Global ARM Publishes 10 Point Plan for Immediate Congressional Action in Wake of Azeri Attacks, Armenia’s Western Pivot – Global ARM

October 18, 2023

Breaking

See 10 Point Plan for Congressional Action
Plan Consolidates Key Elements of Pending Bills in the Senate and House (S. 3000, S. 2900, H.R. 5683, H.R. 5686)

US Joins Joint Statement on Nagorno-Karabakh at UN Human Rights Council

Calls on Azerbaijan to Ensure the Rights and Security of Remained Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, Guarantee and Protect their Cultural and Religious Heritage

Urges Azerbaijan to Comply with the Interim Measures Issued by the ECHR on 22 September and the Provisional Measures of the ICJ Adopted on 7 December 2021, 22 February 2023 and 6 July 2023

Read the Joint Statement Here

Armenia Premier Receives Strong Support from European Parliament

Armenia Signals Readiness to Sign a Peace Deal with Baku by the End of Year

1,016 Armenian Citizens are Currently Considered Missing

Armenia is ready for Releasing All Prisoners, Captives and Detained Persons, in the Principle ‘All for All’

Armenia Urges ICJ to Impose New Interim Orders on

Azerbaijan for Ethnic Cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh

Calls on Azerbaijan to Release POWs and Others Kidnapped by Aliyev

Demands Azerbaijan Not Destroy Armenian Religious and Cultural Sites

‘Armenians made up an overwhelming majority in Nagorno-Karabakh,’ Armenia’s representative told the ICJ. ‘Today there are almost no ethnic Armenians left in Karabakh. If this is not ethnic cleansing, then what is?’

Despite Threats from Moscow, Armenian President Signs Ratification of ICC Membership

Another Corruption Scandal Linked to Azerbaijan Emerges at Oxford University

The Oxford Nizami Ganjavi Centre (ONGC) is funded by an anonymous £10 million donation and has on its board the sister-in-law of President Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s autocratic ruler. The makeup of the center’s board and the University’s refusal to identify the donor have drawn criticism from academics concerned about the preservation of academic freedom.

U.S. Congress

Frank Pallone: Aliyev is moving forward with his objective to take Southern Armenia. I’ve urged US State Department to take concrete action against Azerbaijan, including sanctions

Brad Sherman: America Must Airlift Appropriate Weapons to Armenia Now

Patty Murray: What’s happening in Nagorno-Karabakh is a horrific humanitarian crisis. I stand with the ethnic Armenians who have been forced to flee their homes and will continue pushing for humanitarian assistance and peace in the region

Nagorno-Karabakh

France to Introduce UN Security Council Resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh

‘Azerbaijan planned and organized the exodus of more than 100,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. This is a crime that cannot remain unanswered,’ Colonna said.

PACE Calls on Azerbaijan to ‘Prove Its Goodwill’ Towards the Armenian Population of Nagorno-Karabakh

In a resolution PACE regretted the ‘long-standing and continuing failure on the part of the authorities of Azerbaijan to reassure the Armenian population of the region of their safety and the full respect of their rights’.

PACE recalled the most recent decision of the ECHR of 22 September 2023 to indicate interim measures under Rule 39 of its Rules in respect of Azerbaijan and urges Azerbaijan to implement them without further delay.

Read the Full Resolution

Photos of the week

Five children who lost their parents in Nagorno-Karabakh with their 86-year-old grandmother.

A view of laundry hanging on clotheslines at an abandoned residential area in Nagorno-Karabakh after the ethnic cleansing that led to the forced deporationt of over 100,000 Armenians by Azerbaijan.

Pope Calls Attention to Humanitarian Crisis in Nagorno- Karabakh

Pope Francis expressed concern about the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno Karabakh and the serious humanitarian conditions affecting 120,000 Artsakh’s forcibly displaced Armenian Christians. Pope Francis also appealed for the protection of the monasteries and places of worship, expressions of faith and signs of fraternity.

GOP Presidential Candidate Ramaswamy Condemns Azerbaijani Atrocities Against Armenians in Tucker Carlson Interview

‘What is happening is an atrocity. I mean, the Armenian people, the Christians, 100,000-120,000 people have moved to Armenia today from the places they called home.’

