Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, speaking at a press conference in Baku with his Georgian counterpart Maka Bochorishvili on January 16, stated that his country had been "punished" by the U.S. under the 907th Amendment for restoring its sovereignty in 2023.

The minister highlighted that in September 2023, Azerbaijan conducted a 23-hour-long anti-terror operation to fully restore its sovereignty. However, shortly after the operation, the U.S. adopted an approach that Bayramov said was inconsistent with international law:

“The 907th Amendment to the Freedom Support Act, adopted in 1992, had been applied to Azerbaijan. For many years, the application of this amendment had been suspended. However, this time it was not suspended, and for the first time in 20 years, Azerbaijan was effectively punished simply for restoring its sovereignty,” Bayramov said.

Jeyhun Bayramov also criticized USAID’s activities in Azerbaijan, asserting that the agency primarily served U.S. interests:
“Despite everything, Azerbaijan made it clear that if the U.S. was genuinely interested in providing assistance, such aid must be carried out transparently and officially,” he said.

The minister added that it was no longer feasible for USAID to continue operating in Azerbaijan. He explained that the framework agreement in place since 2000 had been reviewed, revealing that the agency’s activities were not aligned with Azerbaijan’s interests but rather served to advance the U.S. agenda in the country.

“In accordance with the provisions of this agreement, we issued notices and declared that we were not interested in extending the agreement under these terms,” Bayramov emphasized.

The minister noted that the cooperation agreement with USAID was set to expire in February 2024. While the U.S. conveyed high-level messages about continuing collaboration, Bayramov stated that the negotiations did not consider Azerbaijan’s terms and instead sought to impose U.S. interests:

“This approach disregarded Azerbaijan’s legitimate interests. Therefore, we decided not to continue the cooperation,” he added.

Bayramov concluded by stating that terminating USAID’s activities in Azerbaijan was a necessary step:
“Negotiations showed that the U.S. was only advancing its own interests without considering Azerbaijan’s position. For this reason, the time has come to fully terminate USAID’s presence and activities in the country.”

Copied