By CARL SCHRECK
RFE/RL
A senior U.S. official says civil liberties in Azerbaijan have steadily worsened over the past five years and continue to deteriorate.
In 2009, advocates of democratic reforms – in particular opposition political parties – already faced difficulties participating in Azerbaijan’s political life, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Melia said in June 11 testimony before the U.S. Helsinki Commission.
“But it was still possible for NGOs and independent activists to operate. Sadly, the environment has worsened significantly since then,” said Melia, who is responsible for Europe – including Russia – in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
Melia cited politically tinged prosecutions of peaceful political activists and the introduction of onerous laws targeting NGOs as examples of a broad crackdown on civil society under Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin, a Maryland Democrat and chairman of the Helsinki Commission, presided over the hearing, which convened to discuss U.S.-Azerbaijani relations in the areas of security, economics, and human rights.
Cardin, who is set to travel to Azerbaijan in late June with a group of fellow U.S. lawmakers, recently called on the U.S. administration to engage Baku “forcefully” on the issue of human rights, even as it pursues bilateral cooperation on energy and other issues.
Azerbaijan’s well-oiled lobby in Washington has been actively promoting the energy-rich country as a potential key player in weaning Europe off of Russian gas supplies following the Kremlin’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea territory in March.
In testimony at the June 11 Helsinki Commission hearing, Eric Rubin, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, noted Azerbaijan’s positive security and energy cooperation with the United States.
He added, however, that the United States’ “strongest relationships” across the globe are with “democracies that respect the full range of human rights of their citizens.”
“We have concerns about the environment for democratic development and the protection of human rights in Azerbaijan, which have been deteriorating,” Rubin said.
Melia cited in his testimony several cases that Western rights watchdogs call politically motivated prosecutions, including that of opposition politician Ilgar Mammadov and independent election observer Anar Mammadli, both of whom are currently incarcerated.
Other actions by the Azerbaijani government – including the suppression of “peaceful pro-democracy rallies” in 2011 and the enactment of legislation last year restricting the financing and activities of NGOs – have exacerbated the situation, Melia said.
“Since early 2013, the space for peaceful dissent has narrowed more dramatically, and the exercise of fundamental freedoms has become still more tenuous,” he told the hearing.
Azerbaijani officials have dismissed the U.S. State Department’s criticism of the countries human rights record as biased and inaccurate.
In January, Aliyev denied that there are any political prisoners in Azerbaijan.
US Department of State
U.S.-Azerbaijan Relations: The Democracy and Human Rights Dimension
Testimony
Thomas O. Melia
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
As-Prepared Written Testimony to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission)
Washington, DC
June 11, 2014
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission, thank you for inviting me to speak to you today about the democracy and human rights dimension of U.S.-Azerbaijan relations in advance of your visit to Baku later this month for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Annual Session. My colleagues at the State Department and I greatly appreciate the dedication of you and your fellow Commissioners and your staff to the OSCE and its institutions – especially to the enduring principles enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act and the body of commitments that comprise the OSCE’s “human dimension.” We also greatly value our regular consultations with you and your staff.
I would like to start by referring to a key principle of the OSCE, as set forth in the 1991 “Moscow Document” and notably reaffirmed in the 2010 Astana Summit Declaration, in which OSCE participating States agreed unanimously that:
“issues relating to human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law are of international concern, as respect for these rights and freedoms constitutes one of the foundations of the international order. They categorically and irrevocably declare that the commitments undertaken in the field of the human dimension of the OSCE are matters of direct and legitimate concern to all participating States and do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the State concerned.”
This concept linking respect for human rights within states to lasting security among states is reflected in our multilateral interactions and in our bilateral relationships with all OSCE participating States, including Azerbaijan. It forms the basis on which the United States continues to support efforts to advance democracy worldwide. In Azerbaijan, this constitutes one of three equally important core goals, which Deputy Assistant Secretary Rubin has just spoken to. U.S. officials at all levels in Baku and Washington regularly highlight the importance of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, rule of law, and other basic building blocks of democracy, publicly and privately. U.S. officials regularly meet with a variety of Azerbaijanis, ranging from government officials to civil society activists and opposition political party representatives.
While serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, I have visited Azerbaijan three times, holding valuable meetings with leading government officials, including President Ilham Aliyev, as well as with opposition political leaders, civil society actors, and journalists. I have been joined on these missions to Azerbaijan, as well as to other countries, by senior colleagues from the Department of State’s European and Eurasian Affairs Bureau, USAID, and the Department of Justice. I believe these are important opportunities to listen to Azerbaijanis inside and outside of government, to share with them our thoughts, and to demonstrate that we do care about all three dimensions of the relationship. Indeed, I would like to visit Azerbaijan again soon to continue these conversations.
The United States also provides assistance to support Azerbaijan’s democratic development efforts, with an emphasis on support for civil society, independent media, and rule of law. The largest part of this assistance is provided by our colleagues at USAID, and we in the State Department work very closely with them to ensure that these programs are neatly lined up with our overall policy priorities. Similarly, we work closely in Washington and Baku with the legal experts provided by the Department of Justice in the Overseas Prosecutorial Development Assistance and Training program. Our inter-agency partnership is working very well.
Just two weeks ago, on May 28, Azerbaijan celebrated the 96th anniversary of the day in 1918 on which it became the first majority Muslim, democratic republic in the world. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic lasted only 23 months, until it was invaded by the Soviet Red Army and forcibly incorporated into the nascent Soviet Union, where it remained captive for more than seven decades. Since Azerbaijan regained its independence in 1991, it has begun to modernize, and its people have become more integrated into the wider world.
With regard to building democratic institutions and developing democratic norms, Azerbaijan has taken some positive steps. For example, it established six administrative government service centers in Baku and the regions (known as “ASAN,” which means “easy” in Azeri) intended to eliminate corruption by public officials at the local level. More broadly, however, we have been seeing increasing constraints on fundamental freedoms that increase the risk of domestic instability, undermine confidence the rule of law will be respected, and prevent Azerbaijanis from reaching their full potential.
Five years ago, it was already difficult for advocates of democratic reform – especially opposition political parties – to participate in the political life of the country, but it was still possible for NGOs and independent activists to operate. The environment has worsened significantly since then, beginning with the 2009 incarceration of young democracy activists Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade. Although they were released in 2010, the suppression of peaceful dissent increased in 2011, with the arrests of young Azerbaijani activists who sought to organize peaceful pro-democracy rallies in Baku. The Milli Mejlis (Azerbaijan’s parliament) passed legislation significantly increasing fines on participants and organizers of unauthorized protests in November 2012, which resulted in the detention of numerous peaceful pro-democracy activists for baseless administrative violations. Since early 2013, the space for peaceful dissent has narrowed more dramatically, and the exercise of fundamental freedoms has become still more tenuous. A number of leading peaceful democracy advocates, civil society activists, and journalists have been incarcerated, including presidential candidate and chairman of the democratic reform-oriented REAL Movement, Ilgar Mammadov; opposition journalist and Musavat Party Deputy Chairman Tofig Yagublu; members of democratic youth movements; blogger Abdul Abilov; religious scholar and activist Taleh Bagirzade; Khural Editor Avaz Zeynalli; and the chairman of NDI’s local election monitoring partner, the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDS), Anar Mammadli.
Additionally, two rounds of legislative amendments since March 2013 have restricted NGO funding and activity. Officials have pressured Azerbaijani and international NGOs, including some USAID implementing partners, which in some cases have been subject to investigations by the tax and justice ministries. Authorities also launched a criminal investigation of EMDS – which has been a recipient of USAID and European assistance – and another election monitoring NGO, the International Cooperation of Volunteers (ICV) Public Union, soon after the flawed October 2013 presidential election. Such actions have resulted in an increasingly hostile operating environment for civil society, especially for those activists and groups advocating respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms, and government accountability; thereby depriving citizens the open channels through which they can voice their concerns. Pressure on independent defense lawyers has resulted in a decreasing number of such lawyers ready to defend individuals in sensitive cases.
