Michael Rubin: Aliyev justifies his own revanchism, while for Western officials money matters more than principle

For Aliyev to visit Europe and depict himself as a new Zelensky fighting for national survival is perverse, Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote.

Rubin says the idea that Azerbaijan’s attack on Artsakh is analogous to Ukraine’s defense from Russian aggression is backward, if not Orwellian. According to him, not only Armenian diplomats, but also Western officials must challenge it.

Rubin noted that Aliyev denies Armenia’s historic legitimacy and embraces the “Western Azerbaijan” fiction. Azerbaijani forces expelled the entire population of ethnic Armenians whose roots in the region extended back more than a millennium. The analyst said that American and European officials depict themselves as high-minded on matters of policy and human rights but too often money matters more than principle.

The root of Aliyev’s influence is his ability to spread Azerbaijan’s petrodollars around to lobbyists and politicians or to launder them through cultural groups and think tanks. Aliyev, too, fabricates maps to justify his own revanchism. Aliyev’s depiction of Artsakh leaders as terrorists while he destroys its cultural heritage,” Rubin wrote, noting that sometimes a war criminal is just a war criminal and should be treated as such.