Enforce Section 907:
Stop US Military Aid to Baku
Christian Yerelekian / Armenian National Committee Of America & March to Justice
(June 28, 2022) — We are writing to invite you to join a diverse coalition of organizations opposing any new US military aid to Azerbaijan, an oil-rich country that neither needs nor deserves US tax dollars.
According to a recently commissioned General Accountability Office assessment, successive US administrations have provided over $164,000,000 in military aid to Azerbaijan, materially strengthening and morally emboldening the armed forces of its unelected and unaccountable Aliyev government.
Continuing to send US security or military aid to Azerbaijan — even assistance described as defensive or non-lethal — sends the dangerous signal to the Aliyev government that the United States is indifferent or, even worse, supportive of its violations of human rights. New military or security aid to Azerbaijan poses a serious risk of additional harm to civilians.
We must never, as a nation, be complicit in state-sponsored violence, including the credible reports of Azerbaijani war crimes and human rights violations during and after Baku’s attack on Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) in the fall of 2020. We should, instead, center human rights in our foreign policy — forthrightly confronting Azerbaijan’s consistent pattern of violating internationally recognized human rights — by immediately suspending US security and military assistance.
To date, the following organizations have joined this coalition: American Friends of Kurdistan, Armenian National Committee of America, Assyrian Policy Institute, Christian Solidarity International, Code Pink, Coptic Solidarity, Hellenic American Leadership Council, Hindu American Foundation, In Defense of Christians, Israeli-American Civic Action Network, Jewish World Watch, Middle East Forum, National Council of Churches, and Women for Weapons Trade Transparency.
We would welcome your support and are happy to answer any questions or provide any additional information. To endorse this legislation, simply send us an email at coalition@anca.org.
Send Letters to President Biden and Congress Now!
On June 22nd, the State Department informed Congress that President Biden has once again waived Section 907, allowing for continued US military assistance to Azerbaijan.
Contact President Biden and Congress now to express your concern and take immediate action to:
1) zero-out all appropriations or authorizations of US aid to Azerbaijan
2) enact statutory restrictions on US military aid to Baku
3) strike or significantly tighten the waiver provision of Section 907
ACTION: Send a free ANCA WebMail to President Biden, your Senators, and Representative by simply typing in your name, address, email and phone and clicking “Load Messages.” The ANCA system will automatically share a draft letter you can review and revise. Then, simply click “Send Messages.” taking action by visiting http://anca.org/907
THE LETTER
As an American, I am deeply disappointed that President Biden has, yet again, waived Section 907 restrictions on US aid to Azerbaijan, and demand that Congress take immediate action to cut off all US military assistance to Azerbaijan.
Not a single American taxpayer dollar should ever be shipped to the corrupt, oil-rich regime of Azerbaijan’s violently anti-Armenian regime. To date, we’ve sent this billionaire-run dictatorship over $164,000,000 in military assistance. That has to stop. Now. Not a single dollar more.
As a Member of Congress, I look to you 1) zero-out all appropriations or authorizations of US aid to Azerbaijan, 2) enact statutory restrictions on US military aid to Baku, 3) strike or significantly tighten the waiver provision of Section 907, and 4) publically call upon President Biden to immediately suspend his Section 907 waiver.
As you know, last April — soon after taking office — President Biden (in a 180-degree reversal of this 2020 campaign stand) waived Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, greenlighting continued US military aid to the billionaire Aliyev family. During his run for office, on October 14th of last year, he stated publicly that the United States must “fully implement and not waive requirements under Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act to stop the flow of military equipment to Azerbaijian.”
The President’s reckless decision to lift this statutory restriction came in the wake of Azerbaijan’s ethnic-cleansing of 100,000+ Armenians from Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) and amid Baku’s ongoing attacks and occupation of Armenia’s territory.
President Biden’s decision to waive of Section 907, again, simply emboldens Baku, sending the already aggressive Aliyev the signal that its aggression, invasions, ethnic-cleansing, and occupation will not be met with a principled or powerful American response. In fact, it sends exactly the opposite message — that the US will conduct “business-as-usual” with Azerbaijan’s openly hateful and relentlessly violent Aliyev government.
My family, my friends, my community will never accept that Azerbaijan — despite its brutal killing of Armenian civilians, torture of POWs, and desecration of Christian holy sites — continues to receive US military aid. Instead of sending Azerbaijan assistance, America should be sanctioning both Baku and its ally Ankara for their evil genocidal actions aimed at eradicating the indigenous Armenian homeland.
As Congress considers the FY2023 Foreign Aid Bill and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), I urge you to support amendments which will limit the President’s waiver authority of Section 907 and zero-out military aid to Azerbaijan.
I look forward to hearing back from you on this matter.
Elizabeth Chouldjian Communications Director Armenian National Committee of America 1711 N Street NW Washington, DC 20036 (202) 775-1918 tel elizabeth@anca.org email @anca_elizabeth
