Washington Times: Congress make serious error regarding American interests in the Caucasus

Baku. 28 September. REPORT.AZ/ In its zeal to make foreign policy, a power entrusted by the Constitution to the executive branch, Congress may be making a serious error regarding American interests in the Caucasus.

Report informs, this is stated in the article of the Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council Stephen Blank, published in the Washington Times.

In article “How Congress misreads the Caucasus” the author analyzes the consequences of the recent appeals of some congressmen to impose sanctions on Azerbaijan for its human rights shortcomings and authorized a small expenditure for demining in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Funding Armenia, even if rhetorically and with minimal amounts of money, only exacerbates the situation.

Indeed, it is clear that Congress has not thought through the nuances of the Caucasus in its haste to adopt this legislation. The authorization for demining in Nagorno-Karabakh calls the region Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, when it is in fact occupied by Armenia. Therefore, this resolution owes more to U.S. domestic politics — a congressman in a heavily Armenian district needing to gain popular support as re-election looms — than it does to foreign policy. And at the same time, it shows the inadequacy of this congressional response because it antagonizes Azerbaijan for no discernible purpose that advances U.S. interests or strategic gain while betraying congressional ignorance of the facts on the ground.

This kind of heavy-handed policymaking under conditions of insufficient or inadequate knowledge also does not advance U.S. interests either regarding human rights or in fostering peace in the Caucasus. By essentially disregarding the fact that Nagorno-Karabakh remains occupied territory and attacking Baku’s human rights record, Congress, perhaps unintentionally or unwittingly, sends Baku a message that the U.S. is not interested in its agenda or problems.

That message only encourages hard-liners inside Azerbaijan who would be all too happy to incline to Moscow.