Whereas, beginning on September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan has engaged in the most significant military operation along the line of contact into Nagorno-Karabakh since the signing of the cease-fire agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1994; Whereas this attack follows increasingly aggressive rhetoric and destabilizing actions on the part of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev’s government toward Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, including a July 2020 Defense Ministry threat to bomb Armenia’s Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant; Whereas Azerbaijan’s ongoing military offensive, which includes the shelling of Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh’s most densely populated city with a population of 55,200, has resulted in at least dozens of civilians killed and hundreds wounded and, as of September 30, 2020, the threat to civilians continues; Whereas, as of September 30, 2020, the conflict has resulted in the deaths of at least 84 Nagorno-Karabakh servicemembers, and both Armenia and Azerbaijan have declared martial law, mobilized their Armed Forces, and called up Reserve Forces; Whereas the Guardian reports that Azerbaijan’s military actions in Nagorno-Karabakh may be part of a planned military operation; Whereas the conflict follows joint military exercises conducted by Turkey and Azerbaijan in August 2020; Whereas, according to multiple reports, including the Washington Post, Reuters, and the Guardian, in the weeks prior to Azerbaijan’s military operation Turkey recruited mercenaries from Syria and, as of September 29, 2020, has facilitated their deployment to Azerbaijan; Whereas the BBC, New York Times, and Washington Post have reported on the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s claim that Turkey is operating F–16 fighter jets in the region and the claim that on September 29, 2020, Turkey shot down an Armenian Su–25 fighter jet in Armenian airspace, killing the pilot