Restrictions on the ability of selected Azerbaijani activists to travel outside of the country are also a problem, calling into question the extent of the government’s commitment to freedom of movement, a founding tenet of the OSCE. For example, since 2006, the government has prevented the foreign travel of opposition Popular Front Party Chairman Ali Karimli by refusing to renew his passport. Today in Bern, the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights is discussing the important role of human rights defenders in OSCE participating States. Sadly, one of Azerbaijan’s leading human rights defenders, Leyla Yunus, was unable to attend the event, because Azerbaijan’s authorities confiscated her passport – as well as her husband’s – in April. This confiscation occurred in the context of the April 19 arrest of well-known journalist Rauf Mirkadirov, the subsequent questioning of Leyla Yunus and her husband about Mirkadirov, and their poor treatment by police authorities. All three have been strong proponents of people-to-people diplomacy, which helps build ties between Azerbaijanis and Armenians and is crucial to the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The peaceful resolution of this conflict will open borders, increase security, and create new opportunities to trade, travel, and engage across the region. Authorities also have prevented some in the international human rights community from visiting or returning to Azerbaijan.
These are not the kinds of actions the United States or the broader international community wants to see from a partner, an OSCE participating State, and currently the chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
When President Obama spoke last month at the West Point commencement, he explained that:
“America’s support for democracy and human rights goes beyond idealism — it is a matter of national security. Democracies are our closest friends and are far less likely to go to war. Economies based on free and open markets perform better and become markets for our goods. Respect for human rights is an antidote to instability and the grievances that fuel violence and terror.
And he noted that,
“In capitals around the globe — including, unfortunately, some of America’s partners — there has been a crackdown on civil society.”
We recognize that Azerbaijan lives in a very difficult neighborhood and that its government seeks stability. The United States strongly supports Azerbaijan’s long-term stability, security, and prosperity. The best way to guarantee such a future is to strengthen democratic processes and institutions to buttress respect for the rule of law and fundamental freedoms. Doing so will foster long-term internal stability, create the most inviting environment for economic investment and growth, and make Azerbaijan the very best that it can be, by giving every citizen the freedom and space to achieve his or her full potential, thereby maximizing the contributions of all of its people. We consider this to be in both the short-term and the long-term interests of both the people and the government of Azerbaijan. The U.S. Embassy in Baku and we in Washington have been active on these issues and have made these points. For example, Ambassador Morningstar has been doing an outstanding job in advocating publicly as well as privately for an environment conducive to a vibrant civil society and in raising specific impediments to such an environment.
The United States believes that Azerbaijan will have greater stability and prosperity, and will more quickly reach its full potential, by allowing a more open society. We therefore will continue to support Azerbaijani efforts to advance the country’s democratic potential, including respect for rule of law, human rights, and fundamental freedoms. We will continue to urge Azerbaijan to live up to its OSCE commitments and other international human rights obligations. We will also encourage Azerbaijan to take advantage of its chairmanship of the Council of Europe to take concrete steps on important democracy and human rights issues. The positive changes we advocate would benefit both the people and the government of Azerbaijan. Such changes would also make it easier for us to expand and deepen our bilateral relationship, since our strongest relationships are with democratic states that respect the full range of human rights of all of their citizens.
As President Obama indicated in his recent message marking Azerbaijan’s National Day, and to return to where I began, we encourage Azerbaijan to reclaim the leadership role on human rights and fundamental freedoms that its people and government demonstrated 96 years ago.
Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to discuss democracy and human rights trends in Azerbaijan and our overall bilateral relationship.
