MOSCOW AND BAKU HAVE NOT SYNCHRONIZED THE CLOCKS

Turan News Agency
Sept 17 2008
Azerbaijan

On 16 September, the presidents of two self-sufficient countries
Azerbaijan and Russia, as they like to underline in the Kremlin, had
a two-hour talk in the Meindorf residence of the Russian president
outside Moscow. As Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev said upon
receiving his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, he invited him
to synchronize the clocks.

The Russian president did not elaborate under which time zone the
synchronization of the clocks will take place under Moscow or Baku
times. The political hands of clocks in Moscow and Baku rotate in
different ways, not only with one-hour time difference but also in
opposite directions. This is a cause of a certain discomfort at the
one-to-one meeting or to be precise, when they have to look each
other into faces and synchronize the clocks.

The results of the check for the durability of the Azerbaijani-Russian
relations with the Georgian crisis turned out to be deplorable. In
such a vitally important issue for the partitioned Azerbaijan as the
territorial integrity, Russia behaved unpredictably (it is not by
chance that at the meeting Aliyev made an emphasis on a factor of
predictability in the Caucasus) as usual, destroying fragile hopes
which emerged three months ago that Moscow would clearly adhere to
the principles of inviolability of borders in the Nagornyy Karabakh
problem.

As early as July when the presidents synchronized the clocks in Baku,
nothing predicted a military threat in the Caucasus and the sides were
satisfied with the talks each obtained what they could. Having signed a
joint Declaration on Friendship and Strategic Partnership, Azerbaijan
obtained from Russia a guarantee on unacceptability of forcible
changes of internationally-recognized borders, swift settlement of
the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict on the basis of universally recognized
norms and principles, and first of all, adherence to the sovereignty,
territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of the states.

For its part, Moscow obtained a guarantee from Baku that it will
increase bilateral trade from 1.7bn dollars to 2bn dollars by the
end of the year and a vague pledge on cooperation with [the Russian
gas giant] Gazprom.

The violation of Georgia’s territorial integrity by Russia has become
a threatening signal for Baku, which tried to sit in own trench during
hot days of the Georgian-Russian confrontation. The timid words of
support for Georgia’s territorial integrity by the Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry and the regret about what happened obviously did not remain
unnoticed in Moscow.

At the end of the meeting with Aliyev, Medvedev in his public statement
did not say anything this time about the resolution of the Karabakh
conflict on the basis of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. Moreover,
he returned to Putin’s vision of the settlement, backing the need
for continuing direct talks between the presidents of Azerbaijan and
Armenia without giving preference to any of the sides publicly.

This shows that the sides have not managed to synchronize the clocks
together: at the meeting in Moscow, Medvedev most likely did not
manage to hear a clear answer to the proposal on re-orientation of
the geopolitical and energy course of Azerbaijan in favour of Russia.

Ilham Aliyev could only guarantee an increase in turnover between the
two countries in the amount wished by Moscow. Thus, Russia obtained
only a guarantee for the purchase of its consumer goods for extra
300m dollars, including tractors, vehicles, equipment and popular
commander’s watches. And prudent Azerbaijan so far managed to keep a
certain freedom for manoeuvring. So the Moscow way of synchronization
of the clocks has not led to any changes.