WASHINGTON, D.C. – Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Legislative Affairs Director Raffi Karakashian has submitted testimony to key US House and Senate panels supporting the foreign aid priorities of the Congressional Armenian Caucus and outlining the Armenian American community’s specific appropriations requests for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017.

Among the highest priority issues raised by Karakashian were 1) increased aid to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), including for the Lady Cox Rehabilitation Center in capital city Stepanakert, 2) a full suspension of military aid to Baku until Azerbaijan agrees to pull back snipers and heavy arms, ceases cross-border attacks, ends its threats of renewed war, assents to the deployment of gunfire locators and the addition of OSCE observers, and agrees to a settlement of regional conflicts through peaceful means alone, and; 3) a $10 million appropriation to help Armenia provide transition support to individuals from Syria who have found safe haven in Armenia.

Parallel to this effort, friends of Armenia from across America have emailed and called their US Representatives using the ANCA’s online activism portals to co-sign a Congressional Armenian Caucus letter, led by Caucus Co-Chairs Robert Dold and Frank Pallone, calling upon the bipartisan leadership of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations to support a similar series of Armenian-related foreign aid provisions. That letter is anticipated to be sent this week.