The Honorable Antony Blinken

United States Secretary of State

March 17, 2022

Dear Secretary Blinken,

Azerbaijani-American Diaspora was thrilled to read your tweet about speaking with President Aliyev on the importance of resolving regional conflicts and pursuing a path to peace in the South Caucasus. Thanking Azerbaijan for the support they provided to Ukraine was a very noble gesture. America always valued alliances and partnerships and believed in maintaining our alliances is the most effective way to achieve our foreign policy goals.

The Azerbaijan Society of America (ASA), wishes to bring to your attention important information about Azerbaijan and its commitment to partnership with the USA in carrying out your foreign policy: Azerbaijan sent 150 soldiers to guard a key dam in Iraq as part of the coalition to liberate Iraq from its dictator, freeing up coalition forces for combat duty in Iraq. Azerbaijan also had soldiers assisting the effort in Afghanistan as well. Now Azerbaijan is working hard to supply the Ukrainian people humanitarian relief; no one understands the humanitarian / refugee problem better than Azerbaijanis, having suffered a similar fate when, with major assist from Russian forces, Armenian separatists living in Azerbaijan perpetrated ethnic cleansing of all Azerbaijanis from their ancestral homelands in the region of Karabakh, most of whom relocated to the remaining, safe part of Azerbaijan. U.N. estimated that nearly one million Azerbaijanis were displaced from their homelands, precipitating what was at the time the greatest humanitarian crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Our community of Diaspora Azerbaijanis living in USA are familiar with the effort to gather up resources at times of need, and the excellent relations between Azerbaijan and Ukraine demand our firm and positive response to this recent humanitarian catastrophe.

30 years ago in 1992, US Congress passed the Freedom Support Act (FSA) intended to assist all the post Soviet, newly liberated republics, to help build democratic institutions and practices. On account of some local politics on behalf of a narrow interest group, Azerbaijan was singled out in the FSA to be excluded from this important effort (Section 907), only because Azerbaijan closed off trade with Armenia during the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani lands, most of which has been liberated by Azerbaijani military forces in a 44 day offensive to retake those lands, in September of 2020. Azerbaijan is currently in negotiations with the Armenian government to reopen those trade routes, ending the so-called “blockade” (their language, not ours) which this unjust and unwise exclusion from FSA is based. We wish to bring this matter to your attention at this time; every president since 2000 has suspended section 907 every year. We believe it is the right time to remove this misguided provision in the FSA; our commitment to supporting US foreign policy remains strong and robust. The removal of Section 907 from the FSA would go a long way toward building more trust and good will between our two great countries.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

Tomris Azeri

Azerbaijan Society of America

az.society.usa@gmail.com

https://azsociety.org/