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Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin (D-MD) condemned Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) and its ongoing aggression against Armenia during a Helsinki Commission hearing held on Capitol Hill on September 10th, the ANCA reported.

The hearing, titled “Supporting Armenia’s Democracy and Western Future,” featured testimony from three expert witnesses – former U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE Dan Baer, former International Crisis Group South Caucasus Analyst Olesya Vartanyan, and President of the Yerevan-based Regional Center for Democracy and Security Tigran Grigoryan.

Reflecting on a recent Helsinki Commission delegation visit to Armenia, Chairman Cardin noted that in addition to having perpetrated ethnic cleansing in Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan was seeking to “eliminate a good part of [Armenia’s] sovereignty by force” through its continued encroachment into Armenia’s sovereign territory.

“Azerbaijan recently came in and took over the Nagorno Karabakh area and did ethnic cleansing, required the people to leave or to face death or imprisonment,” Chairman Cardin stated. “This is nothing new. But they not only decided to putting at risk the cultural facilities, the cultural history of the region, they decided to go into [Armenia] and take part of Azerbaijan with no indication that they’re going to give up that territory.”

In reference to the ongoing peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Chairman Cardin continued by noting the inequitable terms of the ongoing peace process, and its failure to address the threat posed by Azerbaijan to Armenia’s security.

“I’m not sure that peace agreement is very fair,” Senator Cardin remarked. “If I understand it, it does not, they’re not even talking about the border issues as far as the areas that are currently under control by Azerbaijan and Armenia.”

In their testimony to the Helsinki Commission, the expert panelists reiterated the fact that Azerbaijan’s assault on Nagorno Karabakh and incursions into sovereign Armenian territory represented an immediate threat to Armenia’s security. Olesya Vartanyan highlighted Azerbaijan’s consolidation of its military presence in Armenian territory and Armenia’s vulnerability to further military escalation by Azerbaijan. Vartanyan also highlighted the fact that despite ongoing peace talks, Azerbaijan has sought to delay and derail negotiations by conditioning new demands on Armenia – such as changing its constitution.

“Congress can act where the Administration has so clearly failed – by enacting legislation to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its aggression, imposing sanctions on Azerbaijani war criminals, drastically increasing humanitarian assistance to Armenia, and advocating for a just, durable and dignified peace that ensures the release of illegally detained Armenian POWs and guarantees the right of return for Artsakh’s Armenians,” remarked ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “Peace is not possible absent accountability – for as long as Azerbaijan faces impunity for its actions, it will continue to believe there is more to be gained through war than through negotiations.”