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The Azerbaijani Parliament prepares a ‘symmetrical’ response to the Azerbaijan Democracy Act 2015 – introduced to the US Congress by Helsinki Commission Chair Rep. Chris Smith – which will deny US visas to senior members of the Azerbaijani government, local news agency Turan reports.
Rovshan Rzayev, the deputy chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Policy, prepared a bill titled The Human Rights Situation in the US, which recounts human rights violations in the US, racial and religious discrimination, and claims the Special Services of the US have taken the whole society under control limiting the freedom of speech and press. As a source, the authors cite Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee, the agency writes.

The Azerbaijani MP also made accusations of ‘corruption,’ ‘falsifications of the elections in the US,’ ‘shortcomings in the electoral system of the US’ as well as of the ‘biased position of the US’ regarding Karabakh in his bill.

As ‘punishment,’ Rovshan Rzayev offers to impose visa sanction on governmental representatives and their family members; Congress representatives, senators, media CEOs, lobby groups, which discredit Azerbaijan, and their family members; individuals receiving significant financial benefits from the cooperation with the US leadership, and so on.

The bill recommends all the state agencies of Azerbaijan to cut ties with American companies, dissolve the acting contracts and reject new trade and economic ties, as well as suspend the programmes carried out by American NGOs in Azerbaijan by freezing their bank accounts.
Next, the bill proposes ceasing the energy, military and security cooperation, stopping Azerbaijan’s participation in ISAF operation in Afghanistan, prohibit the use of infrastructure for supporting the operations in Afghanistan, withdraw the US from the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.

However, the author of the ‘bill’ says the US can avoid Azerbaijan’s ‘punishment’ if it ‘demonstrates compliance with the norms of the international law in Karabakh conflict, imposes sanctions against Armenia,’ and cuts ties with the NKR government. “Meanwhile, Rzayev said he has not proposed the bill yet, but plans to do that in the near future, possibly before the end of the year,” Turan writes.

Azerbaijani political analyst and former ambassador of Azerbaijan to Russia, Hikmet Hajizade, mocks at Rzayev’s bill saying that ‘the US will seriously regret putting the situation in Azerbaijan for discussion in the Congress’ and ‘will knee before Azerbaijan.’ Going on ridiculing the bill, Hajiyev said Azerbaijan ‘will chase after the Americans’ and in the end, the Azerbaijani flag will be put up in the New York centre, where the two skyscrapers destroyed by terrorists stood.

Arastun Orujlu, the head of East West Research centre, said Congressman Chris Smith’s sections are highly possible to be adopted.

Although this is introduced to the Azerbaijani society as an initiative of an ordinary congressman, who was immediately accused of ‘pro-Armenian views’ – a practice applied traditionally – the reality is that the bill was proposed to the US Congress on the behalf of Helsinki Commission rather than that congressman. “For that simple reason, it should be taken very seriously. I do not rule out the adoption of the American sanctions. Moreover, I do not rule out facing sanctions also from Europe,” the analyst said. 

According to Orujlu, the main problem is that the political atmosphere around Azerbaijan is not very favourable now, and Washington Establishment has changed its attitude towards the country. “The situation has reached to the point when many representatives of political circles in the US do not react eagerly to the contact requests from the Azerbaijani Embassy in Washington,” he said.
Following years of systematic efforts by the Government of Azerbaijan to eliminate the voices of independent journalists, opposition politicians, and civil society groups, Helsinki Commission Chair Rep. Chris Smith on 16 December 2015 introduced the Azerbaijan Democracy Act of 2015, a landmark bill that will deny US visas to senior members of the Azerbaijani government and impose financial sanctions, which could be lifted when the Azerbaijani government shows substantial progress toward releasing political prisoners, ending its harassment of civil society, and holding free and fair elections.