Ankara will never agree to deterioration of relations with the U.S. because of Azerbaijan

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ankara will never agree to deterioration of relations with the U.S. or any other party concerned about a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Moreover, if we believe certain media reports - and sometimes they really should be believed - Washington actually issued a tough ultimatum to Azerbaijan: she made it clear that "Karabakh independence will be recognized, should Azerbaijan attempt to launch military operations in NKR," Yeni Musavat Oppositional Azeri Party official website reported on Tuesday, followed by other Azeri media representatives.

In observer's opinion, Baku's military rhetoric is caused by the fact that in the agenda of Armenia-Azerbaijan negotiations on Karabakh status, mediated by Russia, US and France, Azerbaijan's territorial integrity is not discussed, as required by the country's President Ilham Aliyev, NEWSru.com reports.

However, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said he knew nothing about Washington's ultimatum. "Azerbaijan is not a country to be spoken with in the language of ultimatum," he said. "We are conducting an independent foreign policy based on our national interests," Polukhov added.

How independent a foreign policy the South Caucasus countries can have, is probably not worth mentioning. But Baku so deeply believes in her own power and energy, that she does not see what is obvious. And the obvious fact is that over the past few days, the Turkish press has stopped writing about its "brotherly" neighbour. Moreover, there appear articles about the myth of "one nation, two states". Speaking at the rally of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Prime Minister Erdogan spoke about everything: the Kurdish problem, cooperation with Iran on regional projects and Turkey's EU membership. However, he said not a single word about Karabakh, and it is symptomatic.

It so happened that these days, Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu participates in the ministerial D-8 Summit in Kuala Lumpur. D-8 is an analogue of the G8 for the countries of Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), in which Azerbaijan has no place. Only Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey are members of this association, i.e. countries for which the resolution of the Karabakh conflict is neither necessary nor important. By the way, the countries of OIC, which so recently were spoken about with great enthusiasm in Baku, have quite a different from Azerbaijan position on Nagorno-Karabakh. For example, Iran and Syria, and sometimes Egypt, if we use the lexicon of official Baku, take up a pro-Armenian position, while others simply do not make public their position, reasoning from their own interests and not out of their great love towards Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Meanwhile, The Jamestown Foundation writes: "Traditionally an ally, brother and last resort of hope, Turkey is no longer trusted in the Azerbaijani capital. In an effort to gain an additional friendly neighbor, Ankara seems to have overstretched and nearly ruined its strategic relations with Azerbaijan. It is clear that the recent developments in the South Caucasus and the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement have seriously damaged the Turkish-Azerbaijani strategic partnership. This partnership has been the backbone of East-West energy and its future transportation corridors, security, political and geo-strategic balance in the region, as well as the overall Turkish (or Western) entrance into the Caspian region," says the author, who, of course, doesn't like the fact that Turkey has decided to "free herself" from Baku.

And lastly, US International Republican Institute (IRI) office ends its activity in Azerbaijan. Head of IRI office Jake Johns declared the office would be closed on November 30 of the current year. Chairman of Musavat party Isa Gambar, expressing his regret over the issue, considered it expedient to continue the work of the office in terms of strengthening relations between the U.S. and Azerbaijan, and solving problems associated with democracy and freedom. But the U.S. had different views...