yes, here is the Bloomberg story:<div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-30/azerbaijan-may-rethink-pro-western-stance-if-no-karabakh-support.html">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-30/azerbaijan-may-rethink-pro-western-stance-if-no-karabakh-support.html</a> </div>
<div><br></div><div><h1 style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:12px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-size:30px;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;clear:both;line-height:1.3em;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">
Azerbaijan May Rethink Pro-Western Stance If No Karabakh Support</h1><div><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:10px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;font-family:Arial;line-height:1.6em">
Azerbaijan may rethink its pro- Western stance and realign with “a new bloc” if it doesn’t get more support, particularly in its conflict with neighboring <a href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/armenia/" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;color:rgb(0,102,204);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">Armenia</a>, a senior Azeri official said.</p>
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The Caspian Sea nation wants <a href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/europe/" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;color:rgb(0,102,204);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">Europe</a> and the U.S. to pressure Armenia into pulling out of Azeri districts adjacent to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, according to Novruz Mammadov, head of the presidential office’s foreign-relations department. The country has also been invited to join another political alliance, he added, without elaborating.</p>
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“We aren’t paying attention to those proposals for now. But if it continues like this, we may consider it in five to 10 years,” Mammadov said today in an interview in the capital, Baku. “We’re expecting help from the West on the Karabakh issue.”</p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:10px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;font-family:Arial;line-height:1.6em">
The mostly Muslim nation of 9 million people fought a war with Christian Armenia after the <a href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/soviet-union/" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;color:rgb(0,102,204);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">Soviet Union</a> broke up in 1991. About 30,000 people were killed and 1 million displaced in the conflict, which left Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly ethnic Armenian region previously under Azeri control, in the hands of Armenia. While hostilities largely ended with a Russia-brokered cease-fire in 1994, a peace accord has never been signed.</p>
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Azerbaijan is the third-largest oil producer in the former Soviet Union after Russia and Kazakhstan, with energy companies including <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BP/:LN" title="Get Quote" class="web_ticker" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;color:rgb(0,102,204);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">BP Plc (BP/)</a>, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/STL:NO" title="Get Quote" class="web_ticker" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;color:rgb(0,102,204);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">Statoil ASA (STL)</a>, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/FP:FP" title="Get Quote" class="web_ticker" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;color:rgb(0,102,204);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">Total SA (FP)</a>investing more than $35 billion there since 1992. The government has sent troops to join NATO peacekeeping operations in <a href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/afghanistan/" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;color:rgb(0,102,204);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">Afghanistan</a> and Iraq and sells oil to Israel, from whom it also buys weapons.</p>
<h2 style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:10px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-size:18px;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;font-family:Arial;line-height:1.3em;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">
‘Tied its Destiny’</h2><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:10px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;font-family:Arial;line-height:1.6em">
“We’re the only secular Muslim nation in the world that’s tied its destiny with the West,” said Mammadov, who estimates that about 35 percent of all NATO supplies to Afghanistan transit his country. “But we haven’t seen a positive attitude in return.”</p>
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While Azerbaijan is also a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which unites some former Soviet nations, its closeness to the West has caused “some tension” in relations with <a href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/iran/" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;color:rgb(0,102,204);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">Iran</a>, according to Mammadov.</p>
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“Iran’s telling us: Why are you selling your oil to the West? You should sever your relations with the U.S. and <a href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/israel/" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;color:rgb(0,102,204);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">Israel</a> because they’re our enemies,” Mammadov said.</p>
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He accused some Western media of seeking to stoke tensions between Azerbaijan and Iran after Foreign Policy magazine reported last month that his nation had offered some of its airports to Israel for possible air strikes against Iran, citing unnamed U.S. intelligence agents. Azerbaijan has strongly rejected the report.</p>
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Mammadov also complained that Israel broke an agreement to keep the $1.6 billion purchase of Israeli weapons secret.</p><p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:10px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;font-family:Arial;line-height:1.6em">
To contact the reporter on this story: Zulfugar Agayev in Baku at <a href="mailto:zagayev@bloomberg.net" title="Send E-mail" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;color:rgb(0,102,204);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">zagayev@bloomberg.net</a></p>
<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:10px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;font-family:Arial;line-height:1.6em">
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Hellmuth Tromm at <a href="mailto:htromm@bloomberg.net" title="Send E-mail" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline-width:0px;outline-style:initial;outline-color:initial;vertical-align:baseline;background-image:initial;color:rgb(0,102,204);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">htromm@bloomberg.net</a></p>
</div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 9:08 PM, Katy P <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:katycarvt@gmail.com" target="_blank">katycarvt@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Is there a source for this that isn't Asbarez? (An Armenian political news source.)<br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="h5">On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Narine Khachatryan <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ms.narine.khachatryan@gmail.com" target="_blank">ms.narine.khachatryan@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>

