Category: 2023

Nagarno-Karabakh Crisis Reaches New Heights: Aid Attempts Blocked – OpEd

Emil Lazarian
Aug 14 2023
 August 14, 2023 

By Ulyana Kubini

For over 7 months, residents in Nagorno-Karabakh (known locally as Artsakh) have suffered under a suffocating blockade imposed by Azerbaijan. Shortages of critical medications, food, and fuel have been widespread.

In the region, 120,000 Armenians, including 30,000 children and 20,000 elderly individuals, are depending on scarce local resources for their survival. No goods or medicine have been allowed in for over a month. But those supplies cannot last forever.  Recently, they have reached their limits.

In response to the total blockade, the President of Nagorno-Karabakh Arayik Harutyunyan officially announced the region as a disaster zone, calling upon UN Security Council to take action against Azerbaijan for blocking the Lachin Corridor, the sole corridor through which aid is provided to Karabakh residents.

The President told Karabakh journalists in an urgent press conference that, “Right now Artsakh [Nagorno Karabakh] is the only territory in the world to be in total isolation and under blockade, without any humanitarian aid or international presence,” adding that if the international community continues to turn a blind eye to the suffering of Karabakh residents, Karabakh could be classified as a “concentration camp.” 

In an attempt to meet the needs of the Armenian population in Karabakh, Yerevan has sent a convoy of trucks filled with humanitarian aid carrying over 360 tons of food and goods. However, transferring these goods to the civilian population may prove to be a challenge, as the trucks are yet to pass through Azeri checkpoints.

The aid from Yerevan, the only aid residents have been receiving since Azerbaijan cut off assistance in December of 2022, has been stuck at the Azeri checkpoint near Lachin for several days. Azeri president justified the move by calling Yerevan’s aid a “provocation” and a “violation of international law.”

However, it is Azerbaijan that has (and currently is) violating international law by blocking humanitarian aid and imposing an illegal blockade on Karabakh, akin to collective punishment. Both the European Parliament and the International Court of Justice have demanded Azerbaijan lift the blockade and open the corridor to no avail. 

Thus far, only India has given significant arms to Armenia, including rockets, missiles, and ammunition in a deal valued at $250 million USD. The deal included the highly valued Pinaka MBRLS, a high tech missile launcher equivalent to Western HIMARS.

Ulyana Kubini is a Ukrainian-American entrepreneur and political activist. She is a the owner and operator of Mezzno, a food e-commerce platform focused on local economies. Kubini is a writer for the the mental health testing organization HIGH5 and an avid reader of libertarian theory.

https://www.eurasiareview.com/14082023-nagarno-karabakh-crisis-reaches-new-heights-aid-attempts-blocked-oped/ 

Turkish Press: Azerbaijan rejects French allegations over Lachin road

Garo Vardanian
DAILY SABAH
Turkey – Aug 16 2023

The French Foreign Ministry is under fire after it accused Azerbaijan of a "blockade" of the Lachin road, the only land route giving Armenia access to Karabakh. Azerbaijan on Wednesday rejected the allegations.

"We once again remind that it is absurd to portray as a ‘blockade’ the activity of the Lachin border checkpoint established in accordance with Azerbaijan’s obligation to guarantee the safety of citizens, vehicles and cargo on the Lachin road, as well as to prevent the misuse of the Lachin road by Armenia for military and illegal economic purposes,” a statement from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said. Armenia claims the Lachin road is blockaded by Azerbaijan, a claim Baku denies.

In a statement on Tuesday following a phone conversation with the Armenian foreign minister, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna deplored the "blockade" of the road. She stressed that Azerbaijan must comply with its international obligations, in particular, "the provisional measures indicated by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its order of February 22, which are binding." Reacting to Paris, Azerbaijan regretted that France does not support Azerbaijan’s proposals to establish alternative routes into Karabakh, such as the Aghdam-Khankendi road, which it said is supported by the EU and the Red Cross.

