Azerbaijan has been used as a jumping platform for various counterterrorism operations. Additionally, the country has served as an important listening post as tensions mounted between the United States and Iran.

by Michael Rubin

The Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks brought a brief moment of unity to Americans but also ushered in a period of partisan foreign policy. During the Bush administration, Democrats drew partisan lines on the 2003 Iraq war, at least after they found little evidence that weapons of mass destruction existed. Republicans repaid the favor first on the Libya intervention, at least after the Benghazi debacle, and then on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Israel and Saudi Arabia remain firmly within progressive crosshairs. 

Joe Biden has made healing partisan discord a pillar of his campaign. Should the former vice president wish to carry that promise over to foreign policy, then he would find no better place to start than leading a bipartisan effort to stop the Azerbaijani assault on Nagorno-Karabakh, or Arsakh as locals call it. Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous region historically populated by Armenians. Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, however, transferred the region to Azerbaijani control as he sought to undercut nationalism in the Caucasus. Decades of communism imposed from afar were not enough to undo millennia of culture and history, however. As the Soviet Union crumbled, violence erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan while Armenians in the mountainous region fought ethnic cleansing and sought to rejoin Armenia. In the fighting that followed, Armenians largely re-asserted control over Nagorno-Karabakh, and the region has acted as a de facto independent republic ever since.

Against the backdrop of the initial fighting and credible reports of ethnic cleansing, Congress passed the Freedom Support Act, Section 907 of which determined U.S. aid “may not be provided to the Government of Azerbaijan until the President determines, and so reports to the Congress, that the Government of Azerbaijan is taking demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.” Azerbaijan has long argued this sanction was unfair given that the U.S. State Department recognizes and affirms the Stalin-era border changes, but initially found little support in Congress or the White House. 

This changed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Azerbaijani president Heydar Aliyev, father of current leader Ilham Aliyev and mastermind of the initial attempt to encircle Nagorno-Karabakh and drive out Armenians, allied himself with the United States in the wake of the Al Qaeda strikes and declared itself an ally in President George W. Bush’s “Global War on Terror.” Aliyev allowed Azerbaijan to be used for a number of counterterrorism operations, and the country also served as an important listening post as tensions mounted between the United States and Iran. The United Kingdom, perhaps motivated by British Petroleum’s interests in Azerbaijan, encouraged the rapprochement as did Israel, which Azerbaijan cultivated both directly and through Jewish organizations in the United States. 

As a reward for Azerbaijan’s positioning itself as a U.S. ally in a time of need, Congress  amendedSection 907 to allow a presidential waiver of restrictions on aid to Azerbaijan if such a waiver “is necessary to support United States efforts to counter international terrorism; is necessary to support the operational readiness of United States Armed Forces or coalition partners to counter international terrorism; is important to Azerbaijan’s border security; and will not undermine or hamper ongoing efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan or be used for offensive purposes against Armenia.”

The current Azerbaijani offensive, however, violates each condition of the Section 907 waiver, most recently extended in March 2020 by Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun. Whereas first Heydar and then Ilham Aliyev once stood against Al Qaeda, Azerbaijan now works in conjunction with Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries, many of whom previously served Al Qaeda-linked groups or the Islamic State. In essence, Azerbaijan is following the lead of both Turkey and Pakistan, both of which often depict themselves as counterterrorism partners while covertly supporting anti-Western terrorists. As the aggressor, Azeri forces further make a mockery of their own border security concerns and also act to undermine any pretense to a peaceful settlement. 

Azerbaijan publicly denies its aggression, but it hemorrhaged its credibility when its defense ministry posted a statement on Twitter that accused Armenia of ceasefire violations on Oct. 26, a move reminiscent of the 2013 incident when Baku accidentally released election results before the polls opened. Baku has also denied the presence of Syrian mercenaries transported into the theater by Turkey even as Azerbaijan-friendly journalists have interviewed the Syrians. 

Since 2018, the year popular revolution restored democracy in Armenia, the U.S. government has provided over $100 million in security assistance to Azerbaijan, even as that country continues its descent into authoritarianism. Rather than bring peace, this money now funds ethnic cleansing. On Oct. 28, Biden issued a statement calling on “the [Trump] administration [to] fully implement and not waive requirements under section 907 of the Freedom Support Act to stop the flow of military equipment to Azerbaijan, and call on Turkey and Russia to stop fueling the conflict with the supply of weapons and, in the case of Turkey, mercenaries.”  

