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After inheriting the half-a-century-old reins of power in 2003 from his deceased father, Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev has tried to position his country as a reliable producer of energy and counter-terrorism partner for the West. At the same time he has pursued rapid militarization, anti-Armenianism, and the consolidation of a strongman regime, The Hill analytical site reports.

The West in general has overlooked the anti-democratic and jingoist nature of Azerbaijan: geography and energy. Azerbaijan borders both Russia and Iran – two countries with which the West, particularly the United States, has traditionally had tense and even hostile relations.

The authors point out that for years rumors have swirled that Azerbaijan made its territory available to the U.S. Intelligence Community so that it could launch some of its operations against Iran and Russia from there. Moreover, Azerbaijan provided an alternate transit route to ship supplies to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan through the Northern Distribution Network (NDN). Such rumors are not necessarily baseless given Azerbaijan’s earlier history of hosting Al Qaeda training camps within its territory before 9-11 and the use of Afghan and Chechen Mujahedeen against the Republic of Artsakh during the Karabakh War. The very same terrorists that the Aliyev senior regime helped to train were among the radicals the U.S.-led coalition has been fighting against since 2001.

“Sitting on a modest supply of natural gas and oil, Azerbaijan played up the 1990s-era hype surrounding the purported massive amounts of hydrocarbons in the Caspian Sea basin – an exaggerated quantity later undermined by subsequent exploration tests. With Western backing, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline was built by a BP-led consortium and put into operation in 2006. In 2010-11 Azerbaijan hit peak oil and since then has pumped out decreasing volumes of oil, a fact that has publicly frustrated Aliyev junior,” the authors write.

Coupled with declining oil production, 2014 saw the end of the ISAF’s mission in Afghanistan and a mild rapprochement with Iran - all of which further depreciated the geopolitical value of Azerbaijan, it reads.

The article reads that 2014 also saw the worst crackdown on democracy, civil society, and human rights activists since Aliyev came to power. The clampdown culminated with the raid and closure of the American-financed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) offices in Baku and the arrest of the most prominent Azerbaijani investigative reporter, Khadija Ismayilova. Today, there are close to 100 political prisoners in Azerbaijan and thousands more fear a similar fate for expressing their oppositionist views. Ethnic indigenous minorities, such as Lezgin, Avar, and Talysh people are also repressed. The Republic of Artsakh (the NKR) helps broadcast a cultural and linguistic Talysh radio channel from Shushi and is a role model for minority rights to self-determination.

Western calls for more transparency and rule of law in Azerbaijan have only added to the paranoia of the regime elite who subscribe to the myth that the CIA masterminded the Arab Spring protests. In order to distract ordinary Azerbaijanis from government misrule and rally them around the flag of fabricated nationalism, Azerbaijan has decided to raise tensions along the heavily militarized border with the Artsakh Republic (Nagorno Karabakh Republic).

It also points out that the West should use their influence and leverage with the Aliyev regime to make peace, free all political prisoners, and hold free and fair elections.