Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia

Folks, I’m taking a break from the presidential election this week. Not talking about Trump. Not talking about Hillary. Not going to analyze the latest allegation against either candidate. Not going to critique the mainstream press’s latest example of bias against Trump, or in favor of Hillary (oops, couldn’t help myself…)

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What I am going to talk about this week, is a part of the world, which is often ignored by much of the rest of the world. And that’s despite the fact that this region, could play a critical role in the ongoing conflict between civilization and radical Islam, East vs West, and Putin’s attempt to reconstitute the former Soviet Union. That region is the Caucasus.

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The Caucasus sits at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. It lies between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. It consists of parts of Iran, Turkey, and Russia (including Chechnya and Dagestan); and all of the nations of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. It’s a very tough neighborhood.

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In my capacity as a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Chairman of the House Small Business Committee, I just returned yesterday from visiting Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia. The purpose of the mission was to assess the current status of U.S. relations with each of these nations, including economic, political, military, and national security issues. I learned a lot, and thought I’d share it with you.

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My first stop, Azerbaijan. First a few facts about Azerbaijan. Like Georgia, and Armenia, Azerbaijan was behind the Iron Curtain (a part of the former Soviet Union), until 1991. It’s a secular Shia Muslim nation of about 10 million people. Azerbaijan is about the size of Maine. One of our principal interests in Azerbaijan for decades has been that they are a major oil and natural gas producer. Since much of the oil under the land has already been exploited, most of the current and future drilling will be off their shore in the Caspian Sea. And the United States is working with Azerbaijan to build pipelines to allow oil and gas to be piped directly to Europe. Otherwise, our European allies will continue to be so dependent upon Russian sources of energy, that they are easily intimidated by Putin’s threat to cut off their source of energy if they stand up with the United States against Putin’s bullying.

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Having been under the Soviet Union’s domination for nearly 80 years, Azerbaijan still has some Soviet bad habits, such as corruption, a not-so-independent judicial system, insufficient rule of law, lack of transparency, and bureaucracy, (even worse than ours.) After first discussing these issues in detail with our Ambassador, and our Embassy personnel, I raised them in a meeting I had with Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev.

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I also met with Azerbaijan’s Minister of Defense, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of the Economy, and the American Chamber of Commerce, among others. At all these meetings, I thanked Azerbaijan for standing side by side with the United States and our NATO allies, in sending Azhiri troops to Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

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One final point about Azerbaijan. They have been in an ongoing dispute with their neighbor Armenia, over a portion of Azerbaijan which was lost in a conflict with Armenia, called Nagorno-Karabakh, about 25 years ago. Fighting breaks out here every few years, most recently in April of this year, when approximately 200 Azhiris and Armenians were killed. Putin has now stepped in and is trying to broker a deal. Of course the way Putin operates is to look for weakness or instability, and exploit it for his own purposes. We should keep a close eye on this.

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Next, Georgia (the country of course, not the state.) First, a little background on Georgia. Like Azerbaijan, Georgia gained its freedom from the former Soviet Union in 1991. It’s a nation approximately the size of West Virginia, and has 3.7 million people. Its capital is Tbilisi. They claim to be the most pro-American nation on earth (although I have traveled to a few other nations who make that same claim, such as Albania.) Putin has been trying to bring Georgia back into Russia’s sphere of influence for some time now. Similar to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine in taking over Crimea, he invaded Georgia back in 2008, taking over two regions of Georgia – Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which together constituted 20% of Georgia’s territory.

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I had a slew of meetings while in Georgia, but without doubt, the most important was with their head of state, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili. Georgia is strongly seeking our and NATO’s support to stand up to the Russians, and I think they should have it. They are one of our allies that is actually living up to their commitment to us. For example, they have sent more of their soldiers per capita to fight with us in Afghanistan, than any of our other allies. And unlike most of our allies, who have failed to meet the NATO requirement that they devote at least 2% of their GDP to military spending (only 5 of the 28 NATO members meet that commitment), Georgia has met the 2% requirement. And that’s even though Georgia hasn’t yet been officially admitted into NATO. They ought to be.

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Last, but not least, Armenia. And as I did with the other two countries, first some basic information on Armenia. It’s about the size of Maryland, and has a population of approximately 3 million. Interestingly, Armenia is said to be the first nation to formally adopt Christianity, which occurred in the early part of the 4th century. Also interestingly, Mt. Ararat, where Noah according to the Bible landed his ark and all those animals, can be seen from Armenia’s capital, Yerevan. Mt. Ararat is the symbol of Armenia and is on its coat of arms, but is now located in Turkey. That’s because Turkey took Mt. Ararat along with other Armenian territory in the Turkish-Armenian War in 1921.

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While in Armenia, I met with a whole range of Armenian officials, from the Minister of Defense (comparable to our Secretary of Defense), to the Minister of Economics, to a group of Parliamentarians, and so on. The subject that came up over and over was Nagorno-Karabakh. Of course their view on the topic is exactly the opposite of the way Azerbaijan sees it. And here’s the concern Georgia should have. Azerbaijan has significant oil and natural gas reserves. Georgia does not. Azerbaijan is therefore spending a great deal of their oil and gas money on rapidly building up their military. Georgia is not going to be able to keep up with this. So what should the U.S. do? We should do everything we can to help keep both sides talking, rather than shooting at each other. Otherwise, another even fiercer war, one that could greatly destabilize the whole region, is a real possibility.

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Another topic that’s at the forefront of Armenian thoughts, actually occurred 100 years ago – the Armenian Genocide. 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered at the hands of the Ottoman Empire (modern day Turkey.) There were of course atrocities committed on both sides. Armenia has been trying to get the mass killings recognized by the world as a “genocide”, but Turkey has strongly resisted this over the years. Hitler is alleged to have said, while contemplating the extermination of the Jews, “Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?”

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Our relationship with Armenia can, at times, be quite frustrating. Particularly disappointing was their vote at the UN to, in essence, recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The fact is, Armenia has had a close relationship with Russia for many years. Despite this fact, because Armenia is located in a region strategically important to U.S. interests, we should stay engaged with Armenia.

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Thanks for taking the time to read this week’s blog, which may have taken a while to get through. I hope you’ve learned a thing or two, as I did spending the last week in this challenging part of the world.

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