Azerbaijan regrets being left out of major US aid programme – official

Ekspress, Baku
16 Dec 04

Text of Alakbar Raufoglu report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekspress on
16 December headlined “Why is Azerbaijan getting so little from the
‘American pie'” and subheaded “Baku hopes that the USA will include
Azerbaijan in the Millennium Challenge programme some day”

Baku regrets that Azerbaijan has not been included in the Millennium
Challenge programme, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud
Mammadquliyev said at a briefing yesterday.

“Regrettably, some Western pundits reckon that Azerbaijan still does
not meet some criteria for this. We have informed the USA of our view
in this regard,” the deputy minister said.

America plans to allocate assistance worth 90m dollars to Georgia
and 150m to Armenia under the Millennium Challenge Account. The Baku
government believes that Azerbaijan’s cooperation with the USA in
counterterrorism and other areas should have been considered when the
eligibility of countries was decided. “But regrettably, the main
focus was on human rights and the economy. We do not believe that
in these areas Azerbaijan is lagging behind Georgia and Armenia,”
Mammadquliyev said. “We are working on this evidence and will try to
become eligible for the programme in the future.”

Washington’s latest decision regarding military aid offered to Armenia
and Azerbaijan in 2005 has also caused concern in Baku. The document
endorsed by the US president envisages the allocation of equal sums
to Armenia and Azerbaijan, and allocates 3m dollars to Nagornyy
Karabakh. “America believes that this is humanitarian aid. However,
such a position seriously concerns us and we will try to prevent that,”
Mammadquliyev said.

The Foreign Ministry’s investigation into whether US companies invest
in Nagornyy Karabakh is nearing completion. Most of those companies
have been set up by the Armenian diaspora, Mammadquliyev said. “This
is the product of Armenian money and Armenian businessmen. But it
may be that their organization has been registered somewhere. We are
taking appropriate measures.”

Touching on Washington’s equal military assistance to Armenia and
Azerbaijan, the US ambassador to Azerbaijan, Reno Harnish, told
Ekspress newspaper the following: “Under the US Constitution, the
Congress plays the main role in taking such decisions. But foreign
assistance is only part of the aid rendered for security and fighting
global terrorism. We have a number of important projects related to
Azerbaijan. For instance, there is a US-Azerbaijan programme on the
protection of maritime borders and it has not been included in that
assistance. We also have an additional assistance programme related
to the training of peacekeeping forces.”