Don’t appease Aliyev, who violates human rights in Azerbaijan

The Obama administration should consider the example set by the European Parliament, which recently sent a strong message to the Republic of Azerbaijan and its dictatorial president Ilham Aliyev by passing a resolution condemning the government’s ongoing assault on human rights and freedom of speech.

Among other hardline measures, authorities closed offices of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and jailed journalist Khadija Ismayilova, apparently for uncovering corruption at the government’s highest levels. Meanwhile, the Azeri military has escalated its attacks on the neighboring republics of Armenia and Artsakh, disregarding the terms of the 20-plus year tenuous truce among the nations and compromising efforts to bring peace to this part of the Caucuses.

Yet instead of confronting these threats to international security head-on, the U.S. State Department continues to issue mild statements of concern about human rights abuses in Azerbaijan and to treat the Armenian-Azeri conflict with a false parity that actually encourages further escalation by President Aliyev.

The reason, not surprisingly, involves Azerbaijan’s substantial petroleum reserves. Appeasing dictators for economic reasons rarely works over the long haul, particularly petty ones like President Aliyev, whose tenures are usually short and invariably end with the loss of human life and destruction of the country’s infrastructure.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 9:40 AM with the headline "Don’t appease Aliyev, who violates human rights in Azerbaijan."