At the same time, the French side did not react to the violation of the agreement by Armenia, which is using alternative roads to further aggravate the tension in the region, Baku said. It also said that the French side "did not pay attention" to the unanimous rejection of Armenia’s request to remove the checkpoint by the ICJ on July 6. Despite ongoing talks over a long-term peace agreement, tensions between the neighboring countries rose in recent months over the Lachin road, where Azerbaijan established a border checkpoint in April on the grounds of preventing the illegal transport of military arms and equipment to the region.

The two former Soviet republics have been archrivals since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions. It culminated in 44 days of war in 2020, when Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages and settlements from Armenian occupation. The war ended with a Russia-brokered peace agreement.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Azerbaijan said it detained a member of a sabotage group of the Armenian military as they attempted to infiltrate the country’s Kalbajar district in East Zangezur. "On Aug. 16, around 11:15 a.m. (7:15 a.m. GMT), the intelligence-sabotage group of the Armenian armed forces tried to infiltrate the territory of Azerbaijan using the gaps between the combat positions located in the direction of the settlement of Istisu, the Kalbajar district, in order to carry out terrorist-sabotage operations,” a statement by the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said. The attempt of the Armenian military was prevented "as a result of the vigilance of our units,” the statement said, adding that a member of the sabotage group was detained by military personnel. The detained person was injured and other members of the sabotage group were forced to retreat, it also said. "Information about the detained member of the group is currently being clarified. Additional information will be provided to the public,” the statement concluded.

Baku says Armenian sabotage group tried to infiltrate Azerbaijani territory, Yerevan refutes claim

Karapet Navasardian
IRAN FRONT PAGE
Aug 16 2023
ByIFP Media Wire

An attempt by an Armenian sabotage and reconnaissance group to infiltrate into Azerbaijan has been foiled and one of its members was detained, the Azeri defense ministry announced.

“On August 16 at about 11:15 a.m. (10:15 Moscow time a.m.), a sabotage and reconnaissance group of the Armenian armed forces, taking advantage of the gaps between the combat positions of the Azerbaijani army located in the direction of the Istisu settlement of the Kalbajar district, tried to infiltrate into the territory of Azerbaijan in order to carry out sabotage and terrorist operations. <…> With the support of firearms, the provocation of the Armenian military was stopped. As a result, Azerbaijani servicemen detained a wounded member of the sabotage group,” the statement said.

According to the defense ministry, other members of the Armenian group were “forced to retreat.”

“At present, the data on the detained member of the group are being clarified,” the Defense Ministry added.

The Armenian Defense Ministry has branded as misinformation a statement by the defense ministry of Azerbaijan on a sabotage attempt by Armenia’s armed forces in the eastern sector of the border between the two countries.

"The statement issued by the MoD of Azerbaijan as if the units of the RA Armed Forces fired against the Azerbaijani combat outposts located in the eastern part of the border on August 15, at around 6:05 p.m., is another disinformation,” its statement said.

The military agency reiterated that, according to preliminary data, one of the reserve servicemen who participated in a training mission had left his combat position. “A possible version and all the circumstances of the reservist appearing on the Azerbaijani side are being investigated,” the ministry added.

Armenian minister discusses need to avert ‘humanitarian disaster’ in Karabakh with Russia’s Lavrov – TASS

Aram Torosian
Aug 16 2023
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said he had discussed the need to prevent 'a "humanitarian disaster" in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Wednesday.

https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/2560471-armenian-minister-discusses-need-to-avert-humanitarian-disaster-in-karabakh-with-russias-lavrov—tass



Nagorno-Karabakh: ‘Disastrous’ blockade chokes essential supplies

Karapet Navasardian
India – Aug 16 2023
TbilisiEdited By: Manas Joshi

Internationally, Karabakh is recognised as a part of Azerbaijan. However, the population of 120,000 is predominantly ethnic Armenian. The enclave has one remaining land link to Armenia, the Lachin corridor, which is policed by Russian peacekeepers, was first disrupted in December


Residents of Nagorno-Karabakh have said that Azerbaijani blockade of the breakaway region is choking supplies of food, medicines and other essential supplies. The blockade has dragged on in its ninth month. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is slated to discuss the blockade on Wednesday (August 16). A former International Criminal Court prosecutor this month said this month that blockade may amount to a "genocide" of the local Armenian population. Azerbaijan's lawyers have said that these claims are unsubstantiated and inaccurate. 


