President Donald Trump met with government leaders from Azerbaijan and Armenia at the White House Aug. 8 and they signed a joint declaration aimed at ending nearly four decades of conflict and wars between the two former Soviet republics. The fight over control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory with a majority Armenian population encircled by Azerbaijan, has taken a big toll on working people, with tens of thousands of civilians killed or driven from their homes.
The agreement, which isn’t finalized, would give Washington exclusive rights for up to 99 years to develop a transit corridor through the mountainous southern part of Armenia to Azerbaijan, potentially creating a new trade route between Europe and Central Asia that bypasses both Russia and Iran. Under the agreement, the corridor, including roads, railways, oil and gas pipelines and fiber-optic lines, would be developed and managed by U.S. companies.
The deal brings Washington’s imperialist interests into the heart of Russia’s self-proclaimed “near abroad,” something unthinkable before Moscow got bogged down in its more than three-year-long war against the people of Ukraine. The weakness of Moscow’s grip in the region was exposed in 2023 when its troops, deployed in Armenia to defend Nagorno-Karabakh, were ordered to stand aside as Turkish-backed Azerbaijani forces seized the area.
Since then Baku has asserted growing independence from Moscow, including its stance toward Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Like Ukraine, both Armenia and Azerbaijan were part of the former prison house of nations under Russia’s czars. After the 1917 Russian Revolution led by V.I. Lenin, the workers and farmers government took special steps to aid the development of the economy, language and cultural rights of toilers in the Caucasus region, efforts that helped lead to the formation of the Transcaucasian Federation of the Soviet Union in March 1922.
But by the end of the 1920s this course was reversed by a counterrevolution by a privileged bureaucratic layer led by Joseph Stalin. In 1991, after decades of Stalinist rule led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, both countries declared their independence.
Azerbaijan’s rulers today support Ukraine against Moscow’s invasion and occupation there, contributing over $40 million of humanitarian aid. On Aug. 11, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev pledged another $2 million, sending truckloads of equipment to stabilize the electrical supply in regions of Ukraine affected by the war.
On Aug. 18, Moscow’s forces destroyed an oil depot in Odesa operated by SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company.
Another indication is Azerbaijan’s alliance with Israel. A majority Muslim country, Azerbaijan supplies Israel with up to 40% of its oil. After the Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom by Hamas, Baku increased oil sales to Israel to half of Azerbaijan’s total production. In return Israel supplies Baku with advanced weapons systems.
Azerbaijan alliance with Israel
The Trump administration is actively discussing with Azerbaijan’s rulers the possibility of joining the Abraham Accords. This pact established diplomatic and economic relations between the governments of Israel and of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and Kosovo in 2020 and 2021.
The Aug. 8 declaration by Armenia and Azerbaijan is a further blow to Russia’s diminishing influence in the region. In a muted response, Moscow told Reuters that any plan for a trade route should be developed by countries in the region to avoid repeating the “sad experience” of Western efforts to mediate in the Middle East.
Iran, while strongly opposing the plan, is also in a weakened position to block it. As Israel has made gains against both Hamas and Tehran’s nuclear program and military, Iranian toilers have stepped up protests against the regime and the bosses.
Abbas Mousavi, former Iranian ambassador to Baku, could do little but complain that Trump’s direct involvement with Azerbaijan and Armenia is “interesting, offensive and dangerous.”