MATTHEW BRYZA NAMED NEW US AMBASSADOR TO AZERBAIJAN
Shahin Abbasov
EurasiaNet
/61116
May 21 2010
NY
The White House has appointed US diplomat Matthew Bryza, a former
American co-chair for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution talks,
as its new ambassador to Azerbaijan, EurasiaNet.org has learned.
A diplomat from the US embassy in Baku who asked not to be named
stated that an official announcement will be published on the White
House’s website on May 21.
The Azerbaijani government issued its official consent to the
appointment on May 20, the source said.
Bryza, whose appointment to Baku has long been the source of
considerable speculation, has a near-22-year-long diplomatic career
that put him at the center of two of the South Caucasus’ most
strategic issues: resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and
the introduction of non-Russia-related oil and gas pipelines from
Baku to the Black Sea.
As deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian
affairs from 2005 to 2009, Bryza coordinated US energy policy in
the Black and Caspian Sea regions, and represented the US on the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group
talks on a resolution of Azerbaijan’s 22-year conflict with Armenia
over the breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh.
Under US President Bill Clinton, he served as a deputy advisor on
Caspian Sea energy diplomacy and worked on US government efforts to
develop a network of oil and gas pipelines in the region.
Bryza’s appointment must be confirmed by the US Senate, where he is
likely to face questioning about his actions leading up to the 2008
Georgia-Russia War, a conflict that some critics charge was prompted
by a Georgian misunderstanding of American readiness to intervene.
The Azerbaijani government has not yet issued an official comment on
Bryza’s appointment. Bryza’s name was submitted to the Azerbaijani
government a few weeks ago, the US embassy source said.
The absence of a US ambassador to Baku – the post has been vacant for
almost a year — has been cited previously as a source of irritation
for some Azerbaijani officials, who allegedly saw it as a slight of
President Ilham Aliyev’s government amidst American promotion of a
Turkish-Armenian rapprochement. With Bryza’s appointment, Washington is
sending a "positive signal" that it is ready to smooth over relations
with Azerbaijan, Elkhan Shahingolu, director of the Baku-based Atlas
think-tank, believes.
Brzya, whose 2007 wedding to Turkish-born foreign policy analyst Zeyno
Baran, was attended by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov
and several other Azerbaijani officials, is seen as a known entity
for President Ilham Aliyev’s government.
"They were in touch with him for a long time, they know his character
and see him as a good specialist on the region," commented Shahingolu.
"So why not to be happy?"
Editor’s note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance correspondent
based in Baku. He is also a board member of the Open Society
Institute-Azerbaijan.