Internationally, Karabakh is recognised as a part of Azerbaijan. However, the population of 120,000 is predominantly ethnic Armenian. The enclave has one remaining land link to Armenia, the Lachin corridor, which is policed by Russian peacekeepers, was first disrupted in December.

Reuters quoted Karabakh residents who said that basic foodstuffs, fuel and medicine were not only in short supply but were almost exhausted.

"It's been a very long time since I've eaten any dairy produce, or eggs," said Nina Shahverdyan, a 23-year-old English teacher quoted by Reuters. 

"It's been disastrous because we don't have gas. We have electricity blackouts." 

After the blockade, Karabakh's population has tightened its belt and has preferred to eat what can be produced locally.

The residents said even food produced within Karabakh itself is delivered only sporadically to Stepanakert, the region's capital, as farmers lack fuel to bring their products to market.

The crisis is also being taken as an indication that Russia struggling to project its influence in post-Soviet states especially after start of the Ukraine war.

Karabakh was claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917, and broke away from Azerbaijan in a war in the early 1990s. 

In 2020, there was another conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia post which Azerbaijan retook territory in and around the enclave. The war ended in a Russian-brokered ceasefire.

The agreement required Russia to ensure that road transport between Armenia and Karabakh remained open.

Since the ceasefire, road links between Armenia and Karabakh hinged on the Lachin corridor, which was blockaded in December by Azerbaijani civilians identifying themselves as ecological activists, while Russian peacekeepers did not intervene. In April, Azerbaijani border guards installed a checkpoint on the route, tightening the blockade.

(With inputs from agencies)

Azerbaijan Targets EU Observers in Armenia Before UN Security Council Meeting on Nagorno-Karabakh

Greg Madatian
Aug 16 2023

Azerbaijan Firing at Representatives of EU Observers in Armenia Prior to the UN Security Council Emergency Meeting on the Nagorno-Karabakh Blockade

STEPANAKERT, REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH, /EINPresswire.com/ — Azerbaijan Firing at Representatives of EU Observers in Armenia Prior to the UN Security Council Emergency Meeting on the Nagorno-Karabakh Blockade

Today, the United Nations Security Council will be holding an emergency meeting in response to the appeal by Armenia saying that Nagorno-Karabakh is facing a full-fledged humanitarian catastrophe due to an unlawful blockade imposed by Azerbaijan. As a result, over 120,000 people of Nagorno-Karabakh have endured over eight months without unimpeded access to necessities such as food, medication, other essential goods, gas and electricity, while for already two months those people are under total siege without any supplies. This situation has led to documented cases of starvation and sharp increase of mortality rates there.

On the eve of the discussion in the UN SC, Azerbaijan is trying to escalate tensions in the region aiming to divert the international attention away from the illegal closure of the Lachin corridor. Yesterday the Azerbaijani Armed forces discharged fire targeting the representatives of EU observer mission in Armenia (EUMA) patrolling near Verin Shorzha and their vehicle. This occurred the day after the European Union Mission in Armenia officially denied the Azerbaijani disinformation concerning the concentration of Armenian Armed Forces on the border. It is important to remember that a mere two months ago, the Azerbaijani Ambassador to the European Union in his Twitter microblog issued threats of violence against members of the delegation of the European Parliament, who had visited the Armenian border area, urging them to stay away from the border with Azerbaijan.

The presence of both European officials and the EU observation mission poses obstacles for Azerbaijani aggressive policy, as they document the country’s provocations and even have directly countered Azerbaijani disinformation. By escalating the situation, Baku aims to discredit the EU mission, which it opposed from the outset, and, ultimately, to derail the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan on the Western platforms.