The Security, Economic and Human Rights Dimensions of U.S.-Azerbaijan Relations
Testimony
Eric Rubin
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
Statement before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission)
Washington, DC
June 11, 2014
As prepared
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission, thank you for inviting me to speak to you today about our bilateral relationship with Azerbaijan. I would also like to thank you for the Commission’s strong efforts to promote the principles of the Helsinki Final Act at this critical moment in the region’s history. Your participation in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly election monitoring mission in Ukraine two weeks ago sent a powerful signal that the United States will support free and fair elections in the OSCE region and throughout the world. Your upcoming participation in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Annual Session in Baku will serve as an important means of examining how OSCE member states are living up to the pledge to provide “human security” for all their citizens.
Our partnership with Azerbaijan remains an important aspect of our engagement in the Caucasus. For over twenty years, the United States has been working with Azerbaijan to promote a secure, prosperous, and democratic society. Since 1992, we have provided approximately $1.1 billion in assistance to pursue these goals.
My testimony today will focus on three core areas of this bilateral relationship. First, I will talk about our security cooperation. Second, I will look at our evolving economic relationship, including energy diversification and our efforts to promote economic reform. Finally, I will briefly examine the country’s democratic development—DAS Melia will cover this in greater detail.
First, Azerbaijan has been a key partner for the United States and NATO from Kabul to Kosovo. Azerbaijan currently has 94 troops serving in Afghanistan and has committed to remain involved in the country beyond 2014. It has completed missions to Iraq and Kosovo. Azerbaijan is a key node in the Northern Distribution Network and air route sending non-lethal goods in and out of Afghanistan. Thousands of containers go through customs and thousands of state and commercial flights transit Azerbaijan each year.
As such, strengthening Caspian security, countering terrorism, stemming the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and enhancing maritime domain awareness continue to be top priorities for U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan. Since we began providing security assistance in 2002, the United States has been working to strengthen Azerbaijan’s capacity to monitor the Caspian and protect critical energy infrastructure. Over the past 12 years, we have provided $44.4 million in Foreign Military Financing and $9.9 million in International Military Education and Training and Export Control and Border Security programs that focus on military professionalization, building operability, and enhancing border security. And we are providing approximately $4 million in fiscal year 2014.
Where we do provide security assistance to Azerbaijan, we are careful to ensure it is used in full compliance with the law – including Section 907 of the 1992 Freedom Support Act and the waiver authorities for U.S. efforts to counter terrorism, support the operational readiness of U.S. Armed Forces or coalition partners to counter terrorism, ensure Azerbaijan’s border security as long as it is determined that such assistance will not undermine or hamper ongoing efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan or be used for offensive purposes against Armenia.
And the United States is working diligently to facilitate a peaceful settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. As a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group, along with France and Russia, the United States has worked in recent months to articulate the substantial benefits that peace would bring to people across the region. In doing so, we are focusing on pragmatic steps to bring the sides into negotiations on a peace agreement based on the core principles of the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act. We hope the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will agree to meet in the near future to continue the constructive dialogue begun at their summit last November. It also is important that both governments support Track II efforts to build people to people contacts between Azerbaijanis and Armenians. These kinds of confidence building measures can help to prepare citizens of both countries for peace. We are troubled by the recent arrest of well-known journalist Rauf Mirkadirov, the subsequent investigation of Leyla Yunus and her husband Arif Yunusov, their poor treatment by the authorities, and confiscation of their passports. All three have been strong proponents of the Track II process and the Azerbaijani government’s actions will have a chilling effect on any contact between Azerbaijanis and Armenians. DAS Melia will elaborate further on this point in his testimony. Helping both sides resolve this conflict is a key element of our relationships with both Azerbaijan and Armenia, and we fully support the Minsk Group co-chairs in their efforts to facilitate a more constructive phase of negotiations.
