Why Is Wexler Sticking Up For Azerbaijan?
Why would any member of Congress be interested in doing favors for Azerbaijan? Azerbaijan is widely recognized as a nation with a repressive government and a long record of human rights abuses. The first sentence of the 2008 Amnesty International Report on Azerbaijan reads, “Freedoms of expression and assembly continued to be widely restricted. Independent and opposition journalists faced imprisonment on libel charges, harassment by law enforcement officials and, in some cases, physical assault,” and progresses downward from there.
Yet, Robert Wexler, along with Pennsylvania Republican Bill Shuster, has introduced H.R. 2742 “A bill to authorize the extension of nondiscriminatory treatment (normal trade relations treatment) to the products of Azerbaijan; to the Committee on Ways and Means.” Why?
A small part of the explanation is that Azerbaijan claims to have met obligations under the Jackson-Vanik amendment to the 1974 Trade Act. That amendment placed trade restrictions on communist nations that restricted emigration. Still, normal trade relations are a privilege, not an international right. Why should Robert Wexler be the member of Congress to stand up and speak out in favor of trade with a nation with a record of human rights abuses?
Wexler calls Azerbaijan “one of America’s most important strategic allies in the Caucasus region”. What makes Azerbaijan such an important strategic ally in the Caucasus region, and why does that matter? Is the United States still fighting to rip away bits of Russia’s sphere of influence?
Azerbaijan has oil – lots of oil. Azerbaijan also is in a perfect position to get oil out of central Asia, and into American-allied nations, rather than into Russia. I can’t say for certain whether oil interests are a part of Representative Wexler’s motivations, but explanations such as Azerbaijan’s position as a key Caucasus ally don’t shed much light on the matter either.
[...] legislative action, including Wexler’s primary sponsorship of H.R. 2742, a bill to normalize trade relations with Azerbaijan, a nation with a terrible human rights record – and a some oil reserves, as well as some territory that’s included in a projected oil [...]