ZEYNO BARAN: AZERBAIJAN IS WORRIED THAT KOSOVO MAY BE USED AS A PRECEDENT

armradio.am
01.04.2008 13:35

Director of the Center for Eurasian Policy and Senior Fellow at the
Hudson Institute Zeyno Baran declared in an interview with Mediamax
that "Baku’s sharp criticism of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs, especially
the US, is a strategic step to reinforce the support of Azerbaijan’s
position in the world."

Zeyno Barak expressed the opinion that the adoption of the Resolution
on Nagorno Karabakh in the UN General Assembly "was a response to
the proclamation of Kosovo’s independence and the broad support it
received in the West."

"Baku is worried that Kosovo can be used as a precedent, and Georgia
shares this anxiety. Thus, this Resolution can be viewed as an
attempt to prevent such development of events. Moreover, taking into
consideration the fact that Russia is using the issue of the Kosovo
precedent in the context of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, I think that
Baku and Tbilisi wished to get convinced that Kosovo would be viewed
as a unique case, and see how Russia would vote," Zeyno Baran said.

"There is growing concern in Azerbaijan that the West is unfair towards
it because of it’s being a Muslim country. Azeris see how resolutely
the US defends the territorial integrity of Georgia and do not see a
similar attitude towards them. Certainly, taking into consideration the
fact that the United States is a Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the
US Administration cannot have a different stance on the Karabakh issue.

Unfortunately, it’s hard for an ordinary Azerbaijani to understand or
accept this difference. Many Azeris feel that they are an important
ally of the US in the fields of energy security, fighting terrorism and
other issues, but they do not get much in response. At the same time,
the Azeri Government and most of the society understand the importance
of partnership with the US and will not allow that Resolution to
harm Baku’s relations with Washington," Director of the Center for
Eurasian Policy and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute said.