Azerbaijan should be held accountable for its genocidal actions – Elizabeth Chouldjian

Thousands of Armenian activists from across the US will gather on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on September 19-20 to participate in the event called “Accountability 2024.” The program, launched by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), aims to once again highlight the facts of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Azerbaijan against the population of Artsakh in 2020-2023 and demand accountability from the US authorities.

ANCA Communications Director Elizabeth Chouldjian gave Alpha News details.

“While the US promised to do everything possible to ensure that the genocidal actions committed by Azerbaijan against the people of Artsakh are not repeated, unfortunately, this is what we receive to all these promises. We have seen what Aliyev has done to the people of Artsakh in recent years: attacks, displacement of 120,000 people from their own homes. This is a reason for American Armenians and their supporters from everywhere to come to Washington to meet with congressmen and once again demand that Azerbaijan be held accountable for its genocidal actions. The US should focus on reducing military assistance to Azerbaijan, as well as applying special sanctions to individuals of the Azerbaijani government who have committed brutal actions against the people of Artsakh. Members of our community should hold extensive meetings with their leaders and congressmen these days. The idea is to be able to put the accountability resolutions to a vote in any way,” Chouldjian said.

Referring to the upcoming US elections, she said: “During the tenure of both Trump and Kamala Harris, no necessary steps were taken to stop the Artsakh Genocide. On the contrary, during Trump’s administration, we saw that more than 120 million dollars in aid were sent to Azerbaijan, and certainly during the administration of President Biden and Harris, we saw genocidal acts against which no one has taken a clear step until now. During the 10 months of the blockade, we saw that the administration of these two did not send a single cent to Artsakh to support the 120,000 people under the blockade. But now, before the election, each candidate must take clear steps both on the Artsakh issue and on many other Armenian issues.”