ETHNIC SPECIAL INTERESTS SHOULD NOT GUIDE US FOREIGN POLICY
Jamila Scheve
Alaska Dispatch
Jan 18 2012
In December 2010, following over a year of absence of U.S. envoy in
Azerbaijan, President Obama recess appointed Matthew Bryza to the
position. But after a year of obstruction by Senators Robert Menendez
(D-NJ) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), driven by Armenian-American ethnic
special interest, Senate flouted the confirmation of Ambassador
Bryza before the end of 2011. Consequently, the highly experienced
U.S. diplomat had to vacate his position in January 2012, and
U.S.-Azerbaijani relations were harmed. According to the Washington
Post, Senate’s failure to confirm Ambassador Bryza “offers a vivid
example of how the larger U.S. national interest can fall victim to
special-interest jockeying and political accommodation.”
The ethnic lobby now seeks to prolong the absence of U.S. envoy to
Azerbaijan, thereby derailing U.S. foreign policy in this vital region
bordering Iran and Russia. The Armenian-American organizations’ main
purpose of exerting pressure on nominations is to delay the appointment
of an ambassador, create discontent and cause damage to the bilateral
ties between US and Azerbaijan. They demand appointed persons to
recognize a regime that confirms so-called “Armenian genocide”
and violated the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Since 1988,
as a result of Armenian territorial claims to Nagorno-Karabakh region
of Azerbaijan, the two neighboring nations have been embroiled in a
bitter dispute, which escalated into a full-scale war between 1991
and 1994. Before the 1994 ceasefire, Armenian forces managed to
occupy Nagorno-Karabakh and 7 other adjacent districts – in total
nearly fifth of Azerbaijan’s territory. Nearly 30,000 people have
been killed, and over 800,000 Azerbaijani civilians were forcefully
displaced from all of the occupied territories.
For the past 20 years, the U.S. has been actively involved in attempts
to resolve the conflict. Joining France and Russia within the framework
of OSCE Minsk Group, U.S. diplomats, including Mr. Bryza, have
been searching for a mutually acceptable solution to this first and
bloodiest frozen conflict in the post-Soviet space. Azerbaijan has been
a staunch U.S. ally in the “War on Terror,” opening its airspace and
contributing troops in support of the U.S.-led missions in Afghanistan
and Iraq. Azerbaijan’s significant oil and gas reserves, currently
explored by Western energy companies, remain essential to Europe’s
energy security and independence from Russia’s growing gas monopoly.
During the same period, Armenia, which continues to occupy Azerbaijani
territories against four U.N. Security Council and several U.N.
General Assembly resolutions, fell into a regional isolation and was
ranked by Forbes as the world’s No. 2 worst economy in 2011. Left
out of major regional economic projects, with its longest borders
being closed and its energy infrastructure acquired by Russian
energy giant, Armenia has turned into Russia’s military post in the
Caucasus. Unable to comprehend on the situation or to contribute
towards resolving these problems, Armenian-American interest groups
are instead engaged on their limited ethnocentric agenda to simply
damage the U.S.-Azerbaijani relations.
The continued absence of U.S. Ambassador in Azerbaijan will also
benefit neighboring Iran. Absence of a US ambassador in Azerbaijan
forces the latter to think that it is being neglected by the United
States despite the fact Azerbaijan has been an US ally, sending
its troops to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with their counterparts
in Afganistan (earlier in Iraq and Kosovo) as well, providing vital
airspace and airports for 1/3 of non-lethal supplies to US troops in
Afganistan, and cooperating in the energy sphere to diversify energy
resources for US and its allies in Europe and Israel. The absence
of US ambassador, especially due to pressure from narrow Armenian
interest groups in the light of Armenia being a Russian encampment,
drives Azerbaijan away, leaving it on its own while Russia and Iran
want to take advantage of it. Iran-supported groups and voices will
revitalize condemning Azerbaijan’s pro-Western policy claiming US
ignores Azerbaijan. That certainly affects the mindset and opinion of
the Azeri public who indeed see neglectful attitude of America towards
Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan shares its longest border with Iran; over third
of Iran’s population, more than 25 million people, are Turkic-speaking
Azerbaijanis; over two-thirds of Azerbaijan’s population is Shiite
Muslim, just like their kin south of the border. Due to strong
geographic, historical, religious and cultural affinity, Iran has
a strong ability to influence its small neighbor by exporting its
religious ideology.
Despite these facts, since attaining independence in 1991,
Azerbaijan, which in 1918 became also known as the world’s first
secular predominantly Muslim republic, has enjoyed strong ties with
both the United States and Israel. Azerbaijanis are very keen on hopes
of eventual integration with Western economic and security structures.
Disappointment over one-sided U.S. foreign policy, driven solely
by limited Armenian ethnic interests, may diminish Azerbaijan’s
pro-Western drive and increase Iran’s influence in this sensitive
region. Not to mention that a bias in the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict harms U.S. position of an impartial mediator and weakens
Azerbaijani confidence in the sincerity of U.S. support for their
fledgling democracy.
As the result of conflict during the 1988-1994 period, serious material
damage has been inflicted, currently at $22 billion dollars.
Overall area of the occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan
is 17,000 sq.km (10,563 sq.miles). Occupied regions of Azerbaijan
have been totally destroyed and robbed; more than 877 settlements
have been burned and destroyed. Over 30,000 people were killed,
more than 568,000 people from western regions of Azerbaijan under
Armenian occupation since 1993, including 42,072 from Nagorno-Karabakh,
remained displaced within the country.
.
Being the co-chair to the OSCE Minsk group and a country with a
multi-tiered economic and political relationship, the US should be more
proactive in conflict resolution. As the country which introduced
and supported the Baker Rules, the US should also be proactive
in enforcement of the negotiation format where the Azerbaijani and
Armenian communities of Karabakh are recognized as interested parties,
which means the leadership of Azerbaijan community of Karabakh should
be brought into negotiation and visited every time the co-chair visits
the region.
I join Azerbaijani- and Turkic-Americans, members of the Pax Turcica
Institute, to express my disappointment over foreign ethnic agenda
disgracefully tainting our national interests and to urge a prompt
White House nomination and Senate confirmation of U.S. Ambassador
to Azerbaijan.
Jamila Scheve grew up and lived most of her life in Azerbaijan,
a former Soviet republic. After earning a Ph.D in Literature in the
former Soviet Union, she taught at the University of Foreign Languages
in her native country. She became a U.S. citizen in 2009 and now lives
in Anchorage. She is an activist of the Azerbaijani-American Council.
The views expressed here are the writer’s own and are not necessarily
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