Pan Armenian News
AMERICAN MILITARY BASES IN AZERBAIJAN?
The American military mission in Azerbaijan will not be connected with
Karabakh in any way.
The experts of American – Israeli “Statfor” center for strategic forecasts
have prepared a report about the agreement between Baku and Washington
concerning the issue of disposition of US military forces on the territory
of Azerbaijan. According to the experts of “Statfor” an adequate decision
was made on April 12 in the course of US Defense Minister Donald Ramsfield’s
visit to Azerbaijan. The authors of the report refer to Azeri governmental
sources.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ There are no grounds to trust the information sources of
“Statfor” centre, because information about the agreement of Baku to dispose
American military bases has already been spread before. Thos who did not
want to believe that kept referring to the statement of former Secretary of
State Collin Powel who asserted that Bush administration had no intension to
dispose American military bases in Azerbaijan. Powel can bravely insist that
he was not lying because formally the American military subdivisions that
are going to be sent to Azerbaijan cannot be considered military bases. They
are called “temporarily disposed mobile forces”. But the essence remains the
same. Moreover, according to “Statfor” the mobile forces are going to stay
long. “Statfor” experts say that the first American planes will arrive
within the next few weeks.
The locations of the mobile forces are already fixed. The government of
Azerbaijan suggested the following formerly Soviet bases: “Galla” in
Absherone, “Bina” in Baku, “Nasosny” in Sumgait, “Salyan” in Garachala and
airdromes in Kyurdamir, Lenkoran, Evlakhe, Gyanja and Nakhichevan.
Researching the territories during a year, American experts have chosen
Kyurdamir, “Nasosny” and “Galla”. All the three objects are situated in
central Azerbaijan, far from Karabakh. The main base is going to be in
Kyurdamir.
“Statfor” experts mention three most important tasks of the American
military presence in Azerbaijan. The first one is the security of Baku –
Tbilisi – Jeyhan pipeline, the second task is the creation of conditions in
case there is a need to attack Iran and the third one – to force Russia out
from the region. According to analysts of the American – Israeli center, it
is not planned to use mobile forces for “peace keeping measures” in
Karabakh.
Meanwhile, it is well known that US military experts used to seriously
discuss the issue of possible disposition of military forces in Azerbaijan
for the settlement of Karabakh conflict. One of the many scenarios of
application of the mobile forces supposed such a perspective too. It was
worked out by a retired US air force colonel Sam Gardiner who thought that
Pentagon may “offer limited aid for the settlement of disputable questions
on Nagorno-Karabakh”. What did he mean by that is very unclear. But the
December issue of military “Atlantic Monthly” magazine has published an
article where it is said that Gardiner’s proposal concerning Karabakh was
denied because of being contradictory to the interests of USA. Thus, we can
hope that the disposition of US military mobile forces in Azerbaijan will
not have a direct impact on the process of Karabakh conflict settlement. At
the same time it can be supposed that the presence of American militaries in
Azerbaijan who are responsible for the security of oil pipeline will make
Azeri politics think less about the idea of resuming the war that will
threaten the plans of Washington.
20.05.2005, “PanARMENIAN Network” analytical department