Author: David Nargizian

Reps. Smith, McGovern Introduce Legislation to Hold Azerbaijan Accountable for Human Rights Abuses

David Nargizian
  • Featured Story

    •  

  • Latest

    •  

  • News

    •  

  • Top Stories

10 hours ago

From left to right: Representatives Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Jim McGovern (D-Mass.)

WASHINGTON – In light of continued human rights abuses by the Azerbaijani regime, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) along with lead Democrat co-Sponsor Jim McGovern (D-MA), introduced H. Res. 537 on September 26, which promotes the rule of law and respect for human rights in Azerbaijan.

“The Azerbaijani regime continues to use torture, politically-motivated criminal charges, harassment, international kidnapping and other forms of intimidation to silence human rights defenders, independent journalists and religious leaders,” said Smith, who chairs the House panel on global human rights. “It is evident that there are important security and economic ties between our countries, however these violations cannot be ignored.”

Among other key provisions, H. Res. 537 calls on the United States Government to prioritize the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people in Azerbaijan when dealing with their government and urges the application of provisions of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (P.L. 114-328) to punish Azerbaijani officials who violate internationally recognized human rights. Further, the legislation calls on the government of Azerbaijan to immediately release all political prisoners and prisoner of conscience and to cease targeting those who advocate for government based on accountability and democratic values.

“The Global Magnitsky Act has paved the way for a new era of U.S. leadership in defending universal human rights,” said Smith, who authored the House version of P.L. 114-328. “The U.S. must use this toolkit, consisting of visa bans and asset freezes, to punish the perpetrators of human rights abuses. These penalties would shatter the impunity that rights violators in the government of Azerbaijan enjoy.”

Meanwhile, the ANCA has welcomed the work of the two representatives. “We commend Representatives Smith and McGovern for leveraging the power of the Global Magnitsky Act to impose real-world costs on Azerbaijan for its escalating repression,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian

Smith has held two hearings on Azerbaijan’s human rights abuses. The most recent was entitled “Azerbaijan’s Persecution of RFE/RL Reporter Khadija Ismayilova.”

Azerbaijani Press: Canadian think tank predicts change in status quo in Karabakh

David Nargizian
Azernews, Azerbaijan
Sept 14 2017
16:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Today the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the only conflict in the region, which has a real risk of escalating into an all-out war.

The presence of unresolved conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan challenges the regional security, as in case of new war regional powers, Russia and NATO member Turkey in particular, could become directly involved.

For over two decades, the OSCE Minsk Group established to broker a peace has failed to achieve any tangible result for the conflict resolution.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan around Nagorno-Karabakh has reached a dangerous stage where the existing status quo is difficult to preserve due to Azerbaijan’s military successes and the inherent problems of Armenia’s dependence on Russia, stated a Canadian think tank.

The Toronto-Based Geopolitical Monitor, in its recently published report, has predicted a change in the status quo in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Geopolitical Monitor suggested that “as Moscow has a big geopolitical stake in the conflict, it will continue to supply arms to both Baku and Yerevan to keep the military balance, preserve the status quo, and deny any other power such as Turkey or Iran possibilities to increase their own influence in the conflict resolution process.”

The analysis stresses that unlike other breakaway conflicts across the former Soviet Union, the one around Nagorno-Karabakh has not been frozen since its inception in the early 1990s.

 “Daily ceasefire violations at times reached more than 100 instances, increasing the difficulty of reaching any peaceful resolution to the standoff between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” it reads.” As the nearly war-type situation between the two sides showed in April 2016, the conflict is not static and rather is subject to changing geopolitical circumstances.”

“Beyond the immediate situation on the contact line, any progress to the resolution of the conflict is complicated by the many actors which have geopolitical interests in the South Caucasus,” the document reads.

Armenia broke out this lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Today Armenia refuses to implement four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.

Although the ceasefire agreement was signed in 1994, Armenia does not comply with it. Not a day passes without ceasefire violations by Armenia’s armed forces in the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border and the frontline in Nagorno-Karabakh. Moreover, the Armenian militaries using heavy machine guns and mortars deliberately aim at Azerbaijan settlements near the frontline in order to hurt civilians living there.

Indeed, Azerbaijan has strongly developed its military capability over the years and the country is fully prepared to release its occupied lands from Armenian invaders. On the other hand, Azerbaijan prefers the conflict to be resolved peacefully and without further casualties.