</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="h5"> Dear all, <div><br></div><div>Read what Azerbaijan's <span style="line-height:13px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:12px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">President office's  </span>head of <span style="line-height:115%;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;background-image:initial" lang="EN-US">Foreign
Relations Department  told two days ago to Bloomberg, briefly threatening 'to change their pro-western stance and political alliance'...Words are unnecessary... </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333;background:white" lang="EN-US"></span></p>



<div><span style="line-height:115%;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></div><div><br></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;background:#fdfdfd;vertical-align:baseline">



<span style="font-size:22.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#981a1d" lang="EN-US">Azerbaijan Blackmails West</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:12.0pt;background:#fdfdfd;vertical-align:baseline"><a href="http://asbarez.com/102706/azerbaijan-blackmails-west/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US">http://asbarez.com/102706/azerbaijan-blackmails-west/</span></a><span style="font-size:22.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#981a1d" lang="EN-US"></span></p>





<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:15.6pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" lang="EN-US">BAKU—A senior
Azeri official told Bloomberg Businessweek that Azerbaijan would rethink what
he called its “pro-Western” stance and align itself with “a new bloc” if the
West does not amp up its support, especially vis-à-vis the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:15.6pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" lang="EN-US">Azerbaijan wants
Europe and the US to pressure Armenia into relinquishing the liberated
territories of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:15.6pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" lang="EN-US">In what was
clearly a move to blackmail the West, Novruz Mammadov, head of the presidential
office’s foreign-relations department told Bloomberg Businessweek that
Azerbaijan had been invited to join another political alliance, without
elaborating.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:15.6pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" lang="EN-US">“We aren’t paying
attention to those proposals for now. But if it continues like this, we may
consider it in five to 10 years. We’re expecting help from the West on the
Karabakh issue,” Mammedov told Bloomberg in an interview in Baku.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:15.6pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" lang="EN-US">Mammadov also
rebuked Israel for allegedly breaking an agreement to keep a recent $1.6
billion arms deal with Azerbaijan a secret. Israeli defense officials announced
the deal earlier this spring, with Azeri officials confirming the reports. The
Azeri officials also noted that the weapons would not be used against Iran, as
speculated by Western sources, but rather to bolster its abilities against
Armenians.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:15.6pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" lang="EN-US">Last month Foreign
Policy magazine and other Western media outlets reported that Azerbaijan had
turned into an Israeli spy zone and that Baku was allowing Israel to use its
airports for possible airstrikes against Iran. Azerbaijan has vehemently
rejected that assertion.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:15.6pt;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" lang="EN-US">“We’re the only
secular Muslim nation in the world that’s tied its destiny with the West,”
Mammadov told Bloomberg. He estimated that about 35 percent of all NATO
supplies to Afghanistan transit Azerbaijan. “But we haven’t seen a positive
attitude in return.”</span></p>

<div><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;line-height:15.6pt">“Iran’s telling
us: Why are you selling your oil to the West? You should sever your relations
with the U.S. and Israel because they’re our enemies,” Mammadov told Bloomberg.</span> </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Regards,</div><div>Narine</div>
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