WASHINGTON’S POLICY IN CAUCASUS REGION FAILED – AZERBAIJANI MP
Lala B.

news.az
April 27 2010
Azerbaijan

Anar Mammadkhanov News.Az interviews Azerbaijani parliament deputy
Anar Mammadkhanov.

Is the Azerbaijani side right to demand from the United States to be
unbiased in the resolution of the Karabakh conflict?

Azerbaijan is absolutely right in this issue. This situation is
paradoxical because the United States are trying to treat flu with
"a handkerchief". One can fight implications of the flu by means of
the handkerchief, but one cannot treat flu itself, it must be treated
by medicines and so on. I think our region, as well as other regions,
have become hostages of the Novel premium granted to respected Barack
Obama ahead of time. As we have recently witnessed, he needs to gain
some geopolitical external success. As is known, he has spoiled the
relations of his country with Israel. He did not gain anything there,
and he cannot do anything in both Pakistan and India and he fails to
keep his promise to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. This
is why, instead of this foreign policy failures, he has decided to
gain the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border in order to achieve
success at least in this direction of the US foreign policy. In this
connection, he has started to put pressure on the parties. That is,
in this case, the situation is unpleasant since someone wants "to
get to paradise" by using others. In other words, Barack Obama needed
some success in his foreign policy.

A similar situation was observed in 1977-1978 when the then
US President Carter, missed the Iranian revolution, then missed
Afghanistan where the monarch was overthrown and communist revolution
took place. And in this situation, in order to gain any success
in foreign policy Carter made Israel and Egypt conclude separate
agreements through a strong pressure. Thus, when Sadat (Egyptian
president Anvar Sadat, killed in October 1981) was killed afterward,
Arabians did not calm down within the next 30 years, while Israel
received neither peace nor security. Today the same situation has
established in our region. However, Turkey has not followed the
Camp-David strips (Camp David the agreement signed between Israel
and Egypt at a summit in Camp-David in 1978) because otherwise there
would have been a big war again. Therefore, Azerbaijan is completely
right in its resentment, indignation and claims.

What do you think about the opinion of some observers that the
situation will prompt Baku’s rapprochement with Russia and Iran?

No man of sense can say that Azerbaijan will today turn to Iran and
conduct pro-Iranian policy. No one can predict this development of
the situation.

Anyway, some observers state that Baku will start searching new
configuration to ensure its security, by getting ties closer with
Russia. What do you think is the probability of such forecasts?

As you know, Azerbaijan is building combinations to ensure its security
by itself. We are arming and modernizing our army. We do not join
any military and political blocs, we do not sign a treaty of mutual
military support with any country, even Turkey. Therefore, to ensure
its security Azerbaijan uses two factors including international law
that is recognized by all countries and its army.

As for possible rapprochement with the United States to ensure its
security, as I would to say that one of the leaders of Marshall’s fund,
who has earlier been Assistant of US Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright admitted during the meeting with a group of officials from
Azerbaijan’s presidential administration and Milli Medjlis deputies,
including me in 2004 that the US administration did not have any
plans to protect Azerbaijan from possible aggression of the states
that were against the Contract of the Century.

Is it possible at the current US-Azerbaijan relations that President
Barack Obama will not suspend amendment 907 like President George
Bush had done since 2001?

This is, of course, Barack Obama’s personal business. The amendment
does not affect us in any way. It has earlier been a problem for
Azerbaijan, while now, I think, it is already a problem of the
United States.

Does the weakening of the US role in the Minsk Group mean the transfer
of the moderator role to Moscow both in the region and in the Karabakh
conflict settlement?

The United States has recently started putting pressure of its ally,
Turkey. The Turkish government has rescued itself by refusing to open
borders with Armenia, otherwise, it would have been overthrown. I
have no doubts that the events in Turkey would be like this in case
the government of this country agreed to open borders. Meanwhile,
the United States would stay idle in such developments, because we
witnessed the US pressure on Turkey, in particular, the then president
Turgut Ozal during the first phase of war in Iraq. At that time Ozal
lost his influence in the Muslim world. But when Ozal died, none of
the high ranking US officials attended his funeral. At the same time,
Turkey viewed it as a humiliation. He same would have occurred with
Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That is, if nationalists have
overthrown Erdogan for betraying the national interests of Turkey,
the United States would not have done anything and Erdogan was in
time to understand this.

Which actions will the United States take in the result of the failure
of its policy in the region?

I think the United States will realize the situation and seek to apply
their foreign policy in other regions. It has failed in our region. It
was unable to execute this script due to the firm position of both
Azerbaijan and Turkey. I think we all have coped with this task. One
cannot put pressure on others just to justify his Nobel award through
violating the political economic and geopolitical interests of other
countries. I think they have realized it and will, probably, move to
any other region.

Does it mean that the US-Azerbaijani relations will stop deteriorating
further?

There have never been worsening in ties. The United States is a big
country. It is like a famous joke, a bad vision is not a problem for
a hippopotamus weighting 600 kg. Therefore, the United States is not
too much concerned whether we have been offended or not.