Trump’s Golden Opportunity to Stand Up for Human Rights

An elderly women sits as she waits among fellow Armenian refugees in Goris on September 29, 2023, before being evacuated in various Armenian cities, as the exodus from the Nagorno-Karabakh ethnic Armenian enclave following its…ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images

The country of Azerbaijan has spent the last four years trying to wipe out Armenia and its existence in the South Caucasus. It started in the fall of 2020, when it launched an illegal and unprovoked war against Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) and ended when it ethnically cleansed more than 120,000 Armenians from the region, making it the largest displacement of Armenians since the Armenian genocide of 1915. Since taking over the territory, Azerbaijan has embarked on an ongoing campaign of cultural erasure of Armenian churches, monasteries, khachkars (cross-stoned monuments), and other historical sites that have stood for thousands of years.

Azerbaijan has also tried to bully and threaten its way into disingenuous peace deals with Armenia while plotting with Turkey, a key ally, in taking sovereign lands away from Armenia including the Zangezur Corridor, a vital trade route located between the two countries.

Even more alarming has been the type of language coming from Baku. In recent speeches, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev falsely claimed that Armenia is their historical land, while referring to Armenia as “Western Azerbaijan.”

This follows a troubling pattern of hateful rhetoric in which the petro-dictator has made similar revanchist arguments and has even said that Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, belongs to Azerbaijan.

We have seen this hate carried out through the mistreatment and torture of Armenian POWs and blatant execution of captured Armenian soldiers.

And earlier this year, Azerbaijan began its sham trials of Armenian political prisoners, including philanthropist and former state minister of Nagorno-Karabakh Ruben Vardanyan, despite pleas of their innocence from human rights activists and legal scholars.

These crimes and basic violations of human rights all took place on former President Joe Biden’s watch. He dropped the ball. For a president who came into office claiming that human rights would be at the crux of his foreign policy, Biden’s inability to hold Azerbaijan responsible for its war crimes and atrocities will be a stain on his legacy. In many ways, his silence and apathy gave Azerbaijan the green light to act with impunity.

That is why President Trump has a unique opportunity to do what President Biden failed to do—hold Azerbaijan accountable.