Second, the United States enjoys growing economic cooperation with Azerbaijan, particularly in the area of energy. As Europe looks more resolutely to diversify its sources of energy away from its dependence on Russia as part of its energy security strategy, Azerbaijan is emerging as a potentially crucial supplier of diversified natural gas supplies for our European allies, and the United States has been a longstanding supporter of Azerbaijan’s efforts to provide its energy resources to European markets. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, which began operating in June 2006, represents the first direct transportation link between the Caspian and the Mediterranean seas. At full capacity, it can deliver more than one million barrels of oil per day to market. The BTC pipeline was an early success for our Southern Corridor diplomacy, and now we are focused on developing a gas link between Azerbaijan and Europe. The construction of the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline across Turkey and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline to southern Italy will complete the Southern Gas Corridor, bringing Caspian gas to western Europe for the first time. Last December, after more than a decade of U.S.-led energy diplomacy in support of the Southern Gas Corridor, a final investment decision was made on this project, which will bring 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas – and potentially more – through this network of pipelines from Azerbaijan across six countries to western Europe starting in 2019.
While energy remains an important part of our bilateral economic relationship, it is not the only focus. Given our close cooperation on the Northern Distribution Network (NDN) and our ongoing transition in Afghanistan, we are actively encouraging Azerbaijan and its neighbors to take advantage of this important window of opportunity to transform the NDN into a commercial network for trade and investment when many freight forwarders are still in the region. Azerbaijan and its neighbors could become a premier trade and transportation corridor between Europe and Asia, but to do so, they must first reduce costs associated with high customs and tariffs and address delays caused by a lack of regional coordination. Time is of the essence, and the United States supports reforms that will create sustainable sources of non-oil revenue in Azerbaijan and new opportunities for U.S. exports and investment. For instance, Azerbaijan likely will obtain the necessary certifications to operate direct passenger and cargo flights to the United States this year.
The United States also promotes the export of U.S. goods and services to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has already purchased hundreds of millions of dollars worth of airplanes and a communications satellite from the United States, and it will undoubtedly purchase more in the future. U.S. agricultural firms are interested in selling heavy equipment and technology, and American oil companies want to explore and develop new oil and gas fields in the Caspian to supply the Southern Corridor. The United States also supports Azerbaijan’s accession into the World Trade Organization and the rules-based system in which its members participate. Opportunities for U.S. exports could increase significantly.
In this context, it is important to note the role that corruption plays in the entire OSCE space, and Azerbaijan is no exception. It is a blight that tears at the economic, political, and social fabric of society, weighing on the country’s economic potential, driving up inefficiencies, and scaring away foreign direct investment. Working with the Government of Azerbaijan and local partners, the United States is committed to enhancing our efforts to address corruption. Ultimately, countries with strong checks and balances—including a strong and independent judiciary and apolitical civil service—are most likely to be effective in combating corruption.
Finally, our strongest relationships world-wide are with democracies that respect the full range of human rights of their citizens. We seek strong cooperation on democratization with Azerbaijan, just as we collaborate closely on security and economic issues. Azerbaijan’s respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and progress on democratic reform is key not only to strengthening our bilateral relationship, but also to Azerbaijan’s own long-term stability. We have some serious concerns about the environment for democratic development and the protection of human rights in Azerbaijan, which has been deteriorating. My colleague Tom Melia will touch more on that in a moment.
I want to emphasize that the United States remains committed to a constructive dialogue with Azerbaijan based on friendship between our people and mutual respect between our governments. But a constructive dialogue means that we can and must have frank and honest discussions in areas where we disagree. Discussing matters of agreement and disagreement in a candid way is part of the nature of a serious dialogue. We therefore have been disappointed by allegations by some of Azerbaijan’s authorities that the United States is interfering in the country’s domestic affairs when we share our views or send democracy-related delegations to Azerbaijan.
Going forward, our relationship will continue to be based on these three core areas—security cooperation, economic and energy cooperation, and democratic development. Our mission remains to address each of these three areas with equal rigor and resolve. And we are committed to working with Congress in a bipartisan manner in our efforts to realize each of these and the full potential of this relationship.
Thank you.