AZERBAIJAN’S MILITARY PREVALENCE IS MYTH
Yerevan, April 28. ArmInfo. In the last years Azerbaijan has been
selling its military prevalence over Armenia – but it is a myth, the
senior research worker of the Institute of World Economy and
International Relations of the Russian Academy of Science Alexander
Krylov said during the international conference Caucasus 2005 in
Yerevan today.
In his report on Azerbaijan Krylov said that in fact Azerbaijan can’t
have such a prevalence as long as Armenia is member of Collective
Security Treaty Organization. Besides, Azerbaijan can’t start a war
because foreign investors don’t want it.
Despite its declared integration into NATO mostly because of the US’
great role in the building of the Azeri navy and the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Azerbaijan is not in the fairway of
the US’ policy. In 2004 Baku and Tehran drastically improved their
relations, the Iranian capital is involved in dozens of joint
projects. In 2005 Azerbaijan’s commodity turnover with Russia exceeded
$1 bln. Turkey is trying to attain this level too but Turkish-Azeri
relations are less profitable economically as Turkey pays for Azeri
fuel in light industry products mostly.
Given the bitter experience of the Kyiv events of late 2004 Russia
refrains from expressing political sympathies in Azerbaijan but
obviously they in the Kremlin consider the Azeri opposition as the
successor of the adventurous policy of Abulfaz Elchibey.