During presidential campaigns, it is easy to play the role of backseat driver and question every decision the incumbent makes but let us hope that Biden and his aides are not merely posturing for political advantage. The current waiver of Section 907 violates the law upon which it is based and should be revoked immediately. That the State Department has turned a blind eye to Azeri violations and maintains the waiver is an affront to all Congressmen, whether Democrat or Republican.

Azerbaijan has shown the insincerity of both its counterterror commitments and its pledge to pursue a peaceful resolution of its dispute with Armenia. If Biden is victorious, then he can prove his rhetoric about working across the aisle to be sincere by establishing a broad, bipartisan coalition to end Azerbaijan’s free pass and descent into terror complicity. As he rebuilds confidence across the aisle, he might then leverage that domestic coalition to restore consensus on other issues, from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Middle East to Asia. There is no stronger foreign policy than one rooted in bipartisan consensus and cooperation. 

Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Saudi Arabia will close eight more schools associated with Turkey’s education administration, Anadolu reports, citing diplomatic sources.

The Saudi Arabian education ministry has informed the school administration of this decision.

Relations between Ankara and Riyadh have escalated since the 2018 Istanbul assassination of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Saudi Arabian authorities have been advocating an unofficial boycott of Turkish goods and services since October after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the Gulf kingdom and its allies of destabilizing the region.

Five Turkish schools in the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina were closed late last year, despite attempts by the Turkish authorities to intervene.

Underground Heritage Researcher in Azerbaijan

Andran Abramian – March 27, 2021

An Interview by Andran Abramian

The loss of irreplaceable monuments and, indeed, of the whole history of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabagh/Artsakh, now partially under Azerbaijani control, is greatly feared by millions of people of Armenian heritage. That fear is based on the reality of past acts of destruction by the Azerbaijani government of thousands of medieval Armenian monuments, especially in Nakhichevan.

Cultural Property News is privileged to publish a rare interview with Argam Ayvazyan, a researcher who underwent many risks to secretly document the history and monuments of the Armenian people in the Nakhichevan. The interviewer, Andran Abramian, is a documentary filmmaker who graduated from FAMU film academy in Prague. Abramian’s work focuses primarily on topics related to nature, psychology, society and ideologies. The Argam Ayvazyan interview is a part of a project in progress dealing with the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. Abramian and Ayvazyan spoke most recently in December 2020.

Geographically, Nakhichevan is an exclave belonging politically to Azerbaijan but separated from the bulk of the country by a section of Armenia. Nakhichevan borders both Turkey and Iran. The best-known case of systematic destruction of Armenian heritage at the medieval cemetery of Julfa (also called Djulfa of Jugha) was actually witnessed and filmed from across the border in Iran.

In his surveys in the Nakhichevan region of Azerbaijan between 1964 and 1987, Argam Ayvazyan personally recorded 89 standing churches and cathedrals that now no longer exist. He counted and documented 5,840 elaborate khachkars (cross-stones) and estimates some 22,000 flat tombstones which are now smashed, plowed under or removed. Eyewitness accounts – supported by statements in an Encyclopedia issued by Azerbaijani authorities – report that every remaining monument was destroyed by 2008 in the state sponsored campaign to eliminate Armenian history in the region.

Ayvazyan (born 1947, Arinj, Nakhichevan) is an Armenologist, cultural historian and author of more than 300 articles and 55 books, 48 ​​of which deal with the material and cultural heritage of Nakhichevan. On November 2-19, 2007, an exhibition of Argam Ayvazyan’s photographs of Nakhichevan monuments was held at Harvard University, displaying over 250 pictures. He worked in the Monument Protection Department of Armenian SSR, in the Art Institute and Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. Today, he is a senior researcher at the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography.

THE LAST JOURNEY TO THE HOMELAND – FRIENDLY ENCOUNTERS AND A NARROW ESCAPE

When was the last time you visited Nakhichevan?

