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

Fri May 4 13:13:19 EDT 2012

yes, here is the Bloomberg story:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-30/azerbaijan-may-rethink-pro-western-stance-if-no-karabakh-support.html

Azerbaijan May Rethink Pro-Western Stance If No Karabakh Support

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 Armenia <http://topics.bloomberg.com/armenia/>, a senior Azeri
official said.

The Caspian Sea nation wants Europe <http://topics.bloomberg.com/europe/> 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.

“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.”

The mostly Muslim nation of 9 million people fought a war with Christian
Armenia after the Soviet Union
<http://topics.bloomberg.com/soviet-union/> 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.

Azerbaijan is the third-largest oil producer in the former Soviet Union
after Russia and Kazakhstan, with energy companies including BP Plc
(BP/)<http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BP/:LN>
, Statoil ASA (STL) <http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/STL:NO>, Total SA
(FP)<http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/FP:FP>investing
more than $35 billion there since 1992. The government has sent troops to
join NATO peacekeeping operations in
Afghanistan<http://topics.bloomberg.com/afghanistan/> and
Iraq and sells oil to Israel, from whom it also buys weapons.
‘Tied its Destiny’

“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.”

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
Iran<http://topics.bloomberg.com/iran/>,
according to Mammadov.

“Iran’s telling us: Why are you selling your oil to the West? You should
sever your relations with the U.S. and
Israel<http://topics.bloomberg.com/israel/> because
they’re our enemies,” Mammadov said.

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.

Mammadov also complained that Israel broke an agreement to keep the $1.6
billion purchase of Israeli weapons secret.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zulfugar Agayev in Baku at
zagayev at bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Hellmuth Tromm at
htromm at bloomberg.net

On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 9:08 PM, Katy P <katycarvt at gmail.com> wrote:

> Is there a source for this that isn't Asbarez? (An Armenian political news
> source.)
>
> On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 12:31 PM, Narine Khachatryan <
> ms.narine.khachatryan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  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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