The last two years have been marked by a significant strengthening of bilateral ties between Azerbaijan and the USA, leading to the formation of a strategic partnership. Within the framework of the current American administration's policy towards the South Caucasus and Central Asia, Azerbaijan has been assigned a key role. Warm personal relations between Presidents Donald Trump and Ilham Aliyev are also noted.
Nevertheless, Amendment 907, adopted in the early 1990s, remains a serious barrier to the comprehensive development of relations between Washington and Baku. Despite its annual suspension by a special decree of the US President, Congress has still not repealed this norm.
It is known that the Armenian lobby actively participated both in the adoption and in the subsequent blocking of the repeal of this amendment. For many years, Azerbaijan has been making efforts to annul it, while the Armenian lobby mobilizes resources to counteract. Disagreements over Amendment 907 often arise between the White House and Congress, although there have been periods when the administration showed no particular interest in its freeze.
A new stage in the struggle to repeal the amendment began about a year ago, coinciding with the activation of US efforts in the South Caucasus. The significance of the current moment is due to the deep interest of the Trump administration in eliminating this amendment, as it hinders the implementation of priorities defined by the US President in relations with Azerbaijan.
In December last year, Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, an ally of President Trump, and a representative of the MAGA movement, initiated a bill to repeal Amendment 907. Her initiative was later supported by several other Republican congressmen.
The bill has not yet been brought up for discussion in the relevant committee of the House of Representatives, presumably due to the current balance of power in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In response to this, Armenian diaspora organizations in the USA have activated their lobbyists in Congress, submitting new bills aimed against Azerbaijan.
One such bill, which portrays former Armenian separatist leaders convicted in Baku as “prisoners of war and political prisoners” and calls for their release, was brought to a general vote by the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week. This legislative initiative, proposed in the form of an amendment to the US Foreign Service Act, was developed by Democrat Brad Sherman and Republican Brian Mast, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, both known for their pro-Armenian stance.
Initially, the project included a point about “full application of Amendment 907” against Azerbaijan, but Brian Mast spoke out against this wording, and Sherman agreed to exclude it.
The proposed amendment will be put to a roll call vote of the full House Foreign Affairs Committee, after which it may be considered by the entire House.
The day before, a letter of protest from Azerbaijani NGOs regarding the Sherman amendment was sent to the House of Representatives. The letter emphasizes that the individuals whose release the congressman demands were accused of crimes against humanity, participation in the mass expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis, as well as in the destruction of settlements, infrastructure, and cultural heritage. These crimes left a deep mark and are still felt by generations.
At the same time, Azerbaijan is actively using its lobbying capabilities to counteract the next legislative initiatives of the pro-Armenian group in Congress. For example, on June 17, President Ilham Aliyev received Republican Congressman from Arizona Abraham Hamadeh, one of the co-authors of the bill to repeal Amendment 907, introduced in December last year. The meeting discussed bilateral relations between the USA and Azerbaijan, the TRIPP project, as well as the congressman's activities to repeal Amendment 907, as reported in the official statement.
Despite the Republican majority in both houses of Congress, automatic support for the efforts of the Trump administration and Baku to repeal the amendment is not guaranteed. Among Republicans, there are representatives working in the interests of the Armenian lobby who can block initiatives beneficial to Azerbaijan. At the same time, the initiatives of the Armenian lobby against Baku often do not receive enough support and rarely pass beyond the relevant committee of the House of Representatives. Thus, in September last year, a group of congressmen, including Democrat Dina Titus and Republican Gus Bilirakis, at the request of the Armenian National Committee of America, introduced a bipartisan bill to impose sanctions against Azerbaijan, but it did not receive enough support and was not considered by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.