Since the 2020 war over Nagorno-Karabakh, it has become apparent that Azerbaijan is set on reconquering the region, also called Artsakh, even at the risk of displacing the 120,000 indigenous ethnic Armenians that live there.
Armenia and Azerbaijan sit at a strategic location at the junction of Iran and Russia, so it is in the United States' national security interest to ensure a satisfactory resolution to this conflict. It is also in keeping with our national commitment to promoting religious freedom that we ensure endangered religious minorities receive protection.
Thankfully, the U.S. has strong relationships with both Armenia and Azerbaijan and we have a tool in the Section 907 waiver to pressure Azerbaijan to stop its aggressive behavior. The waiver allows the president to waive a law that blocks U.S. aid to Azerbaijan. This also provides an opportunity to call on Armenia to reassess its relationships with Russia and Iran.
Azerbaijan bases their claim to Karabakh on borders drawn by dictator Josef Stalin in the early days of the Soviet Union. In general, the international community has not refuted that claim, though there are reasons to think Stalin placed this Armenian mountain enclave within Azerbaijan in order to weaken both states and keep them beholden to the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the USSR, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought over the Karabakh and Armenia won a limited victory, in what eventually became a frozen conflict. Azerbaijan has made no secret that it wishes to reclaim control of the area, increasing its pressure on the inhabitants in recent years.
The current Azerbaijan blockade of the Lachin corridor, the only road for commerce in and out of Karabakh, has created unbearable hardship for the ethnic Armenians living there. Food and medicines are running out and disruptions in the flow of natural gas have been blamed on Azerbaijan. For hospitals and the elderly, the situation is critical.
A cleansing of ethnic Armenians from Azerbaijan is not without precedent. In the lead up to the first Nagorno-Karabakh War, Armenians were driven out of the rest of Azerbaijan, with a similar eradication of Azerbaijanis from Armenia occurring at the same time.
When pressed on the current blockade, the response from Azerbaijani authorities is to dodge responsibility, blaming organically organized environmental protesters and Russian peacekeepers for the road closure. These excuses are not very convincing as the government has directed Azerbaijanis not to enter the disputed territories without being issued a permit to do so. Some violators have been arrested. The protests seem to be coming with government approval and with protesters arriving on charter buses.
Azerbaijan also signed a significant treaty with Russia on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. President Ilham Aliyev has called it a full alliance between the two countries. Shifting responsibility isn't going to cut it.
The U.S. State Department and the International Court of Justice have both recognized Azerbaijan's responsibility for the blockade, calling on them to resolve the crisis. Even so, Azerbaijan refuses to do so, displaying confidence the U.S. will not hold them accountable. We should call their bluff.
The U.S. has an important strategic relationship with Azerbaijan that blossomed during the War on Terror. In 2002, Congress provided the U.S. president with the right to waive a law passed in 1992 restricting most types of aid to Azerbaijan (then-Senator Sam Brownback sponsored the amendment to provide the president with this waiver authority). Since then, presidents have consistently applied this waiver and provided a wide range of military aid to Azerbaijan. The Aliyev has been a key partner in containing Iranian ambitions and that should not be disregarded, but the value of the relationship with Azerbaijan does not give them license to strangle an ethnoreligious minority group with impunity.
Instead, our close relationship gives the U.S. the right to call them to account for their actions.
The president should act immediately to revoke the Section 907 waiver he has extended and put any aid on hold until Azerbaijan demonstrates they will work through peaceful means to resolve the conflict.
Revoking the Section 907 waiver would also send a strong message to the State Department that the White House and Congress rely on them to effectively and accurately meet their statutory reporting requirements. A report by the Government Accountability Office found that the State Department was woefully out of compliance with a provision in the Section 907 amendment requiring them to provide insight on whether U.S. aid was impacting the balance of military power between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
We should not miss this opportunity to also call on Armenia to reconsider its regional friendships with Russia and Iran. While there are few good options available to a small landlocked nation like Armenia, looking to Russia and Iran for protection is inviting the fox to guard the hen house. If Armenia is to survive in this rough neighborhood, they must look to expand their network of alliances and partnerships.
The U.S. is well positioned to be an arbiter in this conflict, ending an urgent humanitarian crisis and upholding our commitment to the protection of religious minorities, but to do so we will have to show Baku we mean business. Revoking the Section 907 waiver is the best way to do that.
Sam Brownback is the former U.S. ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom and co-chair of the IRF Summit.
Peter Burns (@peterburns_1861) is executive director of the International Religious Freedom Summit.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
