Azeri-NATO cooperation shrouded in secrecy – Azeri pundit
BBC Monitoring Caucasus
19 November 2004
Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moscow, in Russian 16 Nov 04 pp 1,5
Military cooperation between Azerbaijan and NATO long ago transcended
the bounds of cooperation within the Partnership for Peace programme,
but is shrouded in secrecy, according to an Azeri military
expert. Uzeyir Cafarov said that preparation was under way for a
programme to train the Azeri military, similar to Georgia’s Train and
Equip programme, which would begin in 2005. He said that there were
already “several dozen” US servicemen in Azerbaijan. One Azeri Defence
Ministry spokesman confirmed that NATO servicemen were conducting
training courses in Azerbaijan under Partnership for Peace, while the
ministry’s main spokesman denied it, according to a report in Russian
newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta. The following is the text of Rauf
Mirqadirov’s report in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 16 November headlined
“American soldiers have landed in Azerbaijan. The republic’s Defence
Ministry is doing all it can to conceal this fact”; subheadings
inserted editorially:
Baku – One Azerbaijani socio-political newspaper reported a few days
ago that more than 50 NATO servicemen, mainly Americans, are stationed
at the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry’s instruction and training centre
in the settlement of Cuxanli, Salyan District. According to the
newspaper report, starting next year the Americans intend to begin
implementing a programme in Azerbaijan analogous to Georgia’s Train
and Equip programme.
Contradictory comment from Defence Ministry on role of US instructors
In conversation with journalists Ilqar Verdiyev, an employee of the
Azerbaijani Defence Ministry press office, confirmed this report,
stating, however, that foreign servicemen come to Azerbaijan only to
participate in specific projects for the implementation of the NATO
Partnership for Peace programme. He said that various courses are
continually being held at the Cuxanli instruction and training centre
under the auspices of this programme. “They are courses in teaching
foreign languages, in inculcating NATO terminology and in organizing
peace activities,” Verdiyev stated.
However, Azerbaijani Defence Ministry press office chief Ramiz Malikov
categorically denied this report, stating that he has no information
on the training of Azerbaijanis by American instructors.
Officials do not rule out US military presence
At the same time, Deputy Alimammad Nuriyev, a member of the
parliamentary defence and security standing commission, indirectly
confirmed rumours about the arrival of the US servicemen: “There is
nothing surprising about our soldiers being trained by Americans. It
is no secret that, following the start of combat operations in
Afghanistan and Iran, the Americans have been making active use of our
military airfields for transit purposes. Simply, we are not in the
habit of talking about it.”
Araz Azimov, Azerbaijani deputy foreign minister, does not rule out,
either, the possibility that American mobile forces have arrived in
the country. “Azerbaijan does not rule out future participation in the
alliance’s rapid-response operations, since new challenges demand a
flexible and swift reaction. In the context of globalization the
development of any crisis demands a prompt reaction,” Azimov said.
Secrecy surrounds Azeri-NATO cooperation
Azerbaijani analysts have focused attention on the phrase “any
crisis”. Uzeyir Cafarov, an independent military expert and former
high-ranking Defence Ministry employee, thinks that cooperation
between Baku and NATO transcended the bounds of the Partnership for
Peace programme long ago. In conversation with your Nezavisimaya
Gazeta correspondent he emphasized the secrecy surrounding information
about cooperation: “Both the Defence Ministry and NATO representatives
try not to speak too openly on this matter.” The expert reminded me
that NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stated in Baku
recently that Azerbaijan has already been given its
“homework”. Cafarov said that active preparations are now under way to
implement a programme similar to Georgia’s Train and Equip programme,
which will most probably be “launched” officially in 2005. It may
involve utilizing the “military training ground in Qara Heybat,
situated not far from Baku, where NATO exercises were to have been
staged recently but were called off, as well as the instruction and
training centre in the settlement of Cuxanli in Salyan District. They
fully meet the standards of the North Atlantic bloc.” Cafarov claims
that there are already several dozen American servicemen in the
country.
USA may want to use Azerbaijan to launch strikes on Iran
In recent days practically all the independent Azerbaijani newspapers
have been actively discussing reports in the foreign news media to the
effect that Washington and Baku are holding active consultations on
using the territory of Azerbaijan for the purpose of launching a
strike against Iran. Some media, referring to military sources, are
even publishing various plans of future military operations.
Azar Rasidoglu, an expert at the East-West political research centre,
told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that it may be supposed even now that the
European Union will almost unanimously oppose an anti-Iranian military
operation. Besides, Azerbaijan would irrevocably spoil its relations
with its closest partner in the region – Turkey. “Turkey, no less than
Europe, depends on deliveries of energy sources from Iran. In
addition, Ankara has no interest in seeing the birth of yet another
active hotbed of Kurdish armed separatism alongside its own borders,”
the political analyst told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
As a land-based launch pad for its intervention operations, Washington
could also, theoretically, use the territory of Armenia, Syria, Iraq,
Afghanistan and Azerbaijan. Armenia and Syria may immediately be
scratched from this list. Also, neither Iraq nor Afghanistan, on whose
territories guerrilla warfare is taking place, provide a reliable
logistical base.
Azerbaijani military experts are coming to the conclusion that the
United States may regard only the territory of Azerbaijan as a
reliable launch pad for its intervention into Iran. For example,
independent military expert Casur Mammadov told Nezavisimaya Gazeta:
“What is also noticeable is the list of military facilities at which,
according to media reports, the Americans already are, or will be,
deployed. They are primarily the settlements of Cuxanli and Nasosni,
not far from Baku. Both are located close to military airfields which
have very recently been upgraded, and they are practically ready for
launching air strikes against Iran. Apart from this, reports appeared
very recently to the effect that the Americans are about to deploy
TRML-3D mobile air defence radar stations in Azerbaijan. It is
reasonable to suppose that, in the event of strikes against Iran, it
is unlikely that the Americans can count on receiving essential
information from Russia’s Qabala radar station,” the expert believes.
Mammadov stressed, moreover, that the military base in the settlement
of Cuxanli has access to the Caspian Sea. And the Americans have
already set about upgrading Azerbaijan’s naval forces. In the expert’s
opinion, the military base at Cuxanli is very conveniently located,
from a military operations viewpoint. “From that base to the Iranian
border is just a stone’s throw,” Mammadov remarked.