Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Bob Casey Jr. (D-Penn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) today introduced two resolutions to require Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to detail Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s human rights abuses throughout the south Caucasus, within their own countries, and, in Turkey’s case, in Syria, Iraq, and Libya. The resolutions also require information on what role U.S. security assistance may be playing in these abuses to inform whether the United States should restrict or end security assistance and arms sales to those countries. Both resolutions invoke statutory authority under section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA).

Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, delivered a speech on the Senate Floor making the case for a recalibration of the U.S.-Turkey relationship based on its aggressive behavior in the region and the dramatic backsliding of democracy under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

According to an announcement on Wednesday, the UK government reached a settlement over claims made by 33 EOKA veterans who were tortured while in detention during the 1955-1959 Cypriot struggle for liberation.