It wasn’t the headline President Donald Trump wanted for the first meeting of his Board of Peace. Outside the U.S. Institute of Peace, where world leaders met, activists peacefully protested the plight of Armenian Christians held as political prisoners in Azerbaijani prisons. A kangaroo court passed life sentences to men whose only crime was winning an election Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev did not sanction. The court proceedings were farcical, closed to international observers, and marked by court-appointed translators changing the accused’s answers to false admissions of guilt.
Aliyev likely felt emboldened to act for two reasons. First, his mentor, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had done similar at Sheridan Circle in 2017 when he ordered his bodyguards to attack and beat Armenian and Kurdish Americans. And, second, after Vice President JD Vance deleted references to commemorating the Armenian Genocide out of deference to Turkey and Azerbaijani feelings, Aliyev thought he could get away with it.
At both Sheridan Circle and the U.S. Institute for Peace, Erdogan and Aliyev acted not only out of personal hatred for religious minorities and political dissidents, but also because they wished their countrymen back home to see how they could act with impunity in the heart of Washington, D.C. Sure, U.S. embassies might make the occasional statement and human rights groups might lecture, but Erdogan and Aliyev want Turkish and Azeris living in destitution or facing repression they know the United States is not serious.
Trump may embrace both Turkey and Azerbaijan. He praises both leaders and invests in both countries, but Aliyev despises Trump. Why else would he try to take the shine off the first Board of Peace meeting?
As dictators use Washington monuments as a backdrop to take their repression on the road, the White House, State Department, and Department of Justice must wake up. If attacks in Washington become normalized, it is only a matter of time before the bodyguards and hired thugs who believe they can act with impunity murder an American and believe they can escape justice.
Lawyer Andreas Akaras represented many of the victims of the 2017 attack and took the fight to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He won at every stage. Ultimately, as Erdogan realized he could not use political or diplomatic pressure to sidestep justice, Turkey’s lawyers stopped showing up. Just as in trials targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran terrorism, Turkey then suffered a default verdict. The U.S. court will soon announce the damages Turkey must pay.
Behind the scenes, many victims fear the courts will provide only token damages. The actions of Aliyev’s bodyguards suggest anything less than $500 million would be a license to murder. Trump cannot claim to “Make America Great Again” if he allows his friends to declare open season on Americans at home.
Erdogan and Aliyev may whine about immunity, but Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio should give them no quarter. After all, both men can waive immunity and hand over their Brown Shirts to American justice.
Nor should Trump or any successor ever roll out the red carpet to any dictator who abuses diplomatic protocol and the American rule of law. At a minimum, the State Department should apply the Foreign Missions Act to limit Turkish and Azerbaijani diplomats to a 25-mile radius of Washington and New York so that Americans and dissidents can feel secure they will not face violence from those who would abuse immunity.
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The Department of Justice should award the maximum penalty to Turkey for the Sheridan Circle victims and, if Erdogan does not pay up, the State Department should support the confiscation and sale of Turkish property such as the $110 Million Diyanet Center of America in Lanham, Maryland, which Erdogan opened and the Turkish government sponsored, or the $291 million Turkevi Center 35-story skyscraper in Manhattan that the Turkish government also sponsored.
The State Department traditionally worries about reciprocal action, but there is no moral equivalence: The Secret Service does not attack peaceful Turks or stalk dissidents. Nor will Erdogan really escalate. When he tried last time — arresting Pastor Andrew Brunson— Trump crashed his currency and left Erdogan begging for mercy.
It’s time for Turkey and Azerbaijan to pay up.
Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is director of analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.