By Vafa Ismayilova
This year marks the 30th anniversary of notorious U.S. Section 907 against Azerbaijan, Consul-General to Western United States Nasimi Aghayev has said on his official Twitter page.
“2022 marks the 30th anniversary of infamous Section 907 that was passed against Azerbaijan by Congress at the behest of the Armenian lobby. In 1993, Strobe Talbott of the State Department argued against it saying that it undercut U.S. ability to be an honest broker between Azerbaijan and Armenia,” Aghayev tweeted on May 4.
In late September 2021, President Ilham Aliyev explained very clearly and concisely the principles standing behind Section 907 passed by the U.S. Congress.
“After all… the decisions that were made by some countries, they simply defy any logic. While it was Azerbaijani territory that was occupied, the U.S. Congress passed the notorious amendment to the Freedom Support Act, Section No. 907, which deprived Azerbaijan of direct military assistance, direct U.S. assistance, not only military. And we, the affected country, we were essentially discriminated against,” Aliyev said in an interview with Russia’s Natsionalnaya Oborona magazine.
He said that “the rationale behind it was that Azerbaijan was blocking Armenia. Just imagine – Zangilan, Gubadli, Lachin and Kalbajar districts are occupied. And this is described as a blockade of Armenia”.
He stressed that Armenia’s diaspora organizations and also the media controlled by the Armenian lobby distorted the essence of the then conflict.
“The fact that Armenia is an aggressor, an occupier which committed ethnic cleansing and an act of genocide in Khojaly, destroyed all historical and cultural buildings – all this was concealed,” Aliyev said.
In April 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a telephone conversation with Aliyev in 2021 too the waiver of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act was extended.
On October 24, 2001, the Senate adopted an amendment to the Act that would provide the President with the ability to waiver Section 907.
Well-known expert Svante Cornell described the term “blockade” as unjustified since it ignored the fact that Armenia itself had imposed an embargo on Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani exclave, and the closure of the border with Armenia took place due to the occupation of the Azerbaijani lands. Moreover, the use of the term "blockade" in itself is misleading, as Armenia has close economic ties with Georgia and Iran.
To recap, 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.