Kidnapped Karabakh Patient’s Sham Trial on Fabricated Charges Begins in Baku Vagif Khachatryan, who in July was kidnapped by Azerbaijani border guards during his evacuation from Nagorno-Karabakh by the ICRC, appeared in a Baku court for a preliminary hearing to face fabricated charged. Armenia’s Ambassador At-Large Edmon Marukyan said that all existing proceedings in Azerbaijan are a farce, a mockery of the European Convention and a violation of all universally accepted international norms in the context of all obligations undertaken by Azerbaijan itself. Foreign ministry spokesperson Siranush Badakyan called the legal proceedings in Baku a ‘Sham Trial.’ Read More Here

Louis Bono in Azerbaijan, Discusses ‘U.S. Support for the Parties in Reaching a Durable and Dignified Peace’

France Contributes €1 Million to WFP for Armenia Response Efforts Following Nagorno-Karabakh Exodus

Security

France May Have Forced America’s Hand (In A Good Way) InThe South Caucasus By Julian McBride France’s growing relations with Armenia can serve as a conduit for increasing American diplomatic and military aid for the next several years, as the actions of Turkey and Azerbaijan have put the U.S. Military support for these nations under question. Putin has quietly grown closer to Azerbaijan, whose gas offers a way to evade Western sanctions, whereas Armenia has drifted West, with French diplomacy being a prime engagement factor. With Russian influence waning, the West can finally begin to integrate a key country in a region it ignored after the Soviet Union’s collapse.

State Department Denies Blinken Warned About Risk of Azerbaijan Attacking Armenia The U.S. State Department has denied a Politico report saying that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has not ruled out the possibility that Azerbaijan will invade Armenia in the coming weeks. ‘The United States strongly supports Armenia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We have stressed that any infringement of that sovereignty and territorial integrity would bring serious consequences. The reporting in this article is inaccurate and in no way reflects what Secretary Blinken said to lawmakers,’ Miller said.

PACE: Strong Evidence Azerbaijan Used Pegasus Spyware During Conflict with Armenia

The Assembly further noted that Azerbaijan has used Pegasus, including against journalists, independent media owners and civil society activists. Recent reports have disclosed its use in connection with the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, against 12

persons working in Armenia, including an Armenian government official, in what appears to be an example of transnational targeted surveillance.

Read the Full PACE Resolution

Opinion

After Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan Eyes a Strategic Strip of Armenia By Francesca Ebel Aliyev has signaled that Baku would use force to seize the corridor if the 2020 deal is not upheld. “We will implement the Zangezur corridor, whether Armenia wants it or not,” he said in 2021. ”I think the threat of a flare-up is very real,” said Stefan Meister, a South Caucasus expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations. “The Azerbaijanis have a maximalist approach..If they can take it, they will do it.’ Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe who specializes in the region, said there are ”two competing visions for the same east-west route,” with Armenia backed by the West, and Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey aligned together.

Historical Shadows from the Rwandan Genocide to Karabakh’s Ongoing Conflict
By Julian McBride

Today, the world has failed to learn from its historical mistakes, and just as bureaucracy let down the Rwandans, the Armenians of Karabakh are facing similar suffering. As Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia said in a speech to the League of Nations after the Italian

invasion: “It is us today. It will be you tomorrow.”

Apply Magnitsky Act Sanctions to Israeli Arms Exporters By Michael Rubin Just as Congressmen demand Washington reconsider its relationship with Qatar, a state that effectively serves as Hamas’ banker, so too do representatives and senators demand the Biden administration cut off military aid to Azerbaijan. Frankly, both steps are long overdue, but if the goal is to prevent further Azerbaijani aggression and to compel the withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces from dozens of square miles they occupy in Armenia proper, it is also necessary to sanction the Israeli enablers of Azerbaijani aggression and ethnic cleansing. While defending Israel in its existential struggle is right, such support should not mean sacrificing the world’s oldest Christian state. Standing up to racist aggression should not be an either-or prospect; we can do both. This is why it is necessary to target Israeli individuals complicit in Azerbaijan’s genocide with Magnitsky Act sanctions. Read More Here

What Cultural Genocide Looks Like for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh
By Christina Maranci

This is how cultural genocide plays out. A little more than 100 years
ago was the Armenian Genocide waged by the Ottoman Empire,
followed by largescale looting, vandalization, and destruction of
Armenian sites across what is now modern-day Turkey. The prospect of a second cultural genocide is now on the table. Except now, Armenians will watch the spectacle unfold online, enduring the trauma site by site and monument by monument.

Azerbaijan Must Be Held Accountable

By Stephan Pechdimaldji

The United States has a long history of inaction on genocide. If Biden wants to change that narrative and live up to the principles of the U.N. Chater, then he will do what is right and hold Azerbaijan accountable. Until then, we can expect more violence and hostility in the South Caucasus.

Joe Biden Is Weak And America’s Enemies Are Taking Advantage
By Michael Rubin

Consider Azerbaijan: President Ilham Aliyev recently showed the
Biden administration to be a paper tiger. Just days after Acting
Assistant Secretary of State Yuri Kim declared before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, “We will not tolerate any attack on the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.” When Azerbaijani tanks and troops marched forward, taking full control over the mountainous territory for the first time in Azerbaijan’s history and uprooting its indigenous Armenian community, Biden went silent.