Assembly hails Rep. Shiff’s call to cut U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian Assembly of America welcomed Representative Adam Schiff’s call to cut military aid to Azerbaijan.

On December 4, House Appropriations Committee Member, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), called on the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittees in the House and Senate to cut all security assistance to Azerbaijan in response to President Ilham Aliyev's exoneration of Ramil Safarov, the Azerbaijani army captain who brutally murdered Armenian army lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan during a NATO Partnership for Peace Program in 2004 in Hungary. Safarov was serving a life sentence at the time of his September release to Azerbaijan and was immediately pardoned by Aliyev.

In a strongly-worded letter, Schiff accused Azerbaijan of committing "the most terrible subversion of justice" by making a national hero out of a cold-blooded killer.

Congressman Schiff went on to say that Aliyev's action "exposes a fundamental contempt for the rule of law...It also poisons relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the ethnic Armenian territory of Nagorno-Karabakh."

"The Assembly remains deeply concerned about Azerbaijan's ongoing war mongering, and its unconscionable pardon of Ramil Safarov who brutally murdered an Armenian soldier at a NATO Partnership for Peace exercise in Hungary," said the Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny.

Upon learning of Safarov's pardon and promotion by Azerbaijan's leaders, the Assembly immediately weighed in with the Obama Administration and U.S. State Department. Subsequently both the National Security Council (NSC) and State Department issued statements of concern and condemnation. Conveying President Obama's deep concern, the NSC noted that "this action is contrary to ongoing efforts to reduce regional tensions and promote reconciliation."

Congressman Schiff's timely letter arrives as the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues is hosting a Capitol Hill observance of the 21st anniversary of the Karabakh independence referendum and 6th anniversary of the adoption of the Karabakh constitution on December 5 evening.