Agence France Presse
April 15 2010

Azerbaijan questions US role in Karabakh conflict

BAKU, April 15 2010

A top Azerbaijani official Thursday questioned Washington’s neutrality
as a mediator in the conflict over the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh
region and accused the US of increasingly siding with Armenia.

"We are not happy with the activity of the United States in the
process of settling the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan," Ali
Hasanov, the head of the political department of the Azerbaijani
presidential administration, told journalists in Baku.

"Unfortunately, some institutions and parties in the United States,
under the influence of the Armenian lobby, are losing their neutrality
and openly supporting Armenia," he said.

"We think this is not in accord with the mission of the United States,
especially the American mission as co-chair of the Minsk Group."

The United States is one of three co-chairs, along with France and
Russia, of the so-called Minsk Group, which is trying to negotiate a
resolution to the longstanding conflict.

Tensions over Karabakh have risen in recent months amid US-backed
efforts by Armenia and Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan, to
establish diplomatic ties and reopen their border after decades of
hostility.

Azerbaijan insists that the reconciliation process should not move
forward without progress on Karabakh and has accused Western
governments and Ankara of ignoring its interests.

The energy-rich country is a key Western partner in strategically
important projects to ship oil and gas from the Caspian Sea region to
Europe through Turkey, bypassing Russia.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of solidarity
with Azerbaijan — with which it has strong ethnic, trade and energy
links — against Yerevan’s support for the separatists in Karabakh.

Backed by Yerevan, ethnic Armenian forces seized control of Nagorny
Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan in the early
1990s, in a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.

The two former Soviet republics have cut direct economic and transport
links and failed to negotiate a settlement on the region’s status.

Armenian and Azerbaijani forces are spread across a ceasefire line in
and around Nagorny Karabakh, often facing each other at close range,
and shootings are common.