I

t was the end of October 1987. At that time I worked at the Monument Protection Department of Armenia. My female colleagues wanted very much to visit Nakhichevan and asked me if I could arrange a trip. So I asked the head of our department, who gave us his consent to go for a business trip to Meghri, in south Armenia. At that time, the road from Yerevan to Meghri passed through the territory of Nakhichevan. But he warned us to be careful, as the Karabakh movement[1] was already emerging at that time. We took our department’s van. We visited the city of Nakhichevan, where we saw the magnificent Seljuq tomb of Momine Khatun[2] and the Armenian Church of St. George. Then we went to Abrakunis, where we took photos at St. Karapet Monastery[3] and continued to Tsghna, a famous settlement of Goght’n region[4]. We arrived there in the late afternoon and by chance we met one of my old friends, Martin, who lived in Yerevan, and he wouldn’t let us go. In an hour, Martin set up a sumptuous table on the large balcony of his father’s 18th century two-story house.  He hosted us with barbecue, village crops, homemade spirits… Ten other people from Tsghna gathered around the table and our party went on until 3 o’clock in the morning.

Did you ever get to Meghri [in Armenia] then?

Yes, we reached Meghri at dawn. After staying there for two days, we planned to visit the town of Agulis on the way back. As we entered Agulis[5] and parked the car at one of the Armenian cemeteries, I was completely stunned. The cemetery, which had held about 300 tombstones, was gone. A building had already been built in its place.

n less than five minutes, twenty or thirty [Azerbaijani] people gathered around us and started asking questions. Of course, they did not believe my explanations and I could hear them telling each other “Let’s go get gas and burn the car.” I ordered the girls to get in the car. They said, “How come? Why can’t we see the wonderful place and go later?” At my urging, we all got in the van and drove off. The mob started throwing stones and sticks at us and followed us with their cars all the way to the highway. I explained in the car what the people who surrounded us were saying and what could have happened to us. We might not have got out of the village alive.

I also planned to visit Julfa on the way back to retake pictures of 200 khachkars that I had photographed a year before, but the KGB had confiscated the films. In Julfa we visited the house of my old acquaintance, Mrs. Mariam, an elderly Armenian who lived there alone. By the time we set up the table to eat, the autumn weather changed; fog-like clouds accumulated and that’s why I didn’t try to enter the Julfa cemetery. I thought I would come and take the pictures next spring, when the weather would be better. Unfortunately, it was a fatal mistake. After the Karabakh movement started in February 1988, it became clear that it would no longer be possible to return there.

See more: https://culturalpropertynews.org/argam-ayvazyan-spy-researcher-for-nakhichevan-armenian-culture/

Joe Biden has received much praise from the US’s allies. At home, he has an approval rating of 54% after his first 100 days in office. This is the moment for him to consolidate his political power, DW’s Ines Pohl writes.

The leaders of the US’s historical allies have been particularly enthusiastic in their applause for President Joe Biden. The 78-year-old has displayed more energy in his first 100 days in office than many much younger people can dream of. The new man at the reins of the US government has a clear agenda and he is moving along with it.  

For domestic policy, Biden has tools at his disposal that his equivalents such as the German chancellor do not. He can bypass Congress by issuing executive orders to enforce unilateral decisions. On day one of his term, he did just that and returned the US officially to the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Executive orders are not legislation and require no approval from Congress. The president has since signed 40 such directives. The problem with ruling by executive order is that a president’s successors can undo decrees with the stroke of their own pens.  

A split Congress

The Democrats enjoy only a very slim majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. To get regular bills passed, the Democrats need the support of at least some Republicans.

Nobody outside of the United States should forget this when applauding Biden.  Yes, his infrastructure plan would give a much-needed modernizing to the United States that could leave many EU countries far behind. And, yes, his pledge to confront climate change could have positive effects for the United States and the world.

But will his plan even get through Congress? Can Biden get a majority of legislators to back his proposal to tax the rich more? Does Biden have the power to effect real change? There is a discrepancy between the expressed desire to shape global policy and his real capacity to radically change domestic politics in the United States. 

The midterm legislative elections are just 18 months away. Will the Democrats still have a majority in the Senate after November 8, 2022? Biden may be doing much better in the polls 100 days in than his predecessor was, but the United States remains a deeply divided country. 

Biden is already on the campaign trail. He is presenting the US as a reliable partner to its international allies, but his focus is on the domestic situation. If the Democrats are to have any chance of winning the next election, Biden has to succeed at home.

