YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues Frank Pallone welcomes the democratic developments in Armenia following of the velvet revolution. The congressman regularly raising Armenian issues sees Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement through exclusively peaceful means, despite the aggressive behavour of Azerbaijan. Frank Pallone believes the USA should provide no military assistance to Azerbaijan. Frank Pallone spoke about these and other important issues in an exclusive interview for ARMENPRESS.

 - First of all I want to thank you for your devoted work in the House of Representatives in terms of raising the issues related to the Armenian people. How would you assess your visit to Armenia and Artsakh? Which is the important message you received during your meetings that you will take with you to the USA?

-We, when I say we I mean the members of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, are very happy and pleased with the results of the velvet revolution, because we see that as a result of the velvet revolution Armenia has become more democratic, is focused on rule of law and elimination of corruption and is a better friend of the USA.  Part of the reason for me to come here was to meet the Prime Minister and members of the parliament elected following the velvet revolution. And I want to convey the message that efforts should be made so that the U.S. Congress and Washington become more supportive towards Armenia in terms of economy, trade and security. These issues are in the center of our attention.

-In Artsakh you stressed the importance to provide equal aid to conflicting countries for preserving the security balance in the region. But we know about the dramatic increase of military aid to Azerbaijan by the Pentagon. A few days ago you and other Representatives demanded in a letter addressed to the U.S. Secretary of State and the Defense Minister to immediately stop providing military aid to Azerbaijan. What are your expectations?

-I think we should provide no military aid to Azerbaijan, since Azerbaijan is very aggressive and demonstrated that aggression in 2016. They should get no military assistance from the USA. We, the memebers of the Congress did not know that the amount of the military assistance to Azerbaijan was so large, over 100 million USD in the last 3 years, and recently learned about that. And that's much more than the assistance provided to Armenia. And traditionally, under the section 907 of the Freedom Support Act you cannot provide military assistance to a country that has been actively aggressive, like Azerbaijan was in April 2016. And the letter we have sent to the Department of State and Department of Defense we said that no military assistance should be provided to Azerbaijan, and we would like to know the justification for providing military assistance when you cannot do that. There is a paradigm that whatever you do for one country, you have to do the same for the other country. But I don't say that we should give hundreds of millions of dollars of military assistance to the two countries, since we want peace, we do not want to encourage war. At this moment we are very upset that Trump;s administration has done that, but we want them to stop giving money to Azerbaijan. We also want to know what were the justifications for that, because we don't know it and we investigate the issue now and we think it might be a violation of the Section 907.

-You have always made efforts for the USA to provide financial assistance to Artsakh. How does the Congress react to this and how much support can Artsakh receive next year?

-Right now all the support to Artsakh is humanitarian assistance. Yesterday, when I was in Artsakh, I visited two organizations that I would like to mention. One of them is ''Halo trust''  (financed by the USAID-edit) engaged in demining activities and they have bee receiving  several millions of dollars during the last years and we want it to continue. This was part of the reason for me to visit ''Halo trust'', because there are some suggestions that their funding should be limited because they have done a lot and there are few mines left. But when I met them they said it's not true and they have quite a lot of demining works to do and need funding for that.  We want to work on this issue to make sure that the project will continue. I also visited the Rehabilitation Centre named after Caroline Cox. This is the next organization that can receive U.S. assistance. This is an organization that helps children with disabilities. This is another important direction of our assistance.

-In Artsakh you expressed an expectation that Nagorno Karabakh conflict should be solved peacefully, preserving the pure components of Artsakh's sovereign identity. I would like to hear your opinion about the issue.

-Artsakh has to be Armenian. I would like to see a peaceful settlement which the OSCE Minsk Group is trying to achieve. The peaceful settlement has to guarantee not only the fact that Artsakh is Armenian, but also it's important the issue of the territories which are important for Armenia for security reasons. We were going back from Stepanakert to Sevan, and we passed through some of the regions that have to be retained. I am not advocating that Artsakh should give some lands to Azerbaijan because for security reasons they cannot do that. The problem is that after the 2016 aggression of Azerbaijan there are a lot of tensions and I don't think that right now a peaceful settlement is possible. So what we talked about in Artsakh is that the USA can support the efforts of confidence building, maybe through some projects along the border that can lessen the tensions and lead to a peaceful settlement eventually.

-Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan emphasizes that Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement has to be acceptable for the peoples of Armenia, Artsakh and Azerbaijan, but Azerbaijan does not respond adequately to those announcements. How would you assess this kind of behavior of Azerbaijan?

- My fear is that Azerbaijan want to resolve the conflict through military means and does not want a peaceful settlement. This is why I think that the most important thing is to see what can be done to lessen tensions and convince Azerbaijan that a military solution is not an option. This is another reason why I don't like the U.S. giving them military assistance, since it can be used against Armenia.

- This is not your first visit to Armenia. What impresses you most here?

- I have been to Armenia several times. I like this beautiful country where there is very much to see, the cultural activities.  But I think Armenians have many similarities with Americans, they believe in democracy, they believe people should get education and all should have equal opportunities in life. And a reason that I am particularly happy for the velvet revolution is that Armenia moves more in that direction. We also went sightseeing in Armenia, had a breakfast at Sevan Lake, saw the kachkars (cross-stones) and the churches of Sevan.

Interview by Anna Grigoryan

Photos by Gevorg Perkuperkyan

Translated by Tigran Sirekanyan