Over 200 Congressional staffers, human rights advocates, and policy professionals attended Tuesday’s panel discussion on the recently launched Swiss Peace Initiative
WASHINGTON, DC – A standing-room-only audience of over 200 Congressional staffers, human rights advocates, and policy professionals gathered on Capitol Hill Tuesday for a Congressional briefing on the recently launched Swiss Peace Initiative for Nagorno-Karabakh – a global initiative to facilitate the collective, protected return of Artsakh’s (Nagorno Karabakh) forcibly displaced Armenian Christians to their ancestral homes, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
Swiss Parliamentarians Erich Vontobel (Federal Democratic Union) and Lukas Reimann (Swiss People’s Party), Christian Solidarity International (CSI) President Dr. John Eibner, and former Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian led the panel discussion, which was opened by Mark Milosch, Republican Staff Director for Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), the Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. Following presentations by each of these four experts on the legal, diplomatic, and humanitarian dimensions of Artsakh Armenians’ right of return, ANCA Policy Director Alex Galitsky moderated a robust question-and-answer session.
“A real peace, one that endures, cannot be forced upon Armenia at the point of a gun – at the expense of human rights, international law, and the indigenous Armenian population of Artsakh,” stated Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. “The terms of the fake peace currently being pushed on Yerevan – little more than terms of unilateral Armenian surrender demanded by a genocidal Azerbaijan under threat of renewed attacks – must be rejected, and a new peace forged – one ensures the safe return of Artsakh’s indigenous Armenians to their homeland.”
