AZAD Sent Open Letter to Secretary Hillary Clinton on Ramil Safarov Controversy

The Azerbaijani Americans for Democracy has addressed an open letter to the US Secretary of State on the issue of the Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov. Below is the full text of the letter:
 

Dear Madam Secretary,

On August 31, the US State Department issued a statement noting that it was "extremely troubled by the news that the President of Azerbaijan pardoned the Azerbaijani army officer Ramil Safarov," who killed an Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan at a NATO sponsored event in Budapest, Hungary, after the latter insulted the Azerbaijani flag. A strongly worded statement from the US State Department expressed “deep concern” and underscored that the US is “seeking an explanation” from Azerbaijan and “also seeking further details from Hungary" about the extradition of Safarov to Azerbaijan.

Ilham Aliyev's government has committed countless transgressions violating the rights of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani citizens. Scores of people were physically attacked, arrested, tortured, and some died at the hands of the Aliyev regime. Yet, the strongest ever US State Department protest to the actions taken by the dictatorship in Baku seem to be motivated not by the concerns for rights and freedoms of the people of Azerbaijan, but rather by the deference to the out-of-proportion influence of the Armenian lobby on the US foreign policy.

It is difficult to understand the urgency and importance given by the US State Department to the pardoning of the Azerbaijani soldier Ramil Safarov. Safarov's extradition from Hungary could have been handled by Azerbaijan with more consideration of diplomatic sensitivities and without aggrandizing someone sentenced to life for killing an Armenian officer. However, the practice of extraditing convicted foreign citizens to their home countries where they receive lenient terms or pardons is hardly extraordinary. One may recall the case of an Armenian terrorist Varoujan Garabedian, convicted in France for bombing Turkish Airlines check-in counter, subsequently freed and extradited to Armenia. Garabedian was greeted as a national hero by the president of Armenia and given the rank of an army colonel. The current Armenian Minister of Defense, Seyran Ohanyan, had led a well-documented massacre of Azeri civilians by Armenian forces in the town Khodjaly in 1992.

What is extraordinary and puzzling is that the arguably strongest-ever criticism used by the US leadership against the Azerbaijani authorities comes in response to the Ramil Safarov incident, rather than the numerous grave trespasses on democracy and human rights perpetrated by the Aliyev dictatorship against Azerbaijani citizens. It is unfortunate that given the gross injustices perpetrated by the Aliyev regime against its own people over the past two decades, the US State Department appears to show greater concern for the sensitivities of Armenia which currently occupies 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories, having driven out all of its Azeri inhabitants.

It would be highly desirable to see equally strong reactions by the US administration to fraudulent elections, violent attacks against peaceful protesters, arrest, torture, beating and murder of journalists, dissidents and civic activists in Azerbaijan. In many of those instances, instead of expressions of "deep concern" and "extreme trouble", and demands of explanation from the Azerbaijani government, as it was included in the US State Department’s and National Security Council spokesperson’s statements on Safarov case, the United States responded with much milder statements of concern and "hopes for improvement", effectively watering them down by the assurances of cooperation and alliance with the ruling regime in Baku.

We cannot help but remember the “election victory” congratulations delivered on behalf of the US government by the Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to the Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev while the streets of Baku were still reeling from violent suppression of protests against the wholesale election fraud in October of 2003.

More recently, the nomination of Matthew Bryza to the position of a US Ambassador to Azerbaijan and his failed Senate confirmation process revealed a misplaced emphasis in the US approach towards the Azerbaijani regime. Mr. Bryza’s personal connections to the Azerbaijani regime were questioned extensively in light of his perceived anti-Armenian bias and pro-Azerbaijani position on the Karabakh conflict. Solely on those grounds, two US senators effectively blocked his confirmation. His credentials on democracy and human rights were never questioned by the US government or members of the Congress. Ironically, Matthew Bryza’s actions during and after his brief ambassadorship tenure - including his high-profile job with an oil firm linked to Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company, and his statements supportive of the Aliyev government and lacking criticism of its human rights record - proved his bias in favor of the regime in Baku on the issue of democracy, but not on the Karabakh problem or on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

The corrupt dynastical Azerbaijani dictatorship led by Ilham Aliyev can and should, indeed, be heavily criticized and pressured by the US and other Western governments. However, the issue of democracy and human rights, and not the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, is the most appropriate subject where the strongest language and the heaviest pressure should be applied. The current short-sighted foreign policy focus might temporarily appease the ethnic-Armenian lobby groups, but it certainly does not serve the US national interests in Azerbaijan and the broader region, harms the democratic development in that country, damages the US reputation in the eyes of Azerbaijani people and further complicates the resolution of the Karabakh problem.

Sincerely yours,

Elmar Chakhtakhtinski,
Chairman
Azerbaijani-Americans for Democracy