REP. SCHIFF: TIME TO REFOCUS ON ARTSAKH
asbarez
Wednesday, October 17th, 2012
Rep. Adam Schiff
BY REPRESENTATIVE ADAM B. SCHIFF
When the Soviet Union broke apart twenty years ago, simmering ethnic
and regional conflicts that had been suppressed for decades reemerged
with great suddenness. Concentrated in the Caucasus, the fighting
has ebbed and flowed over the years, with several of the conflicts
left unresolved, or “frozen,” as American and European policymakers
have been preoccupied with crises in the Middle East and South Asia,
and economic woes at home.
The most bitter of these clashes, and the one most likely to flare
anew, is the standoff between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh or
“Artsakh,” an almost exclusively Armenian area that was placed under
Azerbaijani administration in 1923 by the Soviet Government, despite
centuries of cultural, linguistic and religious ties to Armenia.
In 1988, as Soviet central control was beginning to weaken under
Mikhail Gorbachev, the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh
renewed their longstanding struggle for independence from Azerbaijan,
touching off six years of conflict that would claim tens of thousands
of casualties on both sides and push thousands more from their homes
by the time a cease-fire was reached in May 1994.
The years since the end of the war have been uneasy – punctuated by
frequent sniper attacks by Azeri forces along the line of contact
and an unremitting stream of threats from a broad array of senior
Azerbaijani government officials, including a threat to shoot down
civilian airliners should the Nagorno Karabakh Republic proceed
with plans to reopen Stepanakert Airport. In addition, the people of
Artsakh face the daily threat from the estimated 100,000 land mines
that were planted during the fighting of the early 1990s, and which
remain largely uncleared.
Since 1992, the United States, France and Russia have spearheaded
international efforts to mediate the impasse through the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s “Minsk Group.” Despite
repeated efforts, including a renewed declaration of purpose by
the three co-chairs in May 2012, the process has been stalled by
repeated Azerbaijani demands for preconditions and added pressure on
the Armenian side.
The volatility of the situation was greatly heightened last month
by the egregious repatriation and release of Ramil Safarov, an
Azerbaijani army captain who had confessed to the savage 2004 axe
murder of Armenian army lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan, while the latter
slept. At the time, the two were participating in a NATO Partnership
for Peace exercise in Budapest, Hungary. After the murder, Safarov
was sentenced to life in prison by a Hungarian court.
On August 31, Safarov was sent home to Azerbaijan, purportedly to
serve out the remainder of his sentence. Instead of prison, he was
greeted as a hero – promenading through the streets of Baku carrying a
bouquet of roses. President Ilham Aliyev immediately pardoned Safarov
and he was promoted to the rank of major and given a new apartment
and eight years of back pay.
Safarov’s rapturous welcome in Baku is testament to the degree of
anti-Armenian hatred that is being incited in contemporary Azerbaijan.
That a man who nearly decapitated a sleeping comrade could be
treated as a national hero is so inexplicable and appalling, it
vindicates the concern of many Armenians that the forced imposition
of Azeri sovereignty over the free people of Arstakh would result in
a bloodbath.
The Aliyev government, for its part, by so publicly embracing
a confessed murderer, has deliberately provoked all Armenians
and defied the rule of law – while at the same time foreclosing
any progress towards a resolution of the status of Artsakh in the
foreseeable future. Azerbaijan’s transgression must carry a price,
but it should also serve to remind us of the pressing need to ensure
the rights of the Artsakh people to determine their own destiny.
I have long supported self-determination for the people of
Nagorno-Karabakh and I believe that unless the United States and its
Minsk Group partners take concerted efforts to resolve the status of
Nagorno-Karabakh in a way that reflects the will of the people of
Artsakh, the prospect for renewed fighting and horrific casualties
will grow. It is in everybody’s interest to see this matter settled
and it should be a diplomatic priority for 2013.
Years of fighting and economic isolation have left Nagorno-Karabakh
seriously underdeveloped. With the assistance of the Armenian-American
community, I have been pressing for USAID to devote more assistance
to Artsakh. While I have succeeded in getting the amount for next
year more than doubled (to $5 million) in the State Department funding
bill pending in the House of Representatives, the need is much greater
and more aid will be necessary.
Building a strong, independent Artsakh is only half of the equation,
however. Azerbaijan must also be reminded that the price for its
actions is high. Azerbaijan treasures the security assistance that
it receives from Washington, not because it needs the money (it does
not), but because it signifies a certain closeness in the bilateral
relationship. By cutting off military aid to Azerbaijan, the United
States would signal its disgust with the Safarov affair, while also
reminding Aliyev that the United States will not tolerate any acts
of aggression against Armenia or Artsakh.
The people of Artsakh – overwhelmingly Armenian and overwhelmingly
Christian – cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of Aliyev. By
celebrating a murderer, he and his country have shown the world their
true nature and made a compelling case for hastening full recognition
of independent Artsakh.