Assembly Joint Resolution
No. 28
CHAPTER 23
Relative to the Republic of Armenia.
[
Filed with
Secretary of State
April 29, 1993.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AJR 28, Speier.
Republic of Armenia.
This measure would memorialize the President and the Congress of the United States to take steps to cause Azerbaijan to cease its blockade of the Republic of Armenia.
Digest Key
WHEREAS, The Republic of Armenia was among the first independent democracies to emerge from the former Soviet Union and to join with the United States in a broad array of international agreements and cooperative undertakings; and
WHEREAS, The Republic of Armenia is not at war with any other country, nor does it make any territorial claim against any other country; and
WHEREAS, The Republic of Armenia is the victim of an economic blockade that prevents food and heating fuel from reaching its more than 3.5 million inhabitants and that is causing untold human suffering from freezing and starvation; and
WHEREAS, The blockade of the Republic of Armenia constitutes an act of war or aggression prohibited by the Charter of the United Nations and violates numerous international legal accords for human rights and for the protection of populations of landlocked countries; and
WHEREAS, The blockade is being perpetrated by Azerbaijan to further its siege of the independent, ethnically Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabagh in denial of the rights of Karabagh to self-determination; and
WHEREAS, Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, is tacitly assisting Azerbaijan’s blockade by impeding transit shipments through Turkey to Armenia through interminable delays, extortionary fees and other impermissible measures; and
WHEREAS, California is vitally concerned with the survival and well being of the democratic Republic of Armenia and its people; and
WHEREAS, California is unwilling to bear witness to a second genocide of Armenians in this century, especially at a time when the United States can exercise significant influence on Azerbaijan and Turkey to comport their conduct with international law; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly and Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California respectfully memorializes the President and the Congress of the United States to take immediate steps necessary to cause Azerbaijan to cease its illicit blockade of Armenia and calls upon that country and Turkey to resume honoring transit rights for shipments of food and fuel to the neighboring people of the republic of Armenia; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.