AMERICAN MILITARY BASES IN AZERBAIJAN?

PanARMENIAN.Net - There are no grounds to trust the information sources of "Statfor" centre, because information about the agreement of Baku to dispose American military bases has already been spread before. Thos who did not want to believe that kept referring to the statement of former Secretary of State Collin Powel who asserted that Bush administration had no intension to dispose American military bases in Azerbaijan. Powel can bravely insist that he was not lying because formally the American military subdivisions that are going to be sent to Azerbaijan cannot be considered military bases. They are called "temporarily disposed mobile forces". But the essence remains the same. Moreover, according to "Statfor" the mobile forces are going to stay long. "Statfor" experts say that the first American planes will arrive within the next few weeks.

The locations of the mobile forces are already fixed. The government of Azerbaijan suggested the following formerly Soviet bases: "Galla" in Absherone, "Bina" in Baku, "Nasosny" in Sumgait, "Salyan" in Garachala and airdromes in Kyurdamir, Lenkoran, Evlakhe, Gyanja and Nakhichevan. Researching the territories during a year, American experts have chosen Kyurdamir, "Nasosny" and "Galla". All the three objects are situated in central Azerbaijan, far from Karabakh. The main base is going to be in Kyurdamir.

"Statfor" experts mention three most important tasks of the American military presence in Azerbaijan. The first one is the security of Baku - Tbilisi - Jeyhan pipeline, the second task is the creation of conditions in case there is a need to attack Iran and the third one - to force Russia out from the region. According to analysts of the American - Israeli center, it is not planned to use mobile forces for "peace keeping measures" in Karabakh.

Meanwhile, it is well known that US military experts used to seriously discuss the issue of possible disposition of military forces in Azerbaijan for the settlement of Karabakh conflict. One of the many scenarios of application of the mobile forces supposed such a perspective too. It was worked out by a retired US air force colonel Sam Gardiner who thought that Pentagon may "offer limited aid for the settlement of disputable questions on Nagorno-Karabakh". What did he mean by that is very unclear. But the December issue of military "Atlantic Monthly" magazine has published an article where it is said that Gardiner's proposal concerning Karabakh was denied because of being contradictory to the interests of USA. Thus, we can hope that the disposition of US military mobile forces in Azerbaijan will not have a direct impact on the process of Karabakh conflict settlement. At the same time it can be supposed that the presence of American militaries in Azerbaijan who are responsible for the security of oil pipeline will make Azeri politics think less about the idea of resuming the war that will threaten the plans of Washington.