Azerbaijan leaves much to be desired
While mentioning Azerbaijan’s oil wealth and ostensibly
secular nature, Jennifer Mishory’s piece (“Azerbaijan
deserves U.S. public attention,” News, Oct. 23), misses some
other aspects of Azerbaijan that are worthy of attention.
For years under harsh Soviet and Azeri rule, the ethnic Armenian
population of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region inside of Azerbaijan,
suffered and their culture was suppressed.
Even after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 and Nagorno-Karabakh
declared itself an independent republic, Azerbaijan continued to
suppress the nation for years, disregarding its right to
self-determination.
While Mishory mentions the oil pipeline built in Azerbaijan, she
neglected to note this was done in spite of concerns raised by
economists and environmentalists.
Azerbaijan’s secular credentials are also questionable.
Just this year, the Azeri military was videotaped destroying
Armenian stone crosses in the Nakhichevan region to the east of
Armenia.
In addition, Azerbaijan’s credentials as a U.S. partner
are tenuous. In the 1980s, the United States supported Iraq, which
is another oil-rich, Muslim majority state. Very little attention
was paid to the suppression of minorities in this state. Its
regime’s disrespect for human rights and its neighbors was
conveniently glossed over. The public was encouraged to naively
believe it was the perfect partner.
This did not work for Iraq. Similar caution should be exercised
when dealing with Azerbaijan.
The true value of Azerbaijan comes when it respects the rights
and heritage of its people as well as its neighbors and turns from
the language of blockades and saber-rattling against U.S. allies to
human rights, diplomacy and cooperation.
Haig Hovsepian,
UCLA Class of 2006