that much more needs to be done. Nahapetian
stressed: "According to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the war caused
an estimated over $5 billion in damages. More than twenty years since
the cease-fire established in 1994, Karabakh is still suffering from
significant infrastructure damage, including the shortage of safe
drinking water. In addition, Nagorno Karabakh continues to suffer
one of the highest per capita landmine accidents in the world."
Nahapetian's calls come in the face of disturbing reports from Capitol
Hill sources of budget pressure and aggressive lobbying efforts by
the increasingly undemocratic government of Azerbaijan to cut Nagorno
Karabakh assistance. The ANCA has initiated an online campaign --
anca.org/foreignaid - urging Senate and House members to expand Artsakh
assistance and support a range of other ANCA foreign aid priorities.
During her remarks before the U.S. House panel responsible for foreign
aid, Nahapetian explained that the support of Congress for a series of
seven funding and policy-related provisions will represent a strategic
investment in strengthening U.S. diplomacy, advancing our national
interests, and promoting core American values in the Caucasus region.
Other organizations testifying before the influential House foreign
aid panel on Caucasus concerns included the Armenian Assembly of
America and U.S. Azerbaijan Network.
The full text of the ANCA's written testimony is provided below.
The Armenian American Community & U.S. Foreign Assistance Policy For
Fiscal Year 2016
Presented by Kate Nahapetian - Government Affairs Director Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA)
The Armenian American community requests:
1. At least $5 million in U.S. developmental aid to Nagorno Karabakh.
2. Zero-out U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan until it agrees with OSCE
Minsk Group calls to pull back its snipers, ceases its aggression,
renounces violence, and commits to a purely peaceful resolution of
regional conflicts.
3. At least $40 million in U.S. economic assistance to Armenia.
4. A special focus on addressing the difficulties in providing
humanitarian and resettlement aid to Armenian, Assyrian and other
at-risk minorities in Syria, as well as targeted aid to help Armenia
settle thousands fleeing from Syria.
5. At least 10% of U.S. assistance to Georgia to be used for job
creation programs in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of that country.
6. Language strengthening Section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to
Azerbaijan.
7. Ending the Exclusion of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh from the
peace process:
1. At least $5 million in development assistance for Nagorno Karabakh:
Since FY 1998, direct U.S. aid to Nagorno Karabakh has represented a
powerful investment in peace and an enduring expression of America's
leadership in supporting a negotiated and democratic resolution
of security and status issues related to the Republic of Nagorno
Karabakh. This direct aid has met pressing humanitarian needs,
providing, most recently, desperately needed clean water to families
and the clearing of villages and farmlands of mines and unexploded
ordnance. According to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the war caused
an estimated over $5 billion in damages. More than twenty years since
the cease-fire established in 1994, Karabakh is still suffering from
significant infrastructure damage, including the shortage of safe
drinking water. In addition, Nagorno Karabakh continues to suffer
one of the highest per capita landmine accidents in the world.
We urge the Subcommittee to expand this vital assistance program,
to support a needy population that has strived mightily, against
aggression and blockades, to build a strong democracy, develop a
free market economy, and work toward an enduring peace for all the
peoples of this region. Since 1991, Nagorno Karabakh has successfully
conducted five parliamentary and five presidential elections -
that have been praised by international observers as free, fair and
transparent. The most recent presidential election held in July 2012
was favorably received by more than 80 international observers from
two dozen countries, including the United States.
We specifically encourage the Department of State and USAID to fund, at
the earliest opportunity, a comprehensive humanitarian and development
needs assessment for the coming five years.
2. Suspension of U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan: The Azerbaijani
government of Ilham Aliyev neither needs nor deserves American military
aid. It does not serve our national interests or advance our values
to provide aid to a military whose leadership frequently threatens to
start a new war and regularly launches cross-border attacks not only
into Nagorno Karabakh, but also Armenia, a NATO Partnership for Peace
country, where border villages report being under siege by growing
sniper fire from Azerbaijan.
In addition to threatening to renew full-scale hostilities, President
Aliyev refuses U.S. and international calls to pull back snipers, has
made land claims on all of Armenia, and openly incites anti-Armenian
hatred, including against Americans of Armenian descent. Our State
Department warns that not all Americans are safe in Azerbaijan,
noting that Americans of Armenian heritage will likely be denied a
visa, because Azerbaijan cannot guarantee their safety.
As was widely reported in the international media, on August 31, 2012,
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev personally pardoned an unrepentant,
convicted axe-murderer for killing a NATO Partnership for Peace
participant (while he slept) because he was Armenian. Immediately
after his pardon, this convicted killer received a promotion in the
Azerbaijani military, an apartment, and years of back pay for his
prison time. The pardon was condemned around the world, including by
President Obama, Members of Congress, the European Parliament, OSCE,
Council of Europe, and NATO.
Azerbaijan's regional aggression is closely tied to its pattern of
domestic abuse, including its brutal crack-down on dissent. As is well
known by this panel, government forces have raided and shut down the
offices of U.S.-supported Radio Free Europe, unjustly imprisoned a
Radio Free Europe reporter, as well as several other civil society
leaders, including Arif and Leyla Yunus, who supported U.S. calls
to promote Armenia-Azerbaijan Track II dialogue and have been denied
medical care during their pretrial detention.
