Month: June 2022

President Joe Biden has again waived Section 907 restrictions on U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

Section 907, enacted in 1992, establishes statutory restrictions on US assistance to the Government of Azerbaijan “until the President determines, and so reports to the Congress, that the Government of Azerbaijan is taking demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.” Congress included a Section 907 waiver in the FY2002 Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act. US presidents – Republican and Democrat – have waived Section 907 annually ever since.

During his run for office, on October 14, 2020, then-candidate Biden stated that the United States must “fully implement and not waive requirements under Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act to stop the flow of military equipment to Azerbaijan.”

In a public post on Facebook on Friday, political analyst Suren Sargsyan claimed after the 2020 war in Artsakh there was a “real opportunity” to stop the process.

“Then presidential candidate Biden urged Trump to end U.S. aid to Azerbaijan and no longer waive Section 907. The Armenian community and lobbyists did everything possible to make use of this window of opportunity. In this regard, they do not receive any assistance from the Armenian authorities. They are fighting alone in Washington against Turkish-Azerbaijani lobbying, embassies and petrodollars,” he wrote.

Despite ongoing Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia and Artsakh, President Joe Biden has, yet again, waived Section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, clearing the way for continued U.S. assistance to the corrupt, anti-Armenian Aliyev regime, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“President Biden’s decision to green-light military aid to Azerbaijan by waiving Section 907, again, emboldens President Aliyev to continue his illegal imprisonment of Armenian POWs, deadly attacks against Artsakh, and ongoing occupation of sovereign Armenian territory,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “The ANCA will continue to work with U.S. Senate and House leaders to zero-out U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan and restrict presidential waiver authority of Section 907.”

The ANCA has been running an online campaign – https://anca.org/907 – urging President Biden and Congress to maintain section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan.

During his run for office, on October 14th, 2020, then-candidate Biden stated that the United States must “fully implement and not waive requirements under Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act to stop the flow of military equipment to Azerbaijian.” As President, he first reversed his position on the issue on April 23, 2021 – on the eve of his historic announcement properly recognizing the Armenian Genocide. “American recognition of the Armenian Genocide comes with responsibilities, among them not arming or abetting Azerbaijan’s drive to complete this crime,” commented ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian at the time. “Any action by President Biden that green-lights U.S. aid to the Aliyev regime runs counter to his clear stand and, more profoundly, the spirit of his recent recognition of the Armenian Genocide.”

Section 907, enacted in 1992, establishes statutory restrictions on U.S. assistance to the Government of Azerbaijan “until the President determines, and so reports to the Congress, that the Government of Azerbaijan is taking demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.” Congress included a Section 907 waiver in the FY2002 Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act. U.S. presidents – Republican and Democrat – have waived Section 907 annually ever since.

The Section 907 waiver and subsequent extensions require a number of certifications, including that granting the waiver “will not undermine or hamper ongoing efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan or be used for offensive purposes against Armenia.”

A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, issued earlier this year, revealed that the State Department consistently failed to inform Congress of the impact of over $164 million in assistance to Baku on the military balance between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“In fiscal years 2014 through 2021, State’s reporting to Congress did not address some required elements, such as the impact of proposed assistance on the military balance between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” asserts the GAO report. “State’s 2021 guidance to agencies did not provide detailed instructions about the information required for its reporting to Congress. Unless State takes steps to ensure its reporting addresses all required elements, Congress may lack important information about U.S. assistance to the government of Azerbaijan.”

The GAO report went further, to explain that State and DOD, from fiscal year 2014 to 2020, “did not document how they determined that their programs would not be used for offensive purposes against Armenia.” While program-level considerations of the waiver provision are not statutorily required, documenting such considerations would help ensure State’s access to quality information to support its certification of the waiver extension and its related reporting to Congress, explains the report.

According to the GAO, the U.S. has provided about $808 million in overall US aid to Azerbaijan in fiscal years 2002 through 2020.

The latest statement of Gagik Jhangiryan, the acting chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) overseeing Armenian courts, casts doubt on the legality of the criminal case against opposition activist Avetik Chalabyan, his lawyers said in a statement on Friday.

Chalabyan was arrested on May 12 for allegedly trying to pay students of the Armenian National Agrarian University to participate in anti-government protests in Yerevan. He has denied the charges as politically motivated.

The criminal case against the politician is based on a leaked audio of parts of conversations he and an Agrarian University lecturer had with the chairman of the university student council, Tornik Aliyan. The Investigative Committee claims he was offered 2 million drams in return for ensuring the presence of 2,000 students at opposition protests.

In an interview to the Public TV Company on Thursday. Jhangiryan spoke about the wiretapping of Chalabyan’s phone, suggesting that it was based on a court order.

“Mr. Jhangiryan’s statement calls into question the legality of the prosecution against Avetik Chalabyan. Moreover, it gives grounds to assume that administrative pressure is being put on both the body dealing with the proceedings and the judges,” the legal team said.

They cited Article 31 of the law on operative and detective activity which says wiretapping may be conducted in case a man is suspected of committing a grave or especially grave crime. Whereas, Chalabyan is charged with a crime of medium gravity.

In addition, it is also not clear whether Jhangiryan’s statement implies that the court allowed not only to wiretap Chalabyan’s phone, but also to edit the audio recording and provide it to Media News which released it, the lawyers said.

“There are numerous facts in the case which completely refute the assumption that the wiretapping was conducted by a court order, but given the secrecy of the investigation the facts will not be disclosed for now. Nevertheless, we do not exclude that the wiretapping in question was carried out by law enforcement officers, but we rule out its legality,” the statement reads.

The Armenian opposition will hold a rally in Yerevan’s central France Square on Friday evening.

“Dear compatriots, we are again gathering at France Square at 7:30pm,” opposition leader and deputy parliament speaker Ishkhan Saghatelyan wrote on Facebook.

“Join your brothers and sisters in the struggle!” he said.

Saghatelyan announced a change of tactics in the opposition movement aimed at toppling Nikol Pashinyan on June 14, saying they will hold rallies in Yerevan on a weekly basis.

Artur Vanetsyan, the leader of the opposition Homeland Party who resigned from the Armenian parliament earlier this week, said his party parted ways with the other opposition forces demanding Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation due to differences on the ways of achieving their ultimate goal.

In his resignation statement on Tuesday, Vanetsyan also announced the breakup of the Pativ Unem alliance between the Homeland Party and former President Serzh Sargsyan’s Republican Party of Armenia (RPA).

In an interview with the Pubic TV Company, Vanetsyan also said his party would not continue to be involved in the opposition resistance movement launched by the Hayastan bloc in early May to oust Pashinyan and his cabinet.

“We have reached a point where the resistance movement is undergoing restructuring and taking a path different from the one of the Homeland Party,” Vanetsyan told the Hraparak daily in an interview on Thursday.

He said Serzh Sargsyan and his other colleagues from the Pativ Unem and Hayastan blocs have “different views” but respect his decision.

Vanetsyan stressed the need for opposition forces to intensify dialogue with people.

“First, we need to talk to citizens, expand the team by increasing both the number of our party members and supporters and explain to people what is really happening in the country,” he said, adding Pashinyan continues to “tell lies” to Armenian society.