Whereas the right to self-determination is enshrined in several articles of international law to which the United States is a party, including Article I of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which states, All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. ; Whereas the United States has historically supported the right to self-determination for persecuted populations, including but not limited to the cases of Timor-Leste, Kosovo, and South Sudan; Whereas Armenians have been historically recognized as the indigenous population of Artsakh (Soviet name: Nagorno Karabakh), an integral part of the Armenian homeland and a major center of Armenian cultural life, with Christian holy sites dating back to the 1st century; Whereas Soviet Azerbaijan engaged in the systematic persecution and discrimination of the region’s indigenous Armenians, which comprised over 80 percent of Artsakh’s population; Whereas the Republic of Artsakh declared its independence in 1991, consistent with their rights under the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States (1970) in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, following Azerbaijan’s deprivation of the fundamental rights of the region’s Armenian population and use of force, including the pogroms of Sumgait, Baku, and Kirovobad that resulted in hundreds of deaths and the forced displacement of over 400,000 Armenians from Azerbaijan; Whereas the Armenians of Artsakh voted with near-unanimous consent to declare their independence from Azerbaijan by referendum on December 10, 1991