Friday, February 13 2015 16:14

 Top members of a key U.S. Congressional committee on Thursday condemned Azerbaijan's crackdown onmedia and civil society members,urging for immediate steps "in the right direction" as a sign of Baku's positive intentions, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

Azerbaijan's location in a difficult neighborhood and being sandwiched by Russia and Iran "shouldn't be an excuse for ignoring right volitions," said Dana Rohrabacher, Chairman of House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats, during a hearing about U.S. interests in Azerbaijan. "The recent closure of RFE/RL in Baku is unacceptable," he said, adding that an official raid to the RadioAzadliq office, as well as arrests of local journalists are among a series of steps by the Azerbaijani government to limit free media and public discourse.  "I'm deeply troubled by recent efforts by the government to crack down on civil society groups and independent media:Democracy does not exist without the citizens who freely exercise their voices," added New Jersey Congressmen Albio Sires.

Gregory W. Meeks, a Democrat from New York, said, President IlhamAliyev and his team "should know that we're concerned about their attitude towards some members of the civil society."

The Azeri government officials, including ambassador to the U.S., weren't part of the hearing, however, the embassy employees and pro-government media were observing the event from the audience.

In his speech Massachusetts Congressmen William Keating also highlighted the arrest of journalists in Baku, as well as ongoing anti-US campaign, saying that these all "raise serious questions and concerns over the intentions of Azerbaijani leadership and desire to partner with U.S." The [Obama] Administration, he said, "should prioritize those concerns while their communication with the Aliyev government."

In his speech Richard Kauzlarich, former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan, said: "Many observers have noticed deterioration in the tone and, in some respects, the substance of US - Azerbaijan relations, especially since the flawed Azerbaijani presidential elections in the fall of 2013. Part of this reflects fundamental shifts in the global and regional political and economic environment." For the Ambassador, today U.S. and Azerbaijan are in a different place than just five years ago. There are new global and regional geopolitical realities. The global energy picture in particular has changed making Azerbaijan and the Caspian region less critical to U.S. energy security needs. Rather than trying to construct an abstract "strategic partnership," Washington, he said, needs to establish a limited set of attainable goals: "Progress on these goals would determine whether a strategic partnership between the US and Azerbaijan is realistic." 

These could be: serious engagement between Armenia and Azerbaijan by a specific date leading to a peaceful settlement of the dispute regarding Nagorno-Karabakh, and resumed Track - II unofficial contacts; support for stability in Azerbaijan based on Baku's movement toward greater democracy and observance of internationally recognized human rights standards; freedom for the over 90 political prisoners; further internal suppression of the remaining liberal democratic elements in the run - up to the 2015 parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. On the human rights front, he said, there are more political prisoners in Azerbaijan than in Belarus and Russia combined. Years of diplomatic engagement have not improved the situation. 

"Recently it has become markedly worse than anything I have observed in my experience with Azerbaijan. If there is no progress toward release of all these prisoners then the USG should consider imposing travel and other sanctions on those officials responsible for the arrest and continued detention of NGO activists and journalists," he said.