There should be sanctions on Azerbaijan. And the first step, though, has to be to stop US support for Azerbaijan. Democratic Party Congressman Adam Schiff, the co-chair of the US Congressional Armenian Issues Caucus, stated this in an interview with NEWS.am on Monday.

“I have been urging [the US] administration now for years to cut off military or economic support for Azerbaijan. They don't need it, they don't deserve it. And what's more, it violates the law. Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act provides that unless they improve their human rights record, they shouldn't get our support. And they're committing human rights abuses, they're committing war crimes. So it's inexcusable for us to continue any level of economic or military support for Azerbaijan, which they can repurpose for the use of making war on their neighbors. So that's the first step,” Schiff said. 

The second step, according to him, is sanctions.

“The resolution I introduced today not only calls for the recognition of Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)], but also calls for sanctions on Azerbaijan. We should also be working to support a war crimes investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the rape and the murder, the desecration of Armenian dead, and the continued captivity of prisoners of war in violation of international law. So these are all things that United States and the international community should be pursuing,” the US congressman said.

Schiff said he believes that the most important thing is for the international players to speak and act early when they see the first signs of aggression.  

“It's been years of Azerbaijan shooting across the line of contact and killing people. And throughout that period, ultimately, countries, including the United States, used this language of false equivalence and merely called on both sides to stop the violence.  And I continue to urge our ambassadors to the region, to the [OSCE] Minsk Group, to stop engaging in this language of equivalence because it encourages the aggressor. If an aggressor knows that they will never be called out, that the worst that will happen if they kill people is that both sides will be asked to stop, then it's an encouragement to the aggressor.  And if you continue funding the aggressor, it's even more of an encouragement. And so for years, we saw this.

“For years I urged Democratic and Republican administrations to stop engaging in the language of equivalence, to start sanctioning the belligerent.  But that didn't happen. And tragically, I think Azerbaijan took that as a green light to make war in 2020 and to continue further acts of violence and this blockade. So if we want Baku to stop. We need to stop engaging in the same kind of conduct that got us into this very precarious position,” said Adam Schiff.