Azerbaijan employs various means, including official statements and an increasingly active propaganda machinery, to undermine the credibility of specific international actors engaged in mediation efforts. In the first place, of course, is France, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, which has unreservedly addressed concerns about the unlawful closure of the Lachin corridor and the escalation of the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh. Moreover, Azerbaijan accuses France of "deliberately increasing tensions in the region". The accusations have grown more serious after the French Foreign Minister expressed support for Armenia during a telephone conversation with the Armenian Foreign Minister prior to the UN Security Council meeting.

At the same time, Azerbaijan expresses confidence that a decision within the Security Council will be unattainable, and "promises" that any resolution passed by the UN will not force Baku to change its tactics. Moreover, Azerbaijan has been consistently disregarding international commitments made by the leaders of Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan in the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights of December 21, 2022, as well as the orders of the International Court of Justice of February 22 and July 6, 2023. It has been carrying out provocations accompanied by aggressive militaristic rhetoric. Rather than contributing to the establishment of confidence-building mechanisms, Azerbaijan continues to engage in grave international crimes and provocations, undermining the negotiation process and frame the UN Security Council discussion as an obstacle to negotiations.

In fact, the UN Security Council discussion could yield a range of outcomes: from dispatching a fact-finding mission to Nagorno-Karabakh and delivering humanitarian aid, to adopting a resolution that compels Azerbaijan to adhere to the decisions of the International Court of Justice.

Last week, Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, released an impartial report on Azerbaijan's imposed blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh. The report concluded that the ongoing situation constitutes genocide according to Article II of the Genocide Convention: "(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part." Ocampo emphasized that "Starvation is the invisible Genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks."

Hence, the EU can and must stop this genocide utilizing its influential levers over Azerbaijan to save the indigenous people of Nagorno-Karabakh and to protect human rights worldwide.

Hagop Ipdjian
Unblock Humanity
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https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/650244167/azerbaijan-targets-eu-observers-in-armenia-before-un-security-council-meeting-on-nagorno-karabakh

Pressure mounts on U.S., others to stop Azerbaijan’s blockade as expert warns of genocide

Mike Maghakian
AXIOS
Aug 16 2023
  • Sareen Habeshian

The U.S. and other countries are facing growing pressure to do more to stop Azerbaijan's blockade of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, where a former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court recently determined ethnic Armenians are facing genocide.

The big picture: The blockade has left about 120,000 people largely without food, medicine, drinking water and other essentials, despite more than a dozen large trucks loaded with aid ready to enter the region.

  • The contested territory of Nagorno-Karabakh is within Azerbaijan's internationally recognized borders, but its population is predominantly Armenian and it has its own government that is closely linked to Armenia.

What they're saying: Former ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo concluded in a report last week that the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is an ongoing genocide.

  • "Starvation is the invisible Genocide weapon," Ocampo wrote, adding that without "immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks."

Ocampo is now making urgent demands for the international community, including the U.S., to step in.

  • As a signatory of the Genocide Convention, the U.S. has the obligation to act, Ocampo told Axios.
  • It's a call echoed by human rights groups. The U.S., European Union, the UN and others must "press Azerbaijan to stop and to ensure that there is free and adequate flow of food, medicine and humanitarian goods through the Lachin road," Rachel Denber, deputy director of the Human Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia division, told Axios.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the end of July and "underscored the urgent need for free transit of commercial, humanitarian, and private vehicles through the Lachin corridor," according to the State Department.

  • But Ocampo and rights groups say it's not enough. The U.S. must come together with other parties to "find an agreement on how to treat the problem politically," Ocampo said, adding that if "there is no such agreement, the problem is now that it's clear that the U.S. will be an accomplice of a genocide."

The State Department told Axios in an emailed statement that the U.S. "remains deeply concerned about Azerbaijan's continued closure of the Lachin corridor."

  • It added that free transit must be restored immediately.

Catch up quick: The entrance to the Lachin Corridor – a lifeline to Armenia for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh – has been mostly closed since December.

  • Hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia, former Soviet republics, persist despite last year's Russia-brokered cease-fire that came after Azerbaijan launched an attack on Armenia, escalating a decades-long dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
  • Russian peacekeepers stationed at the entrance to the Lachin Corridor were supposed to ensure free movement, but months later, the area remains cut off from the rest of the world. Azerbaijan has established a military checkpoint, blocking all traffic, AP reports.

