Azerbaijan fails to prove Armenian aggression to the world

Independent experts review Azeri foreign policy over the past decade

Independent experts reviewed Azerbaijan’s foreign policy in the past decade at a roundtable last week, as they stated that the major failure of this policy had been inability to prove Armenia’s being aggressor and occupying Azeri territories to the international community.

Former presidential advisor on foreign policy Vafa Guluzadeh, ex-foreign minister Tofig Zulfugarov, chief of the presidential secretariat Eldar Namazov, former Azeri ambassador to China Tamerlan Garayev, and others took part in the roundtable “Azerbaijan’s foreign policy over the past decade”. Also attending the forum were Georgian ambassador and diplomats from Israeli, Uzbek, Kazakh and other embassies.

There is no international document confirming Armenia as an aggressive nation that occupied the territories of its neighbor. As for the four UN SC resolutions adopted in 1992, they dodged to label Armenia as an aggressive state, calling on “Armenian forces to unconditionally withdraw from the occupied Azeri lands”. The ‘Armenian forces’ is a flexible notion that could also denote both separatists from the breakaway Garabagh and recruits from Armenian communities abroad.

The foreign policy backfired, as experts say, due to incorrect domectic policy, the lack of foreign policy and national security concepts and a military doctrine.

The experts saw the erroneous domestic policy in the lack of communication between the public and the government, as well as poor publication of foreign policies. It has reportedly led to public distrust in the government.

The dearth of a foreign policy conception has triggered off some setbacks in the foreign policy apart from the above mentioned, including weak operation of Azeri Diaspora overseas, Azerbaijan’s insufficent activity in the GUUAM and erroneous relations with Turkic nations.

Azerbaijan’s regional cooperation has been confined to that with Georgia and Turkey for the security of the Baku-Ceyhan main export pipeline designed to take Caspian resources to world markets.

Slashed diplomacy

It has negatively affected the organization of the Foreign Ministry activities, resulting in improper appointment of ambassadors and lackluster performance of embassies, where economic advisors are largely lacked, something that opposition-minded observers describe as the envoys’ aspiration to take foreign economic affairs in their hands.

The participants in the roundtable noted that the Azeri ambassador to Germany won't be recalled despite years of inaction and ridiculed appointment of a translator as Azeri ambassador to Iran on the latter’s request.

Azerbaijan's former ambassador to China Tamerlan Garayev indicated that much could be achieved in foreign policy should envoys directed and guided properly.

‘Fruits’

Azerbaijan's foreign policy progress was also underscored. The greatest success, as the experts stressed, was eviction of Russian military bases. The oil contracts signed in 1994 were hailed as the base for integration into the world's economic system.

Also welcomed as foreign policy achievements were Azerbaijan's participation in Nato's Partnership for Peace program and the efforts for division of the Caspian.

The experts highly appreciated military cooperation between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

Speakers underlined that Azerbaijan should initiate a regional system and integration into the EuroAtlantic space.

Four areas were highlighted as spheres of national interest, including securing Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, resolving the Garabagh conflict, creating propitious conditions for economic reforms, and conducting political reforms.