Washington Post - 12.16.2001

 

U.S. Reviews Bans in Central Asia
Rumsfeld Expects End to Sanctions on Azerbaijan, Armenia

By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 15 -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia today that he expected the United States to lift sanctions against them next week, paving the way for the resumption of U.S. military ties.

Rumsfeld's comments came during a whirlwind, one-day tour of three former Soviet republics designed to bolster relations with allies in the war against terrorism.

Congress enacted sanctions against Azerbaijan prohibiting military relations between the two countries in 1992, under intense lobbying by Armenian Americans angry about Azerbaijan's embargo against neighboring Armenia. At the time the two countries were engaged in a fierce conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave populated by ethnic Armenians, who are Christians, but located in Azerbaijan, which is predominantly Muslim. Successive U.S. administrations have imposed sanctions on Armenia, as well.

In his first stop today in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital on the Caspian Sea, Rumsfeld told President Heydar Aliyev that he had hoped to announce the sanctions had already been lifted. He said he now expected that to happen next week. He delivered the same message in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to President Robert Kocharian.

The Bush administration began pushing hard to have the sanctions waived after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when Armenia and Azerbaijan quickly granted overflight rights to U.S. warplanes involved in the fighting in Afghanistan and offered other military assistance.

"Both countries recognize, since Sept. 11, the threat of terrorism, the changed circumstance," Rumsfeld said. "They also believe that closer military ties with the U.S. will allow them to modernize their militaries."

Rumsfeld's day ended in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, where President Eduard Shevardnadze endorsed President Bush's decision to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in six months. Bush informed Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday of his intention to withdraw so that his administration can pursue its ambitious program for testing and deploying new forms of ballistic missile defenses, which the treaty prohibits.

"Six months ago, I publicly expressed my support and my positive attitude toward the missile defense initiative," Shevardnadze said. "Although President Putin expressed his dissatisfaction with the unilateral decision of the United States to withdraw, he then went on and spoke about . . . further improvement of the relationship between the United States and Russia."

Rumsfeld plans to visit U.S. troops in Central Asia on Sunday before flying to Brussels for three days of talks at NATO headquarters. Those talks will include a session with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov about how to begin fashioning a new security relationship without the ABM Treaty as its cornerstone.

Azerbaijan is a country clearly seen by the Bush administration as a potential ally and major new source of oil outside the Middle East. In Baku, Rumsfeld assured Aliyev and Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev that agreement had been reached in Congress to waive the nine-year-old sanctions.

"The sooner . . . you do it, the better it is," President Aliyev told Rumsfeld during a joint news conference. "Everything is in your hands. We are just waiting for you. Hopefully it will be waived very soon."

The sanctions contained in the 1992 Freedom Support Act ban military assistance to Azerbaijan until the president certifies that the country has ceased offensive operations and blockades in Nagorno-Karabakh. While the law applies only to Azerbaijan, the same sanctions have been placed as a matter of policy on Armenia.

The waiver would authorize the president to lift the sanctions if he can certify to Congress that military cooperation with Azerbaijan is needed to fight the war on terrorism and secure borders in the region. The waiver could not continue if U.S. military assistance was used to upset the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process or to attack Armenia. Officials said identical terms would apply to Armenia as a condition of renewed military ties with Washington.

Nagorno-Karabakh, backed by Armenia, waged a 1988-1994 war in which Armenian forces won control of the area and some adjacent regions of Azerbaijan. The conflict has led to the deaths of more than 30,000 people and driven 1 million from their homes. Sporadic killing continues despite a cease-fire.

Azerbaijanis are adamant that the disputed region remain part of their country. Armenians insist that the region is a historic part of Armenia and became part of Azerbaijan when Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin redrew the boundaries in the 1920s.