Azerbaijani officials claim the checkpoint is necessary for security reasons. They have accused the International Committee of the Red Cross of using its medical vehicles for "smuggling" undeclared goods.

  • The ICRC said in a statement that "no unauthorized material has been found" in any vehicles owned by the organization, but it does "regret" that without its knowledge "four hired drivers tried to transport some commercial goods in their own vehicles which were temporarily displaying the ICRC emblem."
  • Azerbaijani officials have also rejected that genocide is taking place, claiming without providing evidence that Ocampo's conclusion "represents serious factual, legal and substantive errors."

What to watch: The UN Security Council is expected to meet later on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

  • Ocampo believes that if the U.S., Russia and the European Union, could "combine the efforts, they stop this in 24 hours." But he acknowledged that Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Moscow's deepening relationship with Azerbaijan have complicated the situation.
  • It's unclear if Russia would use its veto power if the UN Security Council decided to take action and refer the case to the ICC, as Ocampo and others have called for. Still, Ocampo told Axios, "Armenians cannot be a collateral victim of the Ukrainian conflict."
  • Human rights groups and Ocampo have also urged Azerbaijan to abide by an order from the International Criminal Court of Justice to end the blockade.

The bottom line: "This genocide is a test for the international community," Ocampo told Axios. "Can we create a 21st century with no genocide?"

Nagorno-Karabakh residents say ‘disastrous’ blockade choking supplies

Emil Lazarian
REUTERS
Aug 16 2023
By Felix Light
  • UN Security Council to discuss eight-month Karabakh blockade
  • Armenians may face genocide in Karabakh, says former ICC prosecutor
  • Azerbaijan says it needed to stop arms supplies from Armenia

TBILISI, Aug 15 (Reuters) – Residents of Nagorno-Karabakh say it is getting harder to access food, medicines and other essential supplies as an Azerbaijani blockade of the breakaway region drags into its ninth month.

The U.N. Security Council will discuss the blockade on Wednesday, after a former International Criminal Court prosecutor this month said the blockade may amount to a "genocide" of the local Armenian population – an assertion that Azerbaijan's lawyers said was unsubstantiated and inaccurate.

Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but its population of 120,000 is overwhelmingly ethnic Armenian and the enclave's one remaining land link to Armenia, the Lachin corridor policed by Russian peacekeepers, was first disrupted in December.

Three residents of Karabakh said basic foodstuffs, fuel and medicine were almost exhausted.

"It's been a very long time since I've eaten any dairy produce, or eggs," Nina Shahverdyan, a 23-year-old English teacher, said in a video call with Reuters from the region's capital, which local Armenians call Stepanakert.

"It's been disastrous because we don't have gas. We have electricity blackouts."

Armenia's foreign minister, Ararat Mirzoyan, discussed the situation in Karabakh on Wednesday with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and stressed the need to avert a "humanitarian disaster" there, Russia's TASS state news agency reported.

Karabakh's population has tightened its belt since the blockade, eating only what can be produced locally.

The residents said even food produced within Karabakh itself is delivered only sporadically to Stepanakert, as farmers lack fuel to bring their products to market.

Ani Balayan, a recent high school graduate and photographer, said she had last eaten meat around two weeks ago. She said her family was surviving on bread, alongside the tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon still available in Stepanakert's markets.

For some weeks, footage has shown Stepanakert's supermarket shelves bare, with little or nothing on sale.

"I went to bed hungry for several days because I could not find bread to bring home," Balayan said.

The crisis has highlighted how Russia, which is pre-occupied with the war in Ukraine, is struggling to project its influence in neighbouring post-Soviet states.

Karabakh was claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917, and broke away from Azerbaijan in a war in the early 1990s.

In 2020, Azerbaijan retook territory in and around the enclave after a second war that ended in a Russia-brokered ceasefire. The agreement required Russia to ensure that road transport between Armenia and Karabakh remained open.

