Senior House Foreign Affairs Committee member Brad Sherman (D-CA) on Wednesday called on the State Department to conduct a “Leahy Law” investigation of Azerbaijani war crimes committed during the April 2-7 attacks against Nagorno-Karabakh, and urged an immediate suspension of military aid to Baku, citing the Aliyev regime’s ongoing attacks on Armenia and Artsakh, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“We echo Congressman Sherman’s call for a thorough Leahy Law investigation of Azerbaijani atrocities,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.  “The leaders of our State Department would clearly be derelict in their duties if they did not adhere to the spirit and the letter of the Leahy Law, a statute enacted not only to prevent international atrocities, but also to protect us, as Americans, from having our tax dollars used by foreign forces to commit human rights atrocities.”

In a May 18th letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Rep. Sherman urged that “pursuant to your obligations under 22 U.S. Code § 2378d (d) to seek out and evaluate credible information about human rights abuses by foreign security forces, you quickly and thoroughly investigate allegations that the Azerbaijani armed forces committed human rights abuses during the conflict with Nagorno-Karabakh from April 2 – 7.”  He went on to urge that U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan be immediately suspended, arguing that “the Aliyev government continues to launch cross-border attacks against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, regularly threatens to renew hill-scale hostilities, and refuses U.S. and international calls to pull back snipers. Azerbaijan neither needs nor deserves American military aid.”