Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I am going to support this amendment, but I hope that it is the last time that I or any of us have to do this. This provision has been the Congress' response to a difficult complex issue year after year, and yet we see no real progress. We cannot only blame Azerbaijan. Armenia has to accept some of the blame for insufficient progress as well. One of the realities that we have to understand is that Azerbaijan is going to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world. It is not landlocked, as Armenia. It is not nearly as economically and militarily vulnerable as Armenia. In fact, it is going to be a major role player in the Caucasus in that part of the world. So it behooves us in the future to, in fact, be an ally of Azerbaijan. The reality is that we cannot under these current circumstances. But if we want peace in the Caucasus and protection of Armenia's sovereign borders and prosperity for the Armenian people, then we need to establish economic trade between Armenia and its neighbors on all sides. The situation today is untenable. In fact, there are people suffering in Armenia. There are people suffering in Yerevan, there are people suffering in Nagorno-Karabakh. But we must be part of the solution, not part of the problem. And part of the problem is that we have not moved forward. We have not been able to take sufficient initiatives.”