By Sabina Mammadli
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided assistance to Karabakh separatists, as evidenced by facts discovered in Azerbaijan's liberated Khojavand region's Bulutan village, Baku-based news website Day.az has reported.
The footage posted online was taken at a first-aid post in the village set up by USAID specifically for the separatists, as evidenced by the agency’s logos on various equipment, the report added.
"The fact that such assistance was provided to the separatists by an agency funded by the U.S. government is a gross violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. What makes this especially outrageous is the fact that the United States is one of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – the same one that has been organizing the failed negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for 30 years," Day.az stressed.
USAID claims that it leads international development and humanitarian efforts to save lives, reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance and help people progress beyond assistance.
Since 1997, the U.S. has been acting as one of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs along with Russia and France to promote a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict through negotiation and mediation. The OSCE Minsk Group was instituted in 1992 and activated in 1994.
On January 27, 2021, U.S. Ambassador Earle Litzenberger congratulated Azerbaijan on the restoration of its territorial integrity and expressed the U.S. readiness to participate in the restoration of the lands liberated from Armenia's occupation.
A Moscow-brokered ceasefire deal that Baku and Yerevan signed on November 10 brought an end to six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani army declared a victory against the Armenian troops. The signed agreement obliged Armenia to withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani lands that it has occupied since the early 1990s.
On January 11, the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian leaders signed the second statement since the end of the 44-day war. The newly-signed statement is set to implement clause 9 of the November 2020 statement related to the unblocking of all economic and transport communications in the region.
Azerbaijan was one of the first countries to join the global anti-terror coalition assembled by the U.S. government. Azerbaijan opened its airspace to the allied forces and assured its agencies would cooperate and provide information that would assist in American-led efforts.
Azerbaijan’s contributions to the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign also included deploying a peacekeeping contingent in Afghanistan. Azerbaijani peacekeepers began serving there in November 2002, and by 2021 the contingent consisted of 120 servicemen. They left the country more than a week after the Taliban seized power on August 15, 2021.