[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 14 (Tuesday, February 15, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H376-H377]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE PEOPLE OF NAGORNO KARABAGH MUST HAVE A SEAT AT THAT TABLE WITH 
                         AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, this week the president of the Republican 
of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, is visiting our Nation's Capital. 
President Aliyev is scheduled to meet with President Clinton this 
morning at the White House. He will also be holding meetings with 
Secretary of State Albright and Energy Secretary Richardson.
  I would like to take this opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to express my 
hope that President Clinton and the other officials in his 
administration will use these meetings to urge President Aliyev to work 
in good faith for Azerbaijan for an Azerbaijan-negotiated settlement to 
the Nagorno Karabagh conflict.
  In particular, it is imperative that Mr. Aliyev be urged to accept 
the direct participation of representatives from Nagorno Karabagh in 
the negotiations. In the minds of many, the Nagorno Karabagh conflict 
is viewed as a bilateral dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. While 
these two countries must obviously be part of the negotiations in the 
final settlement, the people of Karabagh who have their own 
democratically elected government must have a seat at that table. After 
all, it is their homeland and their lives that are at stake in this 
peace process. No one else should be allowed to make these life and 
death decisions for them.
  Mr. Speaker, the United States is one of the cochairs of the Minsk 
Group, the body under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in 
Europe, the OSCE, charged with facilitating a negotiated settlement to 
this dispute.
  More than a year ago, the U.S. and our Minsk Group partners put forth 
a plan for resolving this conflict known as the common state approach. 
Despite their serious reservations, both Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh 
previously accepted this framework as the basis for negotiations while 
Azerbaijan rejected it. We do not necessarily need to be wedded to this 
one approach for jump starting the negotiations, but we should use 
occasions like this week's visit by President Aliyev to call for all 
sides to get back to the negotiating table with no preconditions.
  I expect that President Aliyev will use this occasion, this meeting 
with the President, to call for the lifting of section 907 of the 
Freedom Support Act, a provision of U.S. law that prohibits direct 
American government aid to Azerbaijan until that country lifts its 
blockades of Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh. President Aliyev, backed up 
by the support of major oil companies, has been lobbying American 
officials to repeal section 907.
  In 1998, this Congress rejected an amendment to the foreign 
operations bill that would have repealed section 907 and we must hold 
the line. Azerbaijan has failed to meet the basic condition for lifting 
section 907, namely, that it take demonstrable steps to lift the 
blockades it has imposed on its neighbors, and such intransigence 
should not be rewarded. I call on our administration to use this 
occasion to stress to the Azerbaijani president that the ball is in his 
court and that the only way to lift the ban on U.S. aid is for 
Azerbaijan to lift the blockade.

[[Page H377]]

  Mr. Speaker, Presidents Aliyev and Kocharian, President Kocharian of 
Armenia, have been meeting on a number of occasions at multilateral 
meetings where both countries are represented, and I welcome these 
direct talks and hope that they will continue.
  Azerbaijan and Armenia must normalize their relations with one 
another. They have to work for greater economic integration, 
development of infrastructure, and cooperation in other areas. This is 
the path that President Aliyev must be encouraged to follow. Indeed, 
the benefits to his country would be significant by opening up trade 
investment and assistance, that these benefits cannot begin to flow to 
Azerbaijan until Azerbaijan lifts its blockades against Armenia and 
Karabagh. I truly hope Mr. Aliyev will hear this message and not 
continue to believe he can play the oil card, trying to use 
Azerbaijan's presumed oil reserves as a way of getting the U.S. to sell 
out the principle behind section 907.
  Mr. Speaker, last week at a White House ceremony to accept the 
credentials of Armenia's new ambassador to the United States, President 
Clinton pledged to aid Armenia to achieve a durable and mutually 
acceptable resolution to the conflict over Nagorno Karabagh. President 
Clinton also praised President Kocharian and President Aliyev for their 
willingness to act boldly for peace. He stressed America's commitment 
to helping Armenia-established democratic institutions and a market 
economy, and noted that the progress made by the Armenian people means 
that the U.S. can shift our assistance from humanitarian aid to 
development projects.
  Unfortunately, the President's fiscal year 2001 budget proposal 
actually calls for a 27 percent reduction in assistance to Armenia. 
Congress will have an opportunity to reverse this, and I intend to work 
hard to make sure that the assistance is actually increased.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to renew my call for Armenia's President 
Robert Kocharian to be extended an invitation for a state visit to 
Washington. Last November 25, my colleagues in the House joined me in a 
bipartisan call on President Clinton to extend the invitation to 
President Kocharian.
  I see one of my colleagues on the Republican side, the gentlewoman 
from Maryland (Mrs. Morella), is here and she was one of those.

                              {time}  0945

  While President Aliyev's current visit is not an official State 
visit, President Aliyev has been here on a State visit. President 
Kocharian, who was elected nearly 2 years ago, has yet to be accorded 
this honor. To solidify the growing bonds between the U.S. and Armenia, 
I believe it is time for a State visit for President Kocharian.

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