Azerbaijan threatens to "reconsider" U.S. relations

Oil-producing Azerbaijan accused the United States on Friday of siding with enemy Armenia in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and threatened to "reconsider" its relationship with Washington.

The comments by a senior aide to President Ilham Aliyev underscored the strength of anger in Azerbaijan, a supplier of oil and gas to the West, over a Western-backed bid to reconcile Christian Armenia and Azerbaijan's close Muslim ally Turkey.

Azerbaijan sees the rapprochement and the potential reopening of the Turkish-Armenian border as a betrayal of efforts to mediate a solution to the conflict over the Armenian-backed rebel mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The backlash threatens to spill over into the energy sector, with Azerbaijan and Turkey bogged down in protracted gas transit negotiations, complicating plans for the U.S. and European-backed Nabucco pipeline.

As Azerbaijan and Turkey continue to talk terms, Azerbaijan has sealed deals to sell gas to neighbouring Russia and Iran, further tapping resources courted by Europe in the Caspian Sea.

"The United States does not implement policy towards Azerbaijan as a strategic partner, and that's why we might reconsider our policy towards the United States," Ali Hasanov, Aliyev's head of public-political issues, told Reuters.

"We believe the Americans should not only think of how to help Armenia overcome the economic crisis," he said, but as a co-mediator in talks on Nagorno-Karabakh, Washington "should first of all promote a solution to the Karabakh conflict."

Hasanov did not elaborate what steps Azerbaijan might take, but said Baku was involved in a number of joint projects with Washington including "major transnational energy projects".

Azerbaijani anger has already helped slam the brakes on the deal signed by Armenia and Turkey last year to establish diplomatic ties and reopen their border, in a bid to overcome a century of hostility since the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

Turkey denies accusations of genocide and says Turks as well as Armenians died in large numbers in a fierce partisan war.

The deal would bring huge economic benefits to impoverished, landlocked Armenia, but Azerbaijan believes it will remove any pressure on Yerevan to loosen its economic and military support for rebel Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkey closed the border in 1993 in solidarity with Muslim ally Azerbaijan in its losing battle with ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Nagorno-Karabakh broke away, and Azerbaijan wants it back, if necessary by force. More than 15 years of mediation have failed to produce a peace deal and the threat of war is never far away in a key energy transit region to the West.

Stung by the Azeri backlash, Turkey now says it will only ratify the accords with Armenia if Armenia makes concessions on Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia rejects any such link.

Azeri Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov also singled out Washington for criticism, telling Reuters that its bid to bring together Turkey and Armenia in isolation from the Nagorno-Karabakh issue was "mistaken".


/Reuters/