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NATO'S REPROACH AND PRAISE FOR AZERBAIJAN
by Giorgi Lomsadze
EurasiaNet.org
Sept 7 2012
NY
NATO boss Anders fogh Rasmussen has slapped Baku on the wrist for
pardoning the murderer of an Armenian army officer (and glorifying him,
to boot), but the gesture appears to have left Yerevan unimpressed.
In this tough-spoken part of the world, "deep concern" is widely seen
as a Western diplomatic term for "This was bad, but we are not going
to do anything about it." And subsequent tweets expressing NATO's
appreciation of Azerbaijan's role in the Afghanistan campaign and of
Baku's partnership with the Alliance would particularly not correct
that impression.
Many Armenians believe that the Alliance bears some responsibility for
the 2004 axe murder since it happened at a NATO seminar in Budapest.
Rasmussen does not.
Arguably, at a time like this, whatever he said on his
Armenia-Azerbaijan tour, the general secretary would be left having
to balance on an extremely high wire. But the question is to what
extent his presence gave both sides pause amidst their rush of rage
or simply directed their anger at another target -- the international
community itself.
Some Azerbaijani commentators, in a reflection of ongoing domestic
debate about President Ilham Aliyev's pardon, expressed long-standing
frustration with the Minsk Group discussions.
Armenia had its own thoughts. As Rasmussen jetted off to Baku,
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan declared that the Safarov pardon
was "an attempt to test the international community's reaction to
Azerbaijan's unusual steps." (He himself later headed off to Nagorno
Karabakh for the inauguration of de-facto leader Bako Saakian.)
How this chapter of the Karabakh conflict will end is anyone's guess,
but don't look for the international community to go out on a limb
at this point.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65885
by Giorgi Lomsadze
EurasiaNet.org
Sept 7 2012
NY
NATO boss Anders fogh Rasmussen has slapped Baku on the wrist for
pardoning the murderer of an Armenian army officer (and glorifying him,
to boot), but the gesture appears to have left Yerevan unimpressed.
In this tough-spoken part of the world, "deep concern" is widely seen
as a Western diplomatic term for "This was bad, but we are not going
to do anything about it." And subsequent tweets expressing NATO's
appreciation of Azerbaijan's role in the Afghanistan campaign and of
Baku's partnership with the Alliance would particularly not correct
that impression.
Many Armenians believe that the Alliance bears some responsibility for
the 2004 axe murder since it happened at a NATO seminar in Budapest.
Rasmussen does not.
Arguably, at a time like this, whatever he said on his
Armenia-Azerbaijan tour, the general secretary would be left having
to balance on an extremely high wire. But the question is to what
extent his presence gave both sides pause amidst their rush of rage
or simply directed their anger at another target -- the international
community itself.
Some Azerbaijani commentators, in a reflection of ongoing domestic
debate about President Ilham Aliyev's pardon, expressed long-standing
frustration with the Minsk Group discussions.
Armenia had its own thoughts. As Rasmussen jetted off to Baku,
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan declared that the Safarov pardon
was "an attempt to test the international community's reaction to
Azerbaijan's unusual steps." (He himself later headed off to Nagorno
Karabakh for the inauguration of de-facto leader Bako Saakian.)
How this chapter of the Karabakh conflict will end is anyone's guess,
but don't look for the international community to go out on a limb
at this point.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65885