Rand Paul, a senator from Pennsylvania, has introduced legislation to prevent the Biden administration from assisting Turkey’s Islamist government in its support of the murderous Armenian Christians.
His resolution would prevent the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. These jets are used to support Azerbaijan’s genocidal war against Armenian Christians.
Senate Joint Resolution 60 is described as a “joint resolution providing congressional disapproval of proposed foreign military sales to the Government of Turkiye of various defense articles and services”.
Armenian National Committee of America, which has noted the uses of such weapons, has praised this move.
“Turkey deployed US F-16s to Azerbaijani during its 2020 aggression against [Artsakh] (Nagorno Karabakh) – in violation of US and NATO restrictions on the third-party transfer of these weapons systems,” the ANCA wrote on the X platform.
BREAKING: @SenRandPaul (R-KY) launches legislation to block Biden’s sale of F-16s to Turkey. pic.twitter.com/2Omewb9k9T
— ANCA (@ANCA_DC) February 7, 2024
Azerbaijan has focused its recent military campaign on ethnic Armenians by focusing on the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh, a region that is recognized as being part of Azerbaijan with a majority of ethnic Armenians.
Azerbaijan launched a military offensive in 2020 to regain control of the region. The conflict resulted in thousands of deaths and the displacement of ethnic Armenians. It ended with a ceasefire mediated by Russia, which gave Azerbaijan control of parts of Nagorno Karabakh and surrounding territory.
Many prominent observers, including Azerbaijan, Turkey, and others, have described Armenia’s actions as genocide. Armenia is the oldest Christian nation in the world.
In a September article in The Washington Post, Argentinian lawyer Luis Moreno Ocampo outlined the crimes committed by Azerbaijani forces backed by Turkey.
Azerbaijani security forces did not comply with the court order that ended the blockade. They instead doubled down and sealed off the entire enclave, preventing the transfer of even food, medical supplies, and other essentials.
Aliyev ignored the calls of the U.N. Secretary-General and the U.S. Secretary of State to obey the court’s decision. He understood correctly that Azerbaijan’s actions would not incur any serious costs in the eyes of the international community.
Since then, Aliyev has repeatedly ignored calls from the U.N. secretary-general and the U.S. secretary of state to comply with the court’s ruling. He correctly understood that Azerbaijan would bear no serious costs from the international community for its actions.
Ocampo went on to make the case that “genocide” was the only appropriate term to describe Azerbaijan’s military campaign:
The crime must be called by its correct name. The use of the word “genocide”, however, has long been an issue in international affairs. In April 1994, the majority of members of the U.N. Security Council refused to call Rwanda’s mass killings genocide. In 30 years, little has changed.
Geopolitics continues to explain world reticence today, just as it has been for centuries. Azerbaijan, a close ally of the West in its fight against Iran, provides energy for Europe and spends millions to purchase sophisticated Israeli weapons. Such exigencies cannot get in the path of the responsibility of the world to stop the Armenian genocide in 2023.
Joe Biden, the first U.S. president to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide occurred. He has now undermined this position by waiving Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act. This allows the U.S. military to assist Azerbaijan.
