The US sanction proposal to Azerbaijani officials: Pressure or punishment?

A group of American congressmen led by Dina Titus plans to submit a bill on the imposition of sanctions against Azerbaijan to Congress this week, Turan's correspondent in Washington learned about this from Congressional sources.

The bill provides for sanctions against more than 40 Azerbaijani officials - military, judges, investigators and high-ranking officials who "played an active role in undermining the rule of law and human rights in the country." Among them are representatives of the Ministry of Defense, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Baku Serious Crimes Court, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Security Service, the Penitentiary Service, the State Border Service and the Presidential Administration.

The bill will call on the Biden administration to take a decision within 180 days on sanctions against this group of individuals, in accordance with US law, including the Global Magnitsky Act.

The adoption of such a bill is explained by "the government's brutal repression of the opposition and serious concern about human rights violations in Azerbaijan."

In particular, the arrests of opposition leaders, activists and those who criticize the authorities, including Gubad Ibadoglu, are mentioned.

The authors further note that on March 6, 2024, the Azerbaijani authorities detained six journalists in Baku as part of the ongoing persecution of independent media in Azerbaijan and charged them with unjustified smuggling.

The bill also refers to violations of the rights of Armenian prisoners. This "casts serious doubt on the commitment of the Azerbaijani government to respect human rights and its ability to negotiate a just and lasting peace," the document says.

Political commentator Arastun Orujlu talks about the reasons for the appearance of this bill and its possible consequences in the program "A difficult question".

Orujlu believes  that the sanctions are expected for several reasons. And, of course, their main reason is the critical state of human rights in Azerbaijan.

"This is a fact that no one can deny. But this is not a new phenomenon. That is, they should not have been introduced just because of the events that took place this year and I hope that this will not happen. We know that mass crimes against Azerbaijani citizens have been committed in Azerbaijan for at least the last 7 years, starting with the Terter massacre," Orujlu said.

Attention should be paid to the list of persons against whom the bill provides for sanctions. Among them, for example, the commander of the Special Forces, Lieutenant General Hikmet Izzet oglu Mirzayev, commander of the Ground Forces, Lieutenant General Enver Efendiyev, commander of the 218th Commando Brigade, Colonel Elshan Sanayev, who enjoys great respect of the people, hero of the Second Karabakh War.

"These people were liberating their homeland from occupation and the application of sanctions against them is a hostile action against the Azerbaijani people," the expert said, adding that if the talk is  about ethnic cleansing, then civilian casualties during operations in the Second Karabakh War and during the one-day war were the least for the last 80 years after the Second World War.

Orujlu noted that no state will tolerate armed separatism, and the Azerbaijani government was obliged to put an end to it, since this is its constitutional duty.

As for the staff of the prosecutor's office, according to the observer, they were on the "blacklist" not because of the persecution of the opposition and dissidents, but because the absolute majority of them were investigating the case of captured servicemen of the Armenian Armed Forces and separatists.

He drew attention to the fact that Dina Titus's mother is of Greek descent, and she is a member of the Greek Congressional Faction, which closely cooperates with the ANCA (Armenian National Committee of America), the largest and most influential Armenian-American organization in the United States. According to him, the list of Titus was presented by the ANC, which is one of the initiators of the bill.

According to Orujlu, the issue of human rights, as well as the issue of sanctions for human rights violations, unfortunately, is mostly used as a means of political pressure. They are remembered when any problems arise in the relations of states.

"Linking the policy pursued by the Azerbaijani authorities against the Azerbaijani people, against their rights and freedoms with the issue of ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Karabakh creates a negative opinion in Azerbaijani public opinion against this act. This is a disservice to the Azerbaijani society," the expert notes.