[governance] Rights issues in Azerbaijan / What will CS @ Baku do?

[Narine Khachatryan]

 Dear all,

Read what Azerbaijan's President office's  head of Foreign Relations
Department  told two days ago to Bloomberg, briefly threatening 'to change
their pro-western stance and political alliance'...Words are unnecessary...



Azerbaijan Blackmails West

http://asbarez.com/102706/azerbaijan-blackmails-west/

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.

Azerbaijan wants Europe and the US to pressure Armenia into relinquishing
the liberated territories of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

“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.”
“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.


Regards,
Narine
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