US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had a phone conversation with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, as the press service of the leader of the Republic of Azerbaijan reported earlier. Blinken also spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Now the US Department of State has made its own statement. State Department spokesman Ned Price said at the latest press briefing that “Secretary Blinken has been personally engaged on this. It is why we and he put out a statement last night just within hours of these escalation of tensions calling for an immediate cessation of violence. It’s why he picked up the phone in the wee hours. He was on the phone until after 1:00 a.m. Eastern with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan underscoring for them the importance of the core message that he issued in his statement, namely the imperative of an immediate cessation of these hostilities. He urged President Aliyev to cease hostilities immediately, to disengage military forces, and to work to resolve all outstanding issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan through peaceful negotiations. <…> We have seen significant evidence of Azerbaijani shelling inside Armenia and significant damage to Armenian infrastructure, but most important for us is that both of these parties commit to a cessation of hostilities and commit to a broader de-escalation.”
You will recall that for a month (!) Armenia has been regularly and systematically shelling positions of the Azerbaijani Army in Lachin, Kalbajar, and Zangilan districts. The intensity of these attacks increases. Yerevan pulls troops and offensive weaponry to the border with Azerbaijan. On the night of September 13, Armenian saboteurs try to mine the communication routes of Azerbaijani troops in Azerbaijan’s territory. Azerbaijan suppresses these attempts. Armenia responds by shelling Azerbaijani positions, which results in damage to Azerbaijani military infrastructure and killed and wounded Azerbaijani military personnel. It is these actions of Armenia that forced Azerbaijan to give a harsh response to these provocations. Yerevan’s fault and responsibility for the current aggravation is obvious and doubtless.
Yet Anthony Blinken mentions only the “shelling of Armenia”. Not a single word is said about the shelling of Azerbaijan, neither in his conversation with Pashinyan, nor in his conversation with Aliyev. Moreover, Blinken calls on Baku but not on Yerevan to stop the hostilities.
What does this mean? Does Washington believe that shelling the territory of Azerbaijan is A-okay, but returning fire on Armenian positions is a no-no? Armenia has the right to arrange armed provocations, but Azerbaijan is not allowed to respond to them? This is not the first time we have faced double standards in US policy, but this is a whole new level. Or is it simpler than that and the US Secretary of State is just deeply unaware of what happened at the border? Has he not been informed? But if so, even if Mr. Blinken managed to put his foot in his mouth, they could have at least edited the State Department statement to remove the shameless double standards? Couldn’t Blinken’s team figure out at least that?
What a shame for the greatest power in the world, indeed.
