The Armenian Council of America welcomes the recent signing of the joint declaration by Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the United States’ direct engagement in the peace process.
We are cautiously optimistic that sustained and principled U.S. engagement can lead to a just, lasting peace agreement and the full lifting of the economic blockade imposed on Armenia by both Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Any final agreement must include clear enforcement mechanisms and binding security guarantees for Armenia, to ensure accountability should Azerbaijan violate the terms of the agreement. In this regard, it is a serious mistake for the U.S. Congress to discard Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act.
Furthermore, the United States must do more to press Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to release all Armenian prisoners of war still held in Baku and to withdraw forces from their illegal occupation of sovereign Armenian territory.
The U.S. also has a moral imperative to guarantee the safe and dignified return of displaced Armenians to their indigenous homeland of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Anything less would fall short of the principles of justice and human rights that the United States claims to uphold.