Since the ceasefire, road links between Armenia and Karabakh hinged on the Lachin corridor, which was blockaded in December by Azerbaijani civilians identifying themselves as ecological activists, while Russian peacekeepers did not intervene.

In April, Azerbaijani border guards installed a checkpoint on the route, tightening the blockade.

This month, former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo described the blockade as potentially constituting a "genocide" of Karabakh Armenians and intending "to starve" them.

Rodney Dixon, a lawyer appointed by Azerbaijan to give an assessment on Ocampo's opinion, called the view "strikingly" unsubstantiated, inflammatory and inaccurate.

Farhad Mammadov, the head of Baku's Centre for Studies of the South Caucasus think tank, said that controls on the road were necessary to prevent the transit of "arms and Armenian soldiers" to and from Karabakh.

Azerbaijan has said it is ready to open supplies to Karabakh via territory under its control, but that the separatist authorities must dissolve and integrate the region into Azerbaijan. The Armenian side has said that the blockade is aimed at forcing Karabakh into unconditional surrender to Baku.

English teacher Shahverdyan said: "They are doing so that the people become… so desperate that they just simply leave".

However, like other Karabakh Armenians who spoke to Reuters, Shahverdyan said it had only bolstered their determination to stay in their ancestral homeland.

"How can you live under a government or people who starve you for eight months?"

Reporting by Felix Light; editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Devika Syamnath and Nick Macfie

Azerbaijan’s blockade of Nagorno Karabakh and the failure of US diplomacy

Tania Jagharian
eKathimerini, Greece
Aug 16 2023
PODCASTS

The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the worsening humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, or Artsakh, as a result of Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin corridor. For over eight months, the region’s 120,000 indigenous Armenians have been deprived access to food, medicine, fuel, electricity, and water.

Gev Iskajyan, the Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of Artsakh, joins Thanos Davelis from Artsakh to look at the humanitarian crisis that’s unfolding on the ground as a result of Azerbaijan’s blockade, and discuss his latest op-ed which explores how US diplomacy is currently failing the people of Artsakh and Armenia. 

Listen to the podcast at 

https://www.ekathimerini.com/multimedia/podcasts/1217857/azerbaijans-blockade-of-nagorno-karabakh-and-the-failure-of-us-diplomacy/

Azerbaijan military assistance waiver delayed as review drags on

Yeghisabet Arthur
POLITICO
Aug 16 2023

DEFENSE

Lawmakers and Armenian groups are calling on the Biden administration to end exemptions that allow Baku to receive security assistance from the U.S.

Every year since 2002, the White House has issued a waiver to provide aid to Azerbaijan despite its campaign against Nagorno-Karabakh. | Ghulam Rasool/AFP/Getty Images

By ERIC BAZAIL-EIMIL and GABRIEL GAVIN

08/16/2023 02:12 PM EDT

The Biden administration appears to be slow-walking the renewal of a long-standing military assistance program to Azerbaijan amid growing warnings of ethnic cleansing in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Every year since 2002, the White House has issued a waiver to provide aid to Azerbaijan despite its campaign against Nagorno-Karabakh. That waiver has previously been completed before the summer, but this year it is still pending halfway through August.

Officials have offered no explanation for the delay. However, it coincides with increasing concern within the international community that Azerbaijan is responsible for a worsening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan has hardened its stance against the ethnic Armenian population there in recent months, blocking the entry of commercial and humanitarian vehicles and shutting off the region’s access to gas and electricity. The U.N. Security Council will consider an appeal from Armenia to respond to the worsening situation Wednesday.

The delay in issuing the authorization — called the Section 907 waiver — also comes as the Biden administration pursues a long-elusive peace agreement between the two countries, one that experts say could be close. Ending assistance to Azerbaijan could rule out Baku’s participation in future negotiations.

These competing political pressures are creating a delicate landscape in the South Caucasus for the Biden administration, which is caught in a struggle between its values and the pragmatic realities of geopolitics.

