CASPIAN WATCH #3: CENTER, WASHINGTON POST AGREE — CONGRESS MUST DO THE RIGHT THING BY U.S. INTERESTS IN THE CASPIAN BASIN

(Washington, D.C.): A House-Senate conference
committee is expected to complete action today on the
FY97 Foreign Operations Appropriations Act. One of the
most important issues awaiting resolution concerns
current and future U.S. policy with regard to Azerbaijan
— a nation with immense potential for geopolitical and
economic cooperation with the United States.

The Center for Security Policy has long believed these
policy questions to be among the most important of our
time.⁽¹⁾ It is
pleased to be joined in that assessment by the
influential Washington Post which, in the href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=96-D_76at”>attached editorial published
today, called upon legislators to use the present
deliberations to develop a more balanced and
strategically sound approach to the region in general and
closer U.S. relations with Azerbaijan in particular.

The specific issue being debated today involves the
modification of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act of
1992, which proscribes U.S. Government interaction with
the Government of Azerbaijan due to the latter’s
maintenance of an economic blockade of Armenia. As the Post
editorial makes clear, that blockade is the direct
by-product of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan
over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. As a
result of Armenia’s offensive operations it now occupies
the “long-sovereign Azeri enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh.” Armenia —
thanks, in part, to Russian military assistance — also
controls an additional 20% of Azerbaijani territory.
The Post properly
observes: “Azerbaijan is at war with Armenia: You
wouldn’t expect them to trade with each other right
now.”

Although a cease-fire has been in place since May
1994, the conflict continues to take its toll in the form
of a massive humanitarian crisis. Both sides are affected
by this tragedy, but it is especially acute in
Azerbaijan, where over 900,000 people are currently
refugees and severe health problems — particularly among
children — are grave and mounting.

Enter a ‘Special’ Interest

A pivotal role in denying these refugees humanitarian
relief is being played by an affluent and well-connected
group of Armenian-Americans. The Washington Post
credits this lobby with “forc[ing] tough
restrictions on direct American humanitarian and other
aid to Azerbaijan” in “a policy which runs
against [the United States’] own substantial strategic,
economic and political interests.”

The current congressional drama involves an amendment
introduced in the House by Rep. John Porter (R-IL) which
seemed, at first glance, to help alleviate the situation.
In fact, it amounted to a clever bit of maneuvering by
the Armenian lobby. The Porter amendment would open the
possibility of direct U.S. assistance to the Azerbaijani
government — but only in a defined ratio to that
dispersed to Nagorno-Karabakh. International aid
officials point out that such a ratio is unprecedented,
unworkable as a practical matter and highly undesirable.
In addition, this amendment’s implicit recognition of a
distinction between Azerbaijan proper and
Nagorno-Karabakh — an area still recognized by the
international community as Azerbaijani territory — is a
key objective of an Armenia anxious to consolidate and
legitimate its wartime gains. Fortunately, the Senate
delegation to the conference — prodded by Democratic
Senator Robert Byrd (WV) and his Republican colleagues
Frank Murkowski (AK), William Cohen (ME), Richard Lugar
(IN) and others — has correctly opposed this
interjection of objectionable political conditions onto
what is, after all, a humanitarian assistance measure.

It appears that the tide may, at last, be
turning on legislators’ willingness to accommodate
pressure from the Armenian lobby to punish the losing
side of the conflict — at enormous cost to U.S.
strategic and commercial interests. This may
reflect in part overreaching by Armenian-Americans; their
vitriol aimed at another vital U.S. strategic partner —
Turkey — is seen as distinctly counterproductive at a
time when that key NATO member and Gulf War ally is in
the throes of a political crisis — a crisis which could
determine its future reliability as a pro-Western,
secular Islamic state.

The Bottom Line

Righting the damage done to America’s strategic
interests in the Caspian Basin thanks to five years of
Armenian-American control of the issue — regrettably
encouraged by then-Senator Bob Dole — will be difficult,
but an important first step can be taken today. The
conference must reject any language that could help
advance Armenian territorial claims in this conflict or
that conditions humanitarian assistance deliveries in an
arbitrary and self-defeating manner. Conferees should,
instead, direct that humanitarian assistance begin to
flow at once to those most in need through whichever
distribution channels are most efficient, including
those of the Azerbaijani Government.

Once this latest attempt to inflict unnecessary harm
on Azerbaijan — and, in the process, on U.S. interests
in the region — has been firmly rebuffed, the
Administration must become more fully engaged. President
Clinton should invite President Ailyev of Azerbaijan to
Washington as soon as feasible to discuss how to: end the
terrible Armenian-Azeri conflict with a just and durable
peace; provide relief to the men, women and children
displaced by the hostilities; and demonstrate the
importance of this Nation’s national security and
economic equities in Azerbaijan and the Caspian Basin.

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1. See, for example, the Center’s
previous Decision Briefs entitled Caspian
Watch: Russian Power-Plays on ‘Early Oil’ Hallmark of
Kremlin Expansionism Past — And Future? ( href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=95-D_71″>No. 95-D 71, 2 October
1995), Caspian Watch #2: The Great Game Is On
— Will the Republicans in Congress Play? ( href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=95-D_87″>No. 95-D 87, 1 November
1995), and Center Inaugurates William J.
Casey Institute With Symposium on Emerging Crisis in the
Caspian Basin (No.
96-R 27, 14 March 1996).