Azerbaijan suspends cooperation with USAID

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has announced the end of almost 25 years of cooperation with the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

On 16 January, Bayramov met with his Georgian counterpart Maka Bochorishvili in Baku. After the bilateral meeting, the two ministers responded to journalists’ questions at a joint press conference. One journalist asked Bayramov about the activities of USAID. In his response, Bayramov claimed the US had ‘punished’ Azerbaijan with Section 907 for ‘restoring its sovereignty’ in 2023, referring to Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive that resulted in the final surrender of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Bayramov was referring to Section 907 of the US Freedom Support Act, adopted in 1992, which was designed to promote the establishment of democratic governance and a free market economy in Russia and other newly independent states after the collapse of the USSR. Separate clauses for humanitarian, security, and anti-terrorism support were later added. This law was a broad package of measures that included a road map for future support in various areas.

In October 1992, Congress amended this law (Amendment 907), prohibiting any form of direct US assistance to the Azerbaijani government and other local municipalities in response to lobbying efforts by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), which cited Azerbaijan’s blockade of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the amendment, the US president ‘may not provide assistance to the Government of Azerbaijan and local governments under this or any other law unless he determines and reports to Congress that the Government of Azerbaijan has taken steps to lift the blockade and other use of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.’ Thus, Azerbaijan was the only post-Soviet country that did not benefit from the Freedom Support Act until 2001.

Nonetheless, Azerbaijan began criticising USAID in late 2023 after Samantha Power, the agency’s head, said that Azerbaijan’s military operation to return its breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh had ‘forced more than 100,000 people to leave their homes and move into neighboring Armenia. The US continues to stand with the ethnic Armenians from [Nagorno-Karabakh]’.

In response to Power's statement, Hikmat Hajiyev, a foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, said that USAID ‘has no place in Azerbaijan anymore.’

In his press conference on Thursday, Bayramov said that USAID activities in Azerbaijan have been de jure impossible since July 2024. He added that the Azerbaijani–USAID framework document has existed since 2000.

‘We reviewed the provisions of this document and how it has been implemented over the past years. It turned out that their activities do not correspond to the format of Azerbaijan’s desires and interests, but serve the implementation of the US agenda in Azerbaijan. In this regard, on this basis, we sent notifications in accordance with the provisions of this agreement, and  we stated that we are not interested in extending the agreement on these terms.’

Bayramov reported that the expiration date of this agreement was February 2024:

‘At that time, messages were sent from the US to Azerbaijan at the highest level on the continuation of cooperation within the framework of USAID’, Bayramov said, adding that ‘from February to June, the US […] did not want to take into account any legitimate interests of Azerbaijan. Taking this into account, the Azerbaijani side decided not to extend the agreement further’.

Bayramov emphasised that the time had come to suspend USAID activities.

‘During the negotiations, we saw that the US did not take into account the interests of Azerbaijan and was trying to act in its own interests through dictation. There is no need for the continued presence and representation of USAID in Azerbaijan, as well as its activities, to be completely suspended’.

USAID describes its country development cooperation strategy for Azerbaijan as ‘an enhanced enduring partnership that advances the country’s development progress. USAID seeks to support the Azerbaijani government’s engagement with citizens, particularly the most vulnerable; assist the government in creating a more diverse and durable economy; and utilize a development dialogue approach to establish the basis for a long-term partnership that serves Azerbaijani and US national interests’.

Since 1991, USAID has invested over $450 million in programs to support Azerbaijanis, including humanitarian relief, the health sector, and economic and governance reform. In addition, the Azerbaijani government has contributed more than $20 million in additional funds to USAID to help achieve economic reform goals for the country.

Deadly Azerbaijan Airlines crash sheds light on twin crises of migrant labour, border closure

The majority of victims were Azerbaijani citizens going to Russia for work.

OC MediaAytan Farhadova