Congress calls for sanctions on Azerbaijan after military takeover of disputed region

Nearly 100 House and Senate lawmakers signed a letter to the State Department calling for sanctions against military officials in Azerbaijan after the country took over an independent mountainous region that is home to tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians who are now fleeing the territory.

Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) led 90 lawmakers in penning a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushing for the sanctions against government individuals in Azerbaijan who launched “military attacks against and [a] brutal blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh,” the disputed breakaway region.

“These actions represent a gross violation of human rights and the perpetration of violent conflict, which both pose a direct assault on American values and interests,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “The perpetrators of these human rights violations must be held to account by the United States.”

In just 24 hours last week, Azerbaijan forced an independent, de facto government in the Nagorno-Karabakh region to surrender after forces launched a surprise lightning advance.

The government, known as the Republic of Artsakh, was not recognized internationally but had ruled in the region, home to 120,000 ethnic Armenians, for about three decades.

Azerbaijan says it will not harm ethnic Armenians, but government officials in Armenia have warned of an ethnic cleansing and tens of thousands are now fleeing the region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have feuded over Karabakh for close to a century and fought a war over the region that led to a 1994 ceasefire, which largely handed territory to Armenia.

Azerbaijan, led by President Ilham Aliyev, reclaimed more territory in a brief war in 2020 and has now assumed full control after last week’s advance. The Republic of Artsakh announced it would dissolve Thursday.

A U.S. envoy arrived in Armenia earlier this week as Washington pushes to end hostilities and help refugees fleeing from the conflict.

In the letter, lawmakers expressed concern that Azerbaijan blocked the Lachin Corridor, the only route connecting Armenia to Karabakh, for about nine months, which deprived ethnic Armenians of movement and access to critical supplies.

They also noted an explosion at a gas station this week killed at least 68 people, with 105 still missing.

“America is a world leader on international human rights and must continue to serve as a mediating force and supporter of peace in the region,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter, calling “to impose targeted sanctions on the individuals in the Aliyev government that are responsible for or participated in the violation of human rights in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

The clash in Karabakh has brought renewed attention to the plight of Armenians. Both American media personality Kim Kardashian and singer Cher have called for White House action against Azerbaijan.

But the U.S. is also coming under fire from Armenian supporters, who have said Washington looked the other way as Azerbaijan blockaded the Lachin Corridor.

The Armenian National Committee of America said the U.S. refused to call the blockade a crisis when questioned by Congress. And the committee has frequently accused Washington of arming Azerbaijan.

“There is no other way to put it: the Biden administration has blood on its hands,” Elyse Semerdjian, an Armenian scholar at Clark University, said in a statement.

“For the first time in over two millennia, no Armenian will be living in the mountain enclave that is home to some of the most ancient Christian heritage in the world. This is President Biden’s legacy.”