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Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Jack Reed (D-RI) - the powerful chairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Armed Services committees, respectively – today called on the Biden Administration to send emergency assistance to Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) and increase pressure on Azerbaijan to lift its month-long blockade of 120,000 Armenians living there, in their indigenous homeland, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“We welcome today’s stand by Chairmen Menendez and Reed, and join them in calling on the Biden-Harris Administration to start actually imposing concrete costs on a country that is so openly and aggressively hell-bent on ethnically-cleansing Artsakh of its indigenous Armenian population,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “Stopping Azerbaijan’s blockade needs to start with cutting off U.S. military aid to its corrupt and racist Aliyev regime.”

In a joint letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chairman Menendez and Chairman Reed shared their “deep concern” about Azerbaijan’s blockade, stating, “The United States cannot stand aside while the Aliyev regime callously threatens the lives of Nagorno-Karabakh’s citizens, and must hold Azerbaijan to account for blocking a civilian population’s access to food and basic necessities.”

Senators Menendez and Reed stressed, “While we welcome the recognition that Azerbaijan is responsible for the blockade that is causing the ongoing humanitarian crisis, the United States must also take action to resume the free flow of humanitarian and basic goods to this besieged population. We must support organizations working to provide relief, and work with our like-minded partners across Europe who have also expressed concern over Baku’s actions to pressure the Aliyev regime to stop this unacceptable blockade.”

The full text of the letter is available here.