We respectfully call upon the Subcommittee to suspend the appropriation
of Fiscal Year 2015 U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan until its
government agrees to pull back its snipers, ceases cross-border
attacks, ends its threats of renewed war, and agrees to a settlement
of regional conflicts through peaceful means alone.
3. At least $40 million in Assistance to Armenia: As members of the
Subcommittee know, Armenia, a crucial ally in a strategic region of
the world, has extended robust support for U.S.-led peace-keeping
deployments in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo, and is cooperating with
the U.S. on a broad range of regional and security challenges. In June
2011, as countries were pulling out of Afghanistan, Armenia actually
tripled its troop deployment there. In February 2014, Armenia pledged
to keep its military contingent in Afghanistan even after NATO's
mission is concluded in order to support the U.S.-led alliance to
train and assist the Afghan army. Armenian Defense Minister Seyran
Ohanian stated that Armenia is committed to "continuous contribution to
coalition efforts to establish lasting security in Afghanistan." In
addition, Armenia is regularly ranked highly by the Wall Street
Journal/ Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom.
At the same time, the people of landlocked Armenia, the world's first
Christian state, continue to face the devastating impact of Turkey and
Azerbaijan's dual economic blockades. Our assistance has played a vital
role in helping alleviate these blockades (among the longest in modern
history) and promoting Armenia's free market system and democratic
development. It is for this reason that we ask the Subcommittee to
appropriate no less than $40 million in overall FY15 economic aid
(including Economic Support Fund, International Narcotics Control
and Law Enforcement, and Global Health Programs) for Armenia.
4. Assistance to Christian and other minority communities in and from
Syria: As has been widely reported, more than ten thousand from Syria
have sought safe-haven in Armenia, a state, which despite being one
of the poorest nations accepting Syrian refugees, has only received
very modest levels of U.S. and international relief and resettlement
assistance. Armenia has generously provided full citizenship rights
to Armenian Syrian refugees.
We ask the Subcommittee to instruct the State Department and USAID
to ensure the allocation to Armenia of a proportional level of the U.S.
and international aid supporting the efforts to regional states to
resettle those fleeing from Syria.
We remain troubled that distribution gaps in need-based international
aid deliveries to Aleppo and throughout Syria have resulted in
desperately needed food, medicine, and other relief supplies not
reaching Armenians, Christian communities, and other at-risk and
vulnerable minorities. We ask the Subcommittee to formally call upon
the Administration to put in place policies and practices to ensure
that need-based aid reaches all at-risk populations.
5. Assistance to the Javakhk Region in Georgia: We join with the
Congressional Armenian Caucus in encouraging the Subcommittee,
as part of a robust U.S. aid package to Georgia, to ensure that
10% of U.S. assistance to Georgia is targeted to the largely
Armenian-populated region of Samtskhe-Javakheti (Javakhk) in
south-central Georgia, including funding for badly-needed job-creation
programs and ongoing improvements to transportation and communication
infrastructure.
6. Strengthening Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act: Enacted in
1992, Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act stands as a statutory
expression of U.S. opposition to Azerbaijan's blockades and other
aggressive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.
Since its enactment, Azerbaijan has not lifted its illegal blockades
and has ignored House Appropriations Committee Report language opposing
its destabilizing threats. The Congress should limit the President's
waiver authority in the face of these provocations by Baku by adding
the following certification requirement, effectively narrowing the
President's waiver authority: "In the last fiscal year, Azerbaijan has
not taken hostile action, either through military force or incitement,
including but not limited to threatening pronouncements by government
officials toward Armenia or Nagorno Karabakh, and has both stated and
demonstrated its commitment to pursuing a lasting peace with Armenia
and Nagorno Karabakh through solely non-violent means."
7. Ending the Exclusion of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh from the
Peace Process: The best and most sustainable path to peace requires
direct engagement with the people and government of Nagorno Karabakh,
whose fate and future are the subject of ongoing talks and whose
security will rest on the outcome of these negotiations. As is well
know, the Nagorno Karabakh Republic was one of the three parties
to the 1994 cease-fire, which ended military hostilities between
Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. In its aftermath, Nagorno Karabakh
participated in the OSCE Minsk Group peace process as a partner, along
with Armenia and Azerbaijan. Since 1998, however, at Baku's insistence,
Nagorno Karabakh has been excluded from the peace process. Nagorno
Karabakh should, in the interests of peace and common sense, be a
full participant in all talks regarding its very future.
In addition to these seven specific priorities, we would like, in
closing to add a final thought about the future of the U.S.-Armenia
economic relationship. In light of the downward trend in U.S. economic
aid to Armenia, we encourage the Subcommittee to encourage the
Administration to prioritize bilateral U.S.-Armenia trade and
investment promotion, including through the negotiation of a Trade
and Investment Framework Agreement, a Double Tax Treaty, and other
economic accords. The American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia and the
ANCA have formally called for expanding economic relations through
such agreements, as have U.S. businesses operating in Armenia, among
them Microsoft, FedEx, NASDAQ and Marriot.
The ANCA, as always, looks forward to working with the Subcommittee
to strengthen the U.S.-Armenia alliance and to promote stability in
the region.
http://asbarez.com/133372/anca-calls-for-increased-artsakh-aid-during-congressional-testimony/
From: A. Papazian