President Joe Biden won plaudits for formally recognizing the Armenian genocide last month despite furious Turkish lobbying to block the move. Just days after the move, however, Secretary of State Antony Blinkenessentially undercut the administration’s moral clarity when it waived Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, a law meant to dis-incentivize Azerbaijani aggression and ethnic cleansing. Whereas in the past, the White House and State Department could argue that Azerbaijan had met the terms of the waiver by committing to Minsk Group diplomacy and acting as a counter-terrorism ally, the facts belied such a finding this year.
