U.S. Rep. Sherman: We should have recognized the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, just as we recognized the independence of Kosovo

Speaking in Los Angeles at a press conference dedicated to the survivors of the Second Armenian Genocide committed by Azerbaijan in September 2023, U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman has noted that Armenia is now under threat of a possible attack by Azerbaijan, and the U.S. must take decisive steps to protect Armenia’s borders.

“It is an honor to be here with my friend and future Senator Adam Schiff and the head of our City Council. We should have recognized the independence of then the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, later Artsakh, just as we recognized the independence of Kosovo. In both cases, these were independent regions within republics that were part of the confederation. In one case, the Soviet Union; in the other case, Yugoslavia, which was a confederation of 6 republics, similar to the Soviet Union. We did not. We recognized Kosovo in part because we knew that its people could not live or continue to live under a certain domination,” Alpha News reports, quoting Sherman.

According to Sherman, today Armenia is under a possible attack by Azerbaijan.

“We have obviously learned that the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, of Artsakh, could not live under Azerbaijani rule. They have been ethnically cleansed. Today we see the situation of Armenia being under a possible attack by Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, the United States seems to be able to concentrate only on one or two things at a time.

With Ukraine, we have told the world that when an aggressor is trying to change the border of a European country, that affects us. We are being called upon by the President to provide additional huge amounts of money to defend borders of Ukraine.

We need to act to defend the borders of Armenia, hopefully before the invasion. I was an advocate for arming Ukraine long before the first invasion, in 2014. And I am an advocate of providing Armenia with the defense articles that it needs to prevent the invasion from Aliyev. We are working on a supplemental, appropriations to deal with big conflicts of the world. And this should be included.

What would be easier to include politically is the second part of this: humanitarian aid to allow Armenia, a very small country, to accommodate 120,000 ethically cleansed refugees.

So, I look forward, along with Adam Schiff, to fighting to make sure that we pass a supplemental dealing with the world’s great problems and we focus on this problem, and I look forward to working with the UN as well,” Sherman said.