Azerbaijan Does What It Can Get Away With

null Sept. 27, 2023 3:57 pm ETRefugees from Nagorno-Karabakh arrive in Kornidzor, Armenia, Sept. 26. Photo: Alexander Patrin/Zuma PressRegarding Eugene Kontorovich’s op-ed “Nagorno-Karabakh and the Myths of International Law” (Sept. 22): For far too long, the West has turned a blind eye to Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev’s authoritarianism, while looking at the country’s oil and gas resources and proximity to Iran as a kind of geopolitical trade-off. This type of transactional diplomacy is dangerous and sends the wrong message to despots, who feel that they can act with impunity. This is one of the reasons Azerbaijan was able to ignore the International Court of Justice ruling that it lift its illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor between Armenia and the disputed region.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8Continue reading your article witha WSJ subscriptionSubscribe NowAlready a subscriber? Sign InSponsored OffersGoPro