Foreign Policy: U.S. should show respect towards Azerbaijan due to merits of this country

In his article, author of the article, renowned expert on the Caspian region, a professor at the University of Montana, journalist Thomas Goltz recommends to display respect to Azerbaijan.

He says the United States sees Azerbaijan only as a stage in a transport corridor to Afghanistan. But the U.S. should show respect to Azerbaijan, not because of Afghanistan, but due to merits of that country.

Goltz says that today Azerbaijan is significantly different from what it was in the early years of independence. Returning to power in 1993, Heydar Aliyev succeeded to revive chaotic and almost disintegrating state. The author also notes that under the leadership of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan has grown a powerful state which saw gross domestic product grew nearly 36 percent over the recent years.

The article also adds that Azerbaijan is dissatisfied with the United States over its biased stance in the Karabakh issue.

There are reasons to believe so. The Section 907, adopted by Congress in 1992 under pressure from the Armenian lobby, has not been repealed yet, Barack Obama sought to normalize Turkish-Armenian relations at the expense of Azerbaijan and the post of the U.S. Ambassador to Baku had been vacant for a long time. All these problems could estrange Baku from the United States, it says in the article.

Goltz recommends the U.S. to take positive steps to change this situation.


/AzerTAc/