Azerbaijan appears to have banned high-ranking U.S. officials from visiting the country, citing “biased” and “unacceptable” remarks made by James O’Brien, U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
In a Nov. 16 statement, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said that “one-sided and biased remarks” by Mr. O’Brien—in which he questioned Baku’s commitment to making peace with Armenia—were “counterproductive, baseless, and unacceptable.”
“We believe that high-level visits from the United States to Azerbaijan would be inappropriate [in light of Mr. O’Brien’s statements],” the foreign ministry said.
Mr. O’Brien made the remarks in question at a Nov. 15 hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which was convened to discuss Azerbaijan’s recent military offensive in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
At the hearing, he said that Azerbaijan’s September offensive had “eroded trust and raised doubts regarding Baku’s commitment to a comprehensive peace with Armenia.”
“Given this new reality,” Mr. O’Brien said, “the [State] Department has made it clear to Azerbaijan that there cannot be ‘business-as-usual’ in our bilateral relationship.”
He went on to assert that Washington had “condemned Azerbaijani actions in Nagorno-Karabakh, canceled high-level bilateral meetings and engagements with Azerbaijan, and suspended plans for future events.”
The diplomat also used the occasion to take a swipe at Moscow, which has sought to play a mediating role in the decades-long dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“Like many regions in the former Soviet Union, it [Nagorno-Karabakh] was an area exploited by Russia as a frozen conflict—ready to be thawed and weaponized as a means of perpetuating Russian influence,” Mr. O’Brien said.
On Sept. 19, Azerbaijan carried out a 24-hour offensive aimed at disarming ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh and exerting full control over the mountainous region.
The offensive, which ended with a Moscow-brokered ceasefire, led to the mass exodus of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh into neighboring Armenia.
Although most of Nagorno-Karabakh’s inhabitants are ethnic Armenians, the region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry slammed Mr. O’Brien’s remarks—and the hearing itself—as “a blow to Azerbaijan-U.S. relations in bilateral and multilateral formats.”
“The groundless accusations voiced against Azerbaijan are irrelevant and undermine peace and security in the region,” it stated.
According to the ministry, Mr. O’Brien failed to mention what it stated was Baku’s primary reason for launching the offensive: “Namely, the illegal deployment of more than 10,000 Armenian troops [in Nagorno-Karabakh] in breach of international law and the Tripartite Statement of November 10, 2020.”
“In line with Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, Azerbaijan has the legitimate right to use force to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The ministry went on to assert that Washington’s “unilateral approach” to the perennial Azerbaijan–Armenia dispute “could lead to the loss of its mediating role” between the two South Caucasus nations.
“Under these circumstances,” it stated, “we cannot take part in the planned meeting between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, which was slated to take place in Washington on Nov. 20.”
When asked about the move by Baku, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller insisted that Washington “continues to support peace talks to resolve the issues between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”
“We would encourage the two parties to engage in talks, whether here or somewhere else,” Mr. Miller told reporters at a Nov. 16 news briefing.
“That will continue to be our policy.”
Decades-Long Dispute
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenian forces captured Nagorno-Karabakh—an area of roughly 2,730 square miles—from neighboring Azerbaijan.In late 2020, the two former Soviet socialist republics fought a 44-day war in which Azerbaijan—with Turkish support—retook most of the territory lost to Armenia nearly three decades earlier.
The war, in which thousands of soldiers from both sides were killed, ended with a ceasefire agreement brokered by Moscow.
In the wake of the conflict, Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the Azerbaijan–Armenia border, where they still maintain a significant presence.
In September, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Moscow—and its peacekeeping contingent—of failing to prevent Azerbaijan’s military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Moscow, for its part, has responded to Armenia’s criticisms by noting that Armenian officials—including Mr. Pashinyan himself—have formally recognized Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over the flashpoint region.
