Visit of Prime Minister Ilham Aliyev (Azerbaijan)

Dear Paula,

We understand that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage will shortly be meeting with Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ilham Aliyev.

While it is not the policy of our organization to become involved in "political" matters per se, we have worked closely with human rights and democracy advocates in Azerbaijan for many years and we know this community now feels betrayed by the United States' precipitous embrace of Ilham Aliyev-seemingly at the cost of American support for the democratic process in Azerbaijan. Political analysts in Baku have for years spoken of Ilham as the "American candidate," a conclusion doubtless encouraged by the close personal relations that flourished between him and America's diplomatic representative in Baku. I have no doubt that the development of these connections was diplomatically expedient for the United States, but it is incumbent on the stew-ards of United States foreign policy to keep longer term interests in focus.

There is now a broad perception in Azerbaijan that America's talk about democracy is mere lip-service, and in fact America's interests are best served by the installation of dynastic rule. This talk is strongly reinforced by a series of extremely unfortunate and poorly conceived statements and actions coming from the Administration in recent weeks.

We believe it is imperative that in dealings with Ilham Aliyev, America's unequivocal commit-ment to democracy and democratic process be uppermost in the dialogue. The Administration set the right note when it sent former Secretary Baker to Tbilisi recently. According to press re-ports which Mr. Baker has taken pains not to deny, he told President Shevardnadze that the United States' continued support of Georgia was conditioned on that nation conducting genu-inely free and fair elections. The firmness of this message was appropriate to the context; and the prospects for democracy are if anything bleaker in Azerbaijan than Georgia. The Baker mis-sion was a laudable step and there is no reason why Ilham Aliyev should receive a message which differs in the slightest. As a gesture of good will, the Aliyevs could begin by opening the field to serious op-position candidates and ceasing their efforts to undermine opposition political parties.

The human rights community remains strongly concerned about the plight of democratic institu-tions in Azerbaijan. There can be little doubt that these institutions, which furnished so much promise in the early years after Azerbaijan regained its sovereignty, have weakened steadily un-der the tenure of Haidar Aliyev. We hope the Administration will correct its false steps and will make it clear that a commitment to democracy remains at the top of our foreign policy agenda generally and is key to building America's relationship with Azerbaijan. In any event, however, the progress of the Ilham Aliyev visit will furnish an important opportunity to match the Admini-stration's rhetoric to its actions.

With best regards,

Sincerely,

Scott Horton
President