The United States’ biased approach to South Caucasus policy has targeted Azerbaijan since the early days of its statehood, as far back as 1992. How can we forget the notorious 907th amendment to the Freedom Support Act, later discredited by U.S. “guardians of democracy”? This amendment prohibited aid to “the government of Azerbaijan until the President determines and reports to Congress that Azerbaijan is taking demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.” Eventually, the president did make this determination and report. This shift catered to the interests of a new regional order in Eurasia amidst the waning influence of Yeltsinism.
Back then, in 1992, such contradictions hardly disturbed NATO’s “champions of freedom and human rights,” despite pro-Western leaders like Elchibey and the Popular Front of Azerbaijan being in power. After all, evidence of Armenian occupation extended beyond Nagorno-Karabakh to the lowland regions, becoming known worldwide.
Clearly, norms of international law and principles of morality clashed with the hegemonic ambitions of the U.S., which pursued a classic “Divide and Conquer” strategy in the region.
Let’s return to the voices that eventually contradicted this “verdict of another time.” Years later, in 1998, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wrote to the Speaker of the House: “The 907th amendment now harms U.S. national interests, undermining neutrality in the Karabakh conflict, hindering support for economic and legal reforms in Azerbaijan, and obstructing efforts to develop an East-West energy corridor.”
Renowned British journalist Thomas de Waal deemed the amendment “the most anomalous part of U.S. foreign policy.” Swedish scholar Svante Cornell went further, noting, “The United States continues its harmful interference in the horrific conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, amplifying the suffering of a million Azerbaijani refugees and pushing a resolution further out of reach. The U.S. encourages the aggressor and occupier… Is it really in U.S. interests to prohibit basic humanitarian aid to a small country crucial to regional stability and economic potential?”
The temporary suspension of the 907th amendment in 2001 stemmed not from remorse or justice, but from new geopolitical goals in the East as the U.S. prepared for military action in Afghanistan and the broader Middle East. Azerbaijan’s airspace was needed, and American values could be “reconsidered.”
New times, new geopolitics, and a regional shift now motivate Washington’s intent to leverage Armenia’s revanchist sentiments to establish a new foothold to counter Russia in the South Caucasus.
In this cunning geopolitical maneuver, Azerbaijan’s independent foreign policy, military-political strength, high economic development, and growing international influence stand in the way. The U.S. failed to turn Azerbaijan into a base; Georgia’s stronghold has fallen… Only Armenia remains.
A recent appeal by 60 Congress members to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging pressure on President Ilham Aliyev to grant amnesty to the leaders of the criminal separatist regime in Karabakh ahead of the COP29 climate summit, is part of this new strategy. So are the outrageous initiatives by Congressman Adam Schiff, who proposes seizing Azerbaijani assets for the benefit of “Karabakh Armenians” and creating a “Reconstruction Fund for Artsakh.” And what of the populist statements by presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, eager to “bring Armenians back to Karabakh” under the banner of “Christian solidarity”? The climax of this expansionist agenda came with the joint U.S.-Armenia military exercises on the border of a country once considered a bulwark against pro-Russian Armenia. Such are the transformations of U.S. policy, steeped in “Trumpism” and inheriting “McCarthyism,” using the guise of “human rights” amid civil wars and ethnoreligious conflicts, turning entire peoples into bargaining chips. America is mired in political mud, abandoning allies in Afghanistan, placating dictators in Latin America, reneging on commitments to Ukraine, playing the “Kurdish card” against NATO ally Turkey, and making life hell for Palestinians…
Today, the U.S. professes deep loyalty and devotion to Armenia, though yesterday it stood guard over Azerbaijan’s oil fields. Tomorrow, as geopolitics shifts once more, it may abandon its followers in Yerevan to face the “Russian Taliban.” Secretaries of State and Congress members will denounce past appeals for unjust sanctions against Azerbaijan—if such is required by the new geo-economics and transport corridors. Nothing personal—just business. Another ancient curse of this fleeting world!
Adem Ismail Bakuvi
Translated from haqqin.az
