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Azerbaijan -- not Armenia -- is the threat-maker in the Karabakh con

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  • Azerbaijan -- not Armenia -- is the threat-maker in the Karabakh con

    The Hill
    Sept 4 2014

    Azerbaijan -- not Armenia -- is the threat-maker in the Karabakh conflict

    By Mark Dietzen


    Denis Jaffe's August 20, 2014 blog post, "Armenia threatens Azerbaijan
    with missiles," misinterprets the recent exchange between Armenian
    President Serge Sargsyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
    Azerbaijan is the real aggressor in this conflict.

    Jaffe's misrepresentation of Sargsyan's August 11 quotation about "the
    capacities and abilities of the Armenian Armed Forces" was, in fact,
    Armenia's response to the August 8 statement by Azerbaijan's Ministry
    of Defense that warned: "our Army, targeting Armenia with missiles, is
    ready to fulfill even the order of destroying Armenia's capital,
    Yerevan." Armenia's president was not threatening Azerbaijan; he was
    adequately responding to Azerbaijan's threats, most recently displayed
    in Azerbaijani President Aliyev's anti-Armenian militaristic diatribe
    on Twitter. What President Sargsyan did was send a signal that Baku's
    military aggression would not be unanswered.

    Furthermore, Jaffe's unwarranted charge that Armenia is "circumventing
    the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)" has no bearing, since
    Armenia is not even a partner to that association. And Jaffe makes
    another unsupported allegation about Armenia's violation of The Hague
    Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (HCOC). Jaffe
    claims access to sensitive information by alleging -- while citing no
    reliable source -- that Armenia violates the HCOC by not providing
    pre-launch notifications on its ballistic missiles, or submitting an
    annual declaration of its ballistic missile policies. Yet, this
    unfounded charge is suspect, since, as a rule, such information can
    only be obtained from the HCOC's Immediate Central Contact by
    governments, and is not made available to non-governmental analysts,
    such as Mr. Jaffe.

    While he inflates Armenia's arms control record with unsubstantiated
    claims, Jaffe turns a blind eye to Azerbaijan's violations of
    international law and its irresponsible behavior. Since 2007, Baku has
    ignored the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe by grossly
    exceeding the Treaty's Limited Equipment (TLE) -- battle tanks and
    artillery systems. According to a report by the U.S. State Department,
    "as of January 1, 2013, Azerbaijan declared equipment totals that
    exceeded its overall limits by over 390 pieces of TLE [Treaty Limited
    Equipment] (over 160 tanks and about 230 artillery pieces in excess of
    Azerbaijan's limits)."

    As the U.S. Azeri Network's analyst, Jaffe should be aware that the
    U.S. Congress, State Department and Pentagon have not been silent
    about Armenia and Azerbaijan, as he opined in his piece. Since 1992,
    Congress has upheld Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which
    forbids any direct U.S. aid to Azerbaijan's government due to the
    latter's aggressive policy and continuing blockade of Armenia and
    Artsakh. On August 15, the State Department called on the Azerbaijani
    Government "to conduct a full and transparent investigation" into the
    death of Armenian Karen Petrosyan while in Azerbaijani captivity. And
    recent news reports reveal that the Pentagon refused an Azerbaijani
    offer to purchase U.S. military equipment, citing the ongoing Karabakh
    conflict.

    Baku's irresponsible domestic and international behavior impedes a
    peaceful resolution to the Karabakh conflict, and undermines peace and
    security in the South Caucasus.

    Dietzen is executive director of Americans for Artsakh.


    http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/216570-azerbaijan-not-armenia-is-the-threat-maker-in-the-karabakh

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