Simon A. Waldman

For over a decade, Turkey’s President Erdogan has actively and consistently undermined U.S. interests. By recognizing the Armenian genocide, President Biden is telling Ankara that enough is enough

Joe Biden is no rookie when it comes to international affairs.

Eight years as Vice-President under Barack Obama with important global responsibilities, and two terms as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a Delaware Senator, the 46th President of the United States of America knew exactly what he was doing when he broke from his predecessors and recognized the Armenian Genocide last

Deputy Director of the National Security Service of Armenia Stepan Melkonyan assures that there is no talk about the “Meghri corridor” and cannot be.

“They can say a lot, but there is no talk about corridor and cannot be”, the NSS deputy director told reporters in the Parliament, commenting on the view that Azerbaijan is talking about the “Meghri corridor”.

He said the working group led by the deputy prime ministers of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan is observing the possible options of logistics and roads. “There cannot be a talk on any corridor. There can be railway roads for transit cargo, but no talk connected with corridors”, the NSS deputy chief said.

Armenia has repeatedly announced that there is no term “corridor” in the November 9, 2020, statement signed by the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan aimed at stopping the war in Artsakh. Point 9 of that statement relates to the unblocking of all economic and transportation communications in the region.

Five key members of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF, Dashnaktsutyun) party were summoned to the Investigative Committee of Armenia on Thursday.

Lawyer Benik Galstyan linked it to the ARF’s statement on holding a rally outside the Prosecutor General’s Office today.

“The ARF Supreme Council issued a statement yesterday, urging all concerned citizens to gather outside the building of the Prosecutor General’s Office for a rally against the legal mess in the country. Many citizens responded to the call,” the lawyer wrote on Facebook.

“Today, key ARF figures, Ishkhan Saghatelyan, Artsvik Minasyan, Gegham Manukyan, Taron Tonoyan and Gerasim Vardanyan, were summoned to the Yerevan Investigation Department for questioning. Coincidence? I do not think so,” Galstyan wrote.

Armenian prosecutors are probing over 100 criminal casefiles on the war crimes committed by the Azeri military-political leadership and troops during the 2020 war.

Foreign mercenaries and another 37 Azerbaijani nationals are charged (2 are arrested while 35 are internationally wanted).

The prosecution said that the Azerbaijani authorities, fueled with ethnic hatred, launched premeditated and targeted attacks on the peaceful civilian settlements of Armenia and Artsakh using artillery and drone strikes.

The Armenian prosecution said the Azeri attacks were an act of aggression, a war of aggression, which resulted in the deaths of both servicemen and civilians – who were protected under international conventions, and civilian infrastructures such as residential homes, kindergartens and roads were destroyed.

The Armenian authorities noted that an Armenia SU-25 warplane was shot down while it was flying in Armenian airspace, and the pilot Valery Danelin was killed. Hostile UAVs breached Armenian airspace and bombed the province of Gegharkunik, hitting residential homes in Sotk, a passenger bus, as well as servicemen on duty. A child was severely wounded when the Azeri military fired on civilians in an agricultural field. A civilian was killed in the bombing of Mets Masrik. The Azeri combat drones even reached the airspace of Kotayk  Province but were shot down by the Armenian air defense.

In Armenia’s south, three soldiers were killed in a bombing and military equipment which was not in combat was hit.

The investigation has gathered evidence that the Azeri military repeatedly tortured, murdered and subjected to inhumane treatment the prisoners of war and other detainees, including civilians both during and after the war. In one case, the Azeri servicemen beheaded an Armenian POW and published photos on the interest.

All cases are under scrutiny to give individual criminal-legal assessment to the actions of the Azeri servicemen.

The investigation also has evidence that the Azeri military vandalized and destroyed Armenian cemeteries and monuments, including churches both during and after the war.

Evidence includes facts that Azerbaijan pre-planned the war back in June 2020 and recruited more than 2000 Syrian mercenaries and deployed them via Turkey. Azeri authorities transferred payments namely to the Suleyman Shah and Sultan Murad terror groups.

Another criminal case concerns the downing of a Russian gunship over Armenian airspace by Azeri military on November 9, 2020, which killed two pilots and wounded another one.