A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced the Armenia Security Partnership Act in Congress, which would prevent the US president from waiving restrictions on aid to Azerbaijan until there is evidence Baku has taken ‘meaningful steps’ towards a lasting peace, according to a press release by Representative Gus Bilirakis, one of the bill’s cosponsors.
The draft legislation, introduced on 19 December, stipulated four separate conditions that Azerbaijan should meet for the US president to be able to waive the existing restrictions on aid:
- ‘Completely withdraw all military forces from the sovereign territory of Armenia;
- Unconditionally release all Armenian prisoners;
- Cease engaging in hostilities toward Armenia;
- And recognise the right of return for ethnic Armenians to their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh and commit to the preservation of Armenian cultural and religious sites in the region’.
If the US president cannot certify that Azerbaijan has made those steps, they would be required to ‘require a comprehensive review of US security assistance to Armenia to identify gaps in Armenia’s long-term defence needs and assess the threat posed by Azerbaijan; and prohibit the reauthorisation of the waiver of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, thereby enforcing existing statutory prohibitions on US assistance to Azerbaijan’.
The draft legislation was referring to the Freedom Support Act, which was initially 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.
In October 1992, Congress amended the Freedom Support Act — Section 907 — prohibiting any form of direct US assistance to the Azerbaijani government 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, at least until 2001, when the bill was amended so that the president has the authority to temporarily waive the restrictions. Since then, it has been waived several times, though the restrictions were never entirely removed.
The introduction of the Armenia Security Partnership Act follows an opposing legislative effort spearheaded by Republican representative Anna Paulina Luna earlier in December, which would end restrictions on US aid for Azerbaijan.
Both bills have been referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, but it is unclear what their path through the legislative process will be.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
