Azerbaijan Threatens to "Reconsider" Relations with Russia, France, U.S. over Rejection of Nagorno-Karabakh UN Resolution
Natalia Leshchenko

Global Insight
March 17, 2008

Foreign Minister Araz Azimov told reporters that Azerbaijan will
reconsider its relations with Russia, France and the United States
over their failure to support the country’s position in the UN General
Assembly over Nagorno-Karabakh regulation. On 14 March, UN General
Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution demanding a complete
and immediate withdrawal of Armenian troops from the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh. With more than 100 countries refraining from voting,
the resolution went ahead with 30 votes for; seven countries voted
against the resolution, including Russia, France and the United
States which, as mediators in the OSCE-sponsored Minsk Group on
Nagorno-Karabakh, rejected a unilateral resolution of the matter and
called for continued negotiations instead.

Significance:The Azerbaijani government is seeking to ride on the
heightened international attention to separatist issues brought to
the fore by Kosovo’s declaration of independence to reassert its
rights over the territory that has been in dispute since 1991. With
increased confidence stemming from booming oil extraction-based
economy, Azerbaijan is increasingly annoyed with the self-proclaimed
pro-Armenian enclave on its territory. Armenia, in the meantime,
relies on world-wide diaspora support to block the Azerbaijani
offensive on Nagorno-Karabakh, which it considers its territory.

Although the Azerbaijani government is obviously disheartened by the
effective rejection of its initiative at the UN stage by the foreign
powers that matter, its threat of reconsideration of relations is
largely inconsequential, being directed against all mediators and
thus excluding the possibility of striking alliances with any of
them. For economic and political reasons, Azerbaijan is strongly
oriented towards the United States, which sponsors its oil-extraction
business, and this will not change any time soon. The announcement of
foreign policy reconsideration is a mere expression of frustration
at the inability to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with one
stroke, something that was infeasible from the start. The status of
the province remains as uncertain as ever.