March 16, 2022 - 18:06 AMT
ANCA requests meeting with Biden, restriction on aid to Azerbaijan

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is calling for a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss his upcoming decision, expected in the coming weeks, to waive or enforce Section 907 – a longstanding statutory restriction on US aid to Azerbaijan’s Aliyev regime.

“President Biden owes all Americans – especially those of Armenian heritage – a fair hearing and full explanation of his decision to greenlight US military aid to Azerbaijan’s openly anti-Armenian Aliyev government, in the wake of Baku’s 2020 ethnic cleansing of Artsakh and amid its ongoing attacks across the Armenian homeland,” said ANCA chairman Raffi Hamparian. “In the interests of accountability and transparency, we seek this meeting – prior to any determination the President makes regarding future US aid to Azerbaijan – to ensure that he hears personally and explores openly the adverse security and humanitarian implications of providing even a single dollar of American tax-payer funded aid or arms to the Aliyev regime.”

In a letter dated March 14, Hamparian requested an in-person meeting, underscoring that President Biden’s waiver has compounded “the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to condemn Azerbaijan’s aggression or hold its dictatorial Aliyev regime accountable for documented war crimes, violations of international law, and U.S. arms export controls.”