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U.S. Senator Roger Wicker on Friday warned of attempts to derail democracy and freedoms in Armenia and hailed the country’s determination to foiled them.

Wicker, the Senate ranking member of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, also known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), led a bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation to Armenia on Wednesday.

At a joint press conference with the Armenian parliament speaker in Yerevan, Wicker highlighted the Armenian government’s desire for the signing of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, the completion of the border delimitation and demarcation process and the release of Armenian prisoners held in Baku, as well as the re-opening of the border with Turkey which would promote Armenia’s economic development.

Addressing Azerbaijan and other OSCE members, the top U.S. official said: "Beware of what association with Putin's Russia can lead to. I want to advise our friends in Azerbaijan to try to understand the price and value of freedom. We have seen this many times. I want to pass this warning on to Azerbaijan to be vigilant so that the big Russian bear does not try once again to dominate the former Soviet republic.”