Baku, Azerbaijan, June 4
Trend:
These past years, the United States foreign policy has become a long procession of "are you kidding me?" moments for our allies, professor at California State University Norma Zager said in the article published in The Washington Times.
"Another reliable and staunch ally of the United States, Azerbaijan, is in an equally unenviable position," Zager writes in her article.
Azerbaijan receives a deaf ear to pleas that the United States intercede to force its neighbor, Armenia, to adhere to multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for the return of Azerbaijani lands and the cessation of its illegal occupation and ongoing aggression, said the article.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
Today, the United States calls for Russia to respect the territorial integrity of Georgia and Ukraine, but conveniently omits even a nod to Azerbaijan, Zager writes.
"There is not even condemnation of repeated acts of aggression by Armenia," Zager said in the article.
"In fact, these past years, Azerbaijan has been repeatedly attacked for how its young and emerging democracy functions," according to the article.
"There seems to be painfully sparse recognition of Azerbaijan's momentous gains in the building of a civil society, a foundation for a sustainable and long-lasting government dedicated to the betterment of the nation's people, not to mention the support it gives to the United States."