You’re a terrible Congressperson but maybe your crimes will call attention to Azerbaijan’s genocide of Armenians
I don’t like Henry Cuellar. Not even a little bit. When he won his primary in 2022 by just over 300 votes, I was sad. Sure, Cuellar caucuses with the Democrats but that’s about all he does to show he is one. He’s anti-choice. His positions on gun control mirror those of Wayne LaPierre. His immigration views defy logic. When he leaves Congress, my only thought will be, “Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.”
Now, it seems Cuellar has more in common with New Jersey Democrat Senator Bob Menendez than anyone else on Capitol Hill. Cuellar, like Mendendez, and his wife, Imelda, have been indicted for bribery. Who bribed them? A bank in Mexico City and the government of Azerbaijan. That’s what got me interested.
Azerbaijan just completed a genocide against Armenians living in its Nagorno-Karabakh region. After a nine-month-long blockade that prevented even Red Cross personnel from entering the area and that caused incredible amounts of hunger and suffering, the military moved in and attacked. Nearly all of the 120,000 Armenians who had been in the region for centuries, fled to Armenia. On January 1, 2024, the enclave was officially “dissolved” ending a conflict that had gone on for decades but also completing its ethnic cleansing of the region.
Don’t take my word for it. Take a look at what Luis Moreno Ocampo, the International Criminal Court’s first prosecutor, wrote in the Washington Post:
The world must call the crime by its proper name. Resistance to using the term “genocide” has been a long-standing problem in international affairs. In April 1994, most U.N. Security Council members refused to label the mass killings in Rwanda as genocide. Little has changed in 30 years.
The last time the U.N. Security Council discussed the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, Aliyev’s blockade was repeatedly called a “humanitarian situation,” and continued negotiations were proposed. One is reminded of the heroic intervention by the Czech ambassador, Karel Kovanda, during the U.N. debates on Rwanda: When most leaders backed negotiating a truce, he likened the idea to “persuading Hitler to reach a ceasefire with the Jews.”
Today, as always, geopolitics explain the world’s reticence. Azerbaijan is an ally with the West against Iran; it provides energy to Europe and it spends millions on sophisticated Israeli weapons. But such exigencies must not get in the way of the world’s responsibility to stop what is happening before its very eyes: the Armenian genocide of 2023.
Azerbaijan is about to host the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 29). It is slated to begin on November 11, 2024. So just over a year after launching an attack on civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan will host the world’s experts on climate change. The decision to put COP29 in Baku was a result of a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia but to let this happen without examining what has happened in Nogorno-Karabakh would be the biggest case of ignoring the elephant in the room ever.
It seems like human rights concerns clash with environmental considerations all over the globe and hypocrisy is everywhere. In China, solar panels and parts for electric vehicles are made by slave labor. In Afghanistan, vast amounts of lithium have been found. By some estimates, there may be upwards of $1 TRILLION in mineral deposits. Lithium is essential for the batteries we have all come to depend on.
Truthfully, holding a green energy summit in Azerbaijan is a fascinating choice given its history with fossil fuels. Baku was the site of one of the planet’s earliest oil fields some 1,200 years ago and the country relies heavily on the industry. Case in point, bp has been in the nation for decades. Since the 1990s, it has been the largest investor in Azerbaijan, spending more than $84 billion on projects there.
Let them go home
Armenians called Nogorno-Karabakh (aka the Republic of Artsakh) home from about the 7th century BC. The idea that Azerbaijan could block access to this region for almost a year, invade and kick everyone out, and get away with it seems to go against everything countries like the United States stand for. While Nogorno-Karabakh was within the borders of Azerbaijan, how is this really different from what Russia is doing in Ukraine? From where I sit, it looks very similar.
One hundred and nine years ago, Armenians were the victims of a horrible genocide. It took the world far too long to acknowledge what happened. If we refuse to act now, aren’t we repeating the same crime?
What we all can do to help:
The United Nations (UN) has recently clarified international guidelines for businesses operating in conflict zones. The UN calls on companies to pay closer attention to human rights in these high-risk zones. The Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights expanded its guidelines in August to add that businesses need to “identify and assess their adverse impacts on human rights and conflict, act to cease or prevent them, and track and communicate the measures taken.”
Last year, a group of business leaders sent a letter to Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev. In it, they wrote:
We urge the Government of Azerbaijan to meet its obligations as set out in international law, so that all people in Nagorno-Karabakh can live in peace and security, free from discrimination and the threat of inhuman and degrading treatment, and are able to move freely, including leaving and re-entering the area. Their safety, dignity, and liberty must be upheld.
Will you sign a petition to bp?
The United States government can and must do more
A bipartisan group of Members of Congress has introduced the Supporting Armenians Against Azerbaijani Aggression Act in both the Senate (S.2900) and the House (H.R.5683). This legislation:
- Condemns Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Artsakh and calls upon Azerbaijan to lift its blockade, allow the delivery of U.S. and international humanitarian assistance, and release all Armenian POWs, in addition to authorizing multi-year appropriations of direct U.S. humanitarian aid to Artsakh and for energy, science, and military programs in Armenia.
- Authorizes President Biden to enact U.S. sanctions against President Ilham Aliyev and other senior Azerbaijani officials.
- Repeals the waiver authority for section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, banning most assistance to the Government of Azerbaijan
- Provides for a one-time authorization to appropriate money to the United States Agency for International Development to provide humanitarian assistance to groups in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh impacted by the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, Azerbaijan’s September 2022 attack on Armenia, and Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor.
- Provides a one-time authorization to appropriate funds for the Department of State for Foreign Military Financing program assistance for the Republic of Armenia.
- Provides a three-year authorization to appropriate money to carry out activities to support the energy sector of the Republic of Armenia.
- Provides a five-year authorization to appropriate funds for activities promoting U.S.-Armenian cooperation on science and technology.
“America can’t stand idly by as brutal violence perpetrated by the authoritarian regime in Azerbaijan raises the specter of genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). “This legislation imposes stiff sanctions that will help hold the Azerbaijani government accountable for its clear human rights violations while authorizing much-needed humanitarian assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh and the people of Armenia.”
“The Azeri government and President Aliyev used first a blockade and then an attack to force their will upon Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA). “Armenians suffered the first genocide of the 20th century, which opened the door for many of the horrors in this century. This is the latest episode of the use of force to resolve things which should be done diplomatically.”
Please ask your Members of Congress today to co-sponsor the Supporting Armenians Against Azerbaijani Aggression Act in both the Senate (S.2900) and the House (H.R.5683).
Senate bill: Click here for the status of S.2900 — “Supporting Armenians Against Azerbaijani Aggression Act of 2023”
House bill: Click here for the status of H.R.5683 — “Supporting Armenians Against Azerbaijani Aggression Act of 2023”
Back to Congressman Cuellar
I don’t hold out all that much hope that people will read about this awful person and decide they need to act for Armenians in Azerbaijan. I do hope that this will make people wonder, “Why was Azerbaijan paying a Congressman to do anything?” Maybe it’s me but it seems nations doing only good things don’t need to bribe anyone. My hope is that some people will read this and take a few minutes to act for the Armenians who have suffered so much already.