“Going ahead with the 907 waiver at this particular moment would create a political firestorm for Biden,” said Matthew Bryza, a former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan and Bush administration official. “But killing the 907 waiver at this delicate diplomatic juncture would seriously risk derailing a peace treaty that is closer than it has ever been.”

Spokespeople for the State Department and the National Security Council confirmed that the military assistance waiver remains under review but denied that the current state of peace talks or recent events in Nagorno-Karabakh were affecting the timeline for renewing it.

“U.S. policy on Azerbaijan has not changed,” a State Department spokesperson said, adding “The United States values its strategic partnership with Azerbaijan.” The spokesperson was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomatic issue.

Nagorno-Karabakh has been controlled by its ethnic Armenian population since a war that followed the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. In 2020, Azerbaijan launched an offensive to retake swathes of territory. A Moscow-brokered ceasefire paused the fighting, yet Russian peacekeepers deployed to the region have failed to maintain the status quo.


In December, Azerbaijan took control of the Lachin Corridor — the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the outside world — and prevented humanitarian supplies including food and fuel from getting through.

The Armenian government has called it an effort to carry out “ethnic cleansing” in the region, while the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, last week issued a report arguing that ethnic cleansing is already underway in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In an interview, Moreno Ocampo argued that if the international community fails to act, it will be “complicit in genocide.”

The U.S. and EU-brokered peace talks, meanwhile, have stalled in recent months as Azerbaijan has refused to hold mediated dialogues with leaders from Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian community.

Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act of 1992 bars the United States from offering assistance to Azerbaijan unless Baku takes “demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.”

The White House first issued the assistance waiver in 2002 when Azerbaijan allowed the Bush administration to use the country’s territory as a land bridge to get troops into Afghanistan. That opened the door for wide-ranging military and security partnerships between the two countries.

Azerbaijan, a major producer of natural gas that shares a maritime and land border with Iran, has also proved to be a useful partner for the U.S. in the Middle East as a counterweight to Tehran.

Azerbaijan receives significant military and financial support from Washington. Amid growing tensions with neighboring Iran in 2018, the Trump administration stepped up funding for the country’s border guards, providing $100 million worth of equipment and other assistance, making the South Caucasus nation one of the main beneficiaries of American tax dollars in the region. During the 2020 war, more than a dozen Democrats including then-Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez of New Jersey, wrote to the State Department urging that support be suspended.

Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, said that efforts to restrict military support for Azerbaijan were being orchestrated by “representatives of Congress who actually represent the Armenian lobby and aren’t thinking about their own national interest.” Such actions, he added, could be “detrimental” to the efforts of the U.S. and its allies in trying to secure a lasting peace.

The Armenian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.

Armenian diaspora groups want the U.S. to halt military assistance to Azerbaijan. They argue U.S. attempts to influence Azerbaijan via Section 907 have fallen short.

Gev Iskajyan, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, a group that advocates on behalf of the Armenian diaspora in the United States, explained that the U.S. has previously used the waiver in order to get concessions from Azerbaijan, only to relent and grant the waiver before Baku makes any changes.

“They dangle the waiver in front of [Azerbaijan], but at the last minute it’s always given,” Iskajyan said. “That strategy hasn’t been working.”

“There is a growing awareness on Capitol Hill that U.S. military support for Azerbaijan is enabling Aliyev to commit war crimes and human rights abuses against Armenians,” said Tim Jemal, president of the Global ARM advocacy group, which has been meeting with D.C. politicians as part of a push for sanctions. “There must be consequences for Azerbaijan’s bad behavior.”

A number of lawmakers on Capitol Hill want to see the waiver eliminated. “There is no justifiable reason to continue this waiver,” Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), the Republican co-chair of the Congressional Armenian Caucus said in a statement Monday, noting that Azerbaijan has used military equipment obtained from the U.S. against the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“We have to be tougher with Aliyev if we want a peace deal,” said Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.). “What we’ve done so far hasn’t done anything to help a peace agreement, so getting tougher is more likely to achieve a good end.”

Eric Bazail-Eimil reported from Washington. Gabriel Gavin reported from Yerevan, Armenia.


https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/16/azerbaijan-military-assistance-waiver-00111472