ANCA Capitol Hill Briefing Warns that Flawed ‘Peace’ Process Creates Conditions for Renewed Genocide

Congressional staff join Armenian American advocates at a capacity Capitol Hill Staff Briefing

Expert Panelists and ANCA Policy Director Deconstruct Terms of One-Sided Surrender of Armenian Security and Sovereignty; Explore Options for a Just and Durable Peace

WASHINGTON – A U.S.-brokered peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan that leaves Armenian hostages in Azerbaijani detention, denies Artsakh’s 150,000 refugees their right of return, and rewards Azerbaijan’s genocidal ethnic cleansing with a 99-year transport corridor through sovereign Armenian territory is not a path to peace — but rather a blueprint for the destruction of the Armenian state. This stark assessment was delivered on Wednesday at a Capitol Hill Staff Briefing hosted by the Armenian National Committee of America, titled “Peace Without Justice in the South Caucasus.”

ANCA Policy Director Alex Galitsky, Dr. Robert Krikorian, and Karnig Kerkonian convene the “Peace Without Justice in the South Caucasus” Congressional staff briefing on Apr. 15

The briefing, held at Cannon HOB Room 130, featured a round table discussion moderated by ANCA Policy Director Alex Galitsky with Dr. Robert Krikorian, a retired senior State Department official and Harvard-trained historian with more than two decades of intelligence and senior advisory experience, and Karnig Kerkonian, an international human rights lawyer and founding partner of Kerkonian Dajani LLP.

“The peace agreement, as it currently stands, includes no clause that would require the release of Armenian prisoners of war from arbitrary detention and custody,” said Galitsky. “It would require no commitment on Azerbaijan’s part to protect the millennia-old Armenian Christian heritage in Artsakh. It would not deal in any way with the status of the 150,000 Armenians who were forced from their homes, who want nothing more than to be able to return to the lands in which their families have lived for thousands of years.”

A Diktat, Not a Peace
Dr. Krikorian, drawing on his 22 years at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, offered an unsparing assessment of the peace process itself.

“This is not a peace being negotiated between two parties,” stated Dr. Krikorian. “This is a diktat by Azerbaijan, with the backing of Turkey and the acquiescence of the West, for Armenia to capitulate fully and completely. Any peace that is forced on Armenia without the slightest concern for its sovereignty or viability is bound to fail. The only question for me is how much damage will it inflict on Armenia, whether in the short term or in the long term.”

“The so-called TRIPP (Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity) is an ill-conceived project with little to no chance of success,” he added. “And even if it does succeed, Armenia and Armenians will see no benefit from it — only weakened borders, weakened sovereignty, and an inability to defend itself from Turkish and Azerbaijani aggression.”

The Artsakh Genocide: 932 Days and Counting
Kerkonian, who is president of the Armenian Legal Defense Fund, has represented Armenian victims before international courts and taught public international law at Artsakh State University, placed the peace process squarely in the context of an ongoing genocide.

Kerkonian drew a direct line from Aliyev’s public statements to the logic of appeasement — and its consequences. “When you have the leader of a country stating that ‘Armenians are dogs, Armenians are cancer,’ that ‘it needs to be ripped out of society,’ and that ‘Armenia is not even a state but a colony, not worthy of being served’ — that’s coming from the head of state,” he said. “You can’t ignore that when you’re thinking about how to achieve peace. One of the biggest mistakes of our time — and one that our lessons after World War II should have taught us — is that appeasement, whitewashing genocidal intent, does not produce peace. It doesn’t even bring war. It brings genocide.”

Kerkonian noted that international efforts are ramping up to secure justice for this crime. “Let’s not forget that the Artsakh Genocide — it’s only been 932 days since a population, an indigenous population, that lived on that land for 5,000 years has been removed,” he stated. “So this is relatively early.”

Armenian Sovereignty Under Siege
Beyond the humanitarian failures, panelists described a systematic campaign by Azerbaijan to dismantle Armenian sovereignty on multiple fronts simultaneously.

“The continued presence of Azerbaijani troops on sovereign Armenian territory sends a very clear signal that Baku does not feel compelled in any way to abide by any agreement with Armenia,” stated Krikorian. “Their presence is a clear and present danger to Armenia, and it signals Baku’s readiness to use force.”

Krikorian connected that military posture to Azerbaijan’s broader territorial ambitions. “We’ve seen an uptick in rhetoric regarding what the Aliyev regime refers to as ‘Western Azerbaijan,’” he said. “Western Azerbaijan is more commonly known as Armenia… Baku’s ultimate objective is not peace with Armenia but the dismantling of a sovereign and independent Armenian state.”

Kerkonian argued that Azerbaijan’s simultaneous demands — that Armenia amend its constitution, withdraw its ICJ cases, and accept Azerbaijani forces on its territory — reveal a single coherent strategy. “Armenia’s constitutional changes are not being dictated by the people of Armenia, but by the government of Azerbaijan,” he stated. “You have a dictator getting to determine what is written in the Armenian Constitution… The destruction of a people is not just dismemberment and burial of bodies. There is the destruction of memory, of agency.”

TRIPP: An Existential Threat
Kerkonian framed TRIPP’s structural terms — Armenia holding a 26% stake against a 74% U.S.-operated majority — as a sovereignty trap. “The 26% owner of a company is a minority shareholder. So in any structure, there’s a limitation,” he said. “De facto, it is an existential threat to Armenia, and it will remove the southern part of Armenia from Armenian control. At that point, Armenia becomes nothing more really than a rump state, surrounded by Azerbaijan and Turkey.”

ANCA-Backed Legislation
Galitsky noted that Azerbaijan’s sentencing of 16 Armenian prisoners of war — handed down in the days surrounding Vice President Vance’s visit to the South Caucasus — underscored the urgency of congressional action. “If the peace process itself was not going to address the status of prisoners, the right of return, protection of Armenian cultural heritage, or the presence of Azerbaijani forces in Armenian territory, then let us find ways to use the existing tools and mechanisms we have at our disposal here in the U.S. Congress to really put pressure on Azerbaijan to change course.”

“We are extremely disappointed to see that the same day that this agreement was initialed in August, President Trump waived Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, thereby creating a pathway for renewed U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan, which we see is fundamentally reckless to happen before an agreement has been signed, and also while Azerbaijan’s abuses are ongoing,” said Galitsky.

The ANCA is pressing Congress to pass two key pieces of bipartisan legislation: the Azerbaijan Sanctions Review Act of 2025 (H.R.5369), led by Representatives Dina Titus (D-NV) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), directing the Trump-Vance Administration to review Global Magnitsky sanctions against Azerbaijani officials responsible for war crimes and the illegal detention of Armenian prisoners; and the ARMENIA Security Partnership Act (H.R.6840), led by Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Representatives Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ), which would prohibit the president from waiving Section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan unless the Aliyev regime takes concrete steps toward a lasting peace with Armenia. Similar efforts are expected in the Senate in the coming weeks.