Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) as part of Azerbaijan is death sentence: U.S. Armenian Church leaders warn Biden
YEREVAN, June 1. /ARKA/. The spiritual leaders of America’s Armenian Apostolic, Catholic, and Evangelical faithful have joined forces in a powerful public warning to President Biden that forcing Artsakh under Azerbaijan is a “death sentence for the Armenians of this sacred land, home to 120,000 men, women, and children,” reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
In a letter sent yesterday to the White House, the Church leaders wrote: “We, the spiritual leaders of American Christians of Armenian heritage, call on you to stand firmly against any attempt to force the Christian Armenians of Artsakh under Azerbaijan, a country that is openly committed to ethnically cleansing the indigenous population of this ancient part of the Armenian homeland. Any settlement that subordinates the at-risk citizens of democratic Artsakh to dictatorial Azerbaijan is a death sentence for the Armenians of this sacred land, home to 120,000 men, women, and children, and, of course, countless holy sites.
We make this urgent appeal in the wake of our longstanding calls for you to withdraw your waiver of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act and fully enforce this provision of U.S. law. As we have shared with you in the past, Armenia, the world’s first Christian nation, remains a landlocked, blockaded, genocide survivor state, striving to survive on the frontiers of global freedom. Our great nation must stand with Armenia in every way, beginning with a suspension of U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan, a country that would erase our ancient nation from the map of the world. We must never, as Americans, be complicit in such genocidal violence.
We look forward to learning of your renewed leadership in saving Christian Armenian lives and advancing a truly democratic peace that respects the right to self-determination of Artsakh, an early cradle of Christianity.
We pray that the Almighty Lord bless you abundantly and His wisdom leads your endeavors with success, spreading peace, justice, and prosperity to the world.’
Earlier, State Department representative Matthew Miller said that the U.S. welcomed President Aliyev's statement about considering an amnesty for Nagorno-Karabakh. Artsakh's Foreign Ministry expressed disappointment and bewilderment over Miller’s remarks, saying in a retaliatory statement that ‘it is impossible to explain how one could find something positive and worthy of encouragement in the statement of the President of Azerbaijan, which was built entirely on blatant blackmail and coercion.’
‘It's obvious that the main message of the statements of the Azerbaijani President is reduced to Azerbaijan's refusal of an equal dialogue with the democratically elected authorities of the Republic of Artsakh and the desire to impose its power on the people of Artsakh by force", the Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry said. -0-
