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United States foreign and security policy towards the South Caucasus is confusing, biased and inconsistent with America’s other security interests in the region.
Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, Washington has pursued a one-sided pro-Armenian approach that was condemned as long ago as 1998 by then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
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In the last year alone both houses of the US Congress adopted a long list of legislation, resolutions, and open letters demanding tough action be taken against Azerbaijan. No comparable volume of legislation, resolutions, and open letters have been issued by the US Congress against Armenia for its ethnic cleansing of three quarters of a million Azerbaijanis in the 1988-1992 First Karabakh War, or for occupying a fifth of Azerbaijan for nearly three decades.
US legislation, resolutions, and open letters can be divided into four groups. The first targeted Azerbaijan’s leaders and Azerbaijan. The ‘Armenian Protection Act’ (H.R.7288) demanded an end to US military aid to Azerbaijan; the ‘Azerbaijan Sanction Review Act of 2024’ (H.R.8141) enforced sanctions against Azerbaijani officials who are allegedly responsible for ‘war crimes and human rights abuses’; the ‘Supporting Armenians Against Azerbaijani Aggression Act’ (H.R.5683) imposed sanctions against Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and ended US aid to Azerbaijan; and ‘Azerbaijan Sanction / Artsakh Aid Act’ (H.R.5686) promoted the accountability of the Azerbaijani government.
The ‘Whitehouse/Magaziner Letter’ meanwhile called for the Departments of State and Treasury to impose sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act against Azerbaijani government officials because of human rights violations, and the blockade of Karabakh.
A second group focused on Azerbaijan’s re-capture of the Karabakh region and the fleeing of most of its Armenian residents.
These have included ‘Condemning Azerbaijan’s Ethnic Cleansing of Artsakh’ (H.Res.1327) which urged the Biden Administration to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its ‘genocidal aggression; ‘Artsakh revenue Recovery Act’ (H.R.9666) that endorsed the seizure of Azerbaijani’; assets for transfer to a Karabakh Revenue Recovery Fund to compensate Armenians who fled from Karabakh.
The ‘Armenian Protection Act’ (S.3000) adopted by the US Senate protects and provides humanitarian assistance to Armenians in Armenia and Karabakh impacted by actions taken by Azerbaijan.
A third group dealt with military confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan. These have included the ‘Call for Azerbaijan to immediately comply with international commitments regarding the release and treatment of prisoners of war, hostages, and other detained persons’ (H.R. 861) that demanded the release of Armenian prisoners of war, captured civilians, and political prisoners; and ‘Azerbaijan Human Rights Accountability Resolution’ (H.R. 735) which requested information on Azerbaijan’s human rights practices pursuant to section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
A fourth group supported Armenian separatism and undermined Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. ‘US Recognition of Artsakh Resolution’ (H.R. 320) recognised the independence of the ‘Republic of Artsakh’ (Karabakh) and condemned Azerbaijan’s aggression against Armenia.
In November-December 2020, both houses of the French parliament, the National Assembly and Senate, similarly supported the ‘independence’ of Karabakh. US and French policy have contradictorily undermined Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity while at the same time supporting Georgia and Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
The ‘Schiff Letter’ urging the US to protect Armenian culture heritagecalled on the US to prioritise the protection of Armenian heritage sites in Karabakh during future diplomatic engagements with Azerbaijani officials. No similar demands were ever raised by the US congress condemning the destruction of countless Azerbaijani historical, cultural, and religious sites during Armenia’s near three-decade occupation of western Azerbaijan.
Bias and inconsistency
US confusion, bias and inconsistency is manifested in five areas. Firstly, in 1992, Armenia’s victory in the First Karabakh War led to its occupation of one fifth of Azerbaijan, the ethnic cleansing of three quarters of a million Azerbaijanis from occupied lands and Armenia, and the killing of thousands of civilians and military.
The US ignored its commitments to the territorial integrity of states when it punished Azerbaijan through Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act which banned direct US aid to the government of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan was the only post-Soviet state to not receive US government aid.
As former Secretary of State Albright pointed out, “Section 907 damages US national interests by undermining the administration’s neutrality in promoting a settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh, its ability to encourage economic and broad legal reforms in Azerbaijan, and efforts to advance an East-West energy transport corridor.”
In 1993, Croatia, with covert US military support, launched Operation Storm which defeated Serbian separatists. The US, European Union, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe were silent when 200,000 Serbs fled from Croatia and never condemned this as a ‘violation of human rights’ or ‘ethnic cleansing’.
The US and Europe have two potential responses to the military liberation of occupied territory: silence over Croatia and condemnation of ‘ethnic cleansing’ over Azerbaijan. What would be the reaction of the US and Europe to hundreds of thousands of Russians fleeing Crimea after Ukraine liberates this territory?
Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush Bill opposed Section 907 and waived it. Nevertheless, Section 907 remained on the books ready to be used against Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan’s military liberation of its territory in 2020 and 2023 again raised demands in the US to punish the country for alleged human rights violations. Between 50-100,000 Armenians moved from Karabakh to Armenia, a number far smaller than the 200,000 Serbs who fled from Croatia. The UN and independent human rights organisations found no evidence of human rights abuses, let alone ethnic cleansing.
Croatian, Azerbaijani and Ukrainian territory has been occupied. The US, EU, OSCE, and the Council of Europe have not condemned Croatia’s and Ukraine’s right to liberate their occupied lands using military force.
Confusion and contradictions
The US has adopted a confusing and contradictory policy towards Azerbaijan. In 2020, the US Congress adopted amendments to legislation recognising Karabakh and the other territories as illegally occupied by Armenia. Three years later the US Congress ‘strongly condemned the military operation carried out by Azerbaijan in Karabakh on 19-20 September 2023’.
A year following that the US Helsinki Commission condemned ‘apparent ethnic cleansing’ by Azerbaijan in Karabakh. US Senator Bob Mendendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was a vocal lobbyist for Armenia and called for US sanctions against Azerbaijan. Mendendez, his wife, and three businessmen have been charged with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from foreign governments.
In 2020, during the Second Karabakh War, Azerbaijan liberated most of its land which had been illegally occupied by Armenia. In 2023, Azerbaijan liberated Karabakh which was internationally recognised as Azerbaijani land. Military force was used after two decades of failed talks and Armenian obstruction to returning occupied land.
Secondly, the US has been distrustful towards Russian-led integration of Eurasia but has ignored this when dealing with the South Caucasus. Armenia is a founding member of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organisation—created by the Kremlin to emulate the defunct Warsaw Pact and act as an alternative to NATO).
Armenia turned its back on the EU’s Eastern Partnership and instead opted to join the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU), the Kremlin’s alternative to the EU. Azerbaijan is not a member of either the CSTO or the EaEU.
Russia has two military bases in Armenia. Azerbaijan has none. Whether the Kremlin would allow Armenia to slip from its grasp is doubtful.
The US and Europe have ignored South Caucasian realities and pursued pro-Armenian policies. The US has targeted Azerbaijan with threats of sanctions and new discriminatory legislation.
Thirdly, Armenia is one of at least four Eurasian countries (the main culprits being Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan) breaking Western sanctions against Russia. Armenia’s trade with Russian has rocketed since 2022 through the re-export of large quantities of Western goods. Azerbaijan is not breaking Western sanctions against Russia.
Fourthly, Armenia has poor relations with Israel. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has long and very good relations with Israel. Azerbaijan and Israel have cooperated on military and security affairs since the 2000s and Azerbaijan purchased Israeli drones a decade before it began using Turkish Bayraktars.
Fifth, Azerbaijan and Israel share a common security threat from Iran. The US has had poor relations with Iran since the theocratic regime came to power in 1979. Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen wage war against US and Western interests in the Greater Middle East and Red Sea.
The Dona Gracia Center for Diplomacy, an Israeli think tank, condemned US bipartisanship and double standards on Armenia and Azerbaijan. While condemning ‘ethnic cleansing’ from Karabakh the US Congress ignored the far larger and earlier ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis.
Complacency
Iran views Azerbaijan in a similar manner to how Russia views Ukraine as ‘lost historical territory’ and the Azerbaijanis as a people who should ‘return home’ to Iran. Russia and Iran view Ukraine and Azerbaijan respectively as ‘artificial’ constructs. Iran has trained and financed Islamic extremists and terrorists in Azerbaijan. Israel views Iran as an existential threat to its security, a regime which seeks directly and through its proxies to destroy the state of Israel.
Armenia has long-standing good relations with Iran which the US has been surprisingly complacent about. Armenia’s trade with Iran has been high. Armenia and Iran also have a long record of cooperation in the military and security fields with both countries using Soviet and Russian military equipment. Iran officially supported Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity but unofficially supported Armenia’s occupation of one fifth of Azerbaijan from 1992-2020.
US policy to the South Caucasus is confusing, biased and inconsistent. The US runs roughshod over the principle of the territorial integrity of states, in this case that of Azerbaijan.
Washington ignores Armenia’s growing integration with Russia, Yerevan’s infringement of Western sanctions against Russia, and its close relationship with Iran, an enemy of Israel and the US, while seeing no value in Israel’s strategic alliance with Azerbaijan.
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