Today.Az » Politics » Zurab Todua: "USA will not help Azerbaijan to liberate Nagorno Karabakh"
12 April 2008 [10:08] - Today.Az
"USA will not help Azerbaijan to liberate Nagorno Karabakh", said famous Russian political scientist Zurab Todua commenting on the influence of Azerbaijan's possible accession to NATO on the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh problem.
He said that in case Azerbaijan joins NATO, it would spoil its relations not only with Russia but also with Iran, as the United States and NATO would use its territory for military operations against it.
"No one among political scientists, or experts and polititians in Baku, were able to tell me how Azerbaijan will defend itself in case of the air force response attack from the Iranian side, if the United States uses your territory for the possible armed operation against Iran.
If Azerbaijan was the member of the Treaty for Collective Security, it would have C-300 anti-aircraft complex, the best weapon of the way, which resists everything. As far as I know, the United States have modernized airdromes (prepared them for military operations) and installed two radar stations, targeting Russia and Iran. But I never heard that they installed at least a couple of Stingers for the Azerbaijani armed forces", said the political scientist.
He also said that the United States would not help Azerbaijan to liberate Nagorno Karabakh.
"They will make numerous promises, but this also occured in the previous years. The occupation of Nagorno Karabakh is a grief of Azerbaijani people, but other countries do not care much of it. You know better that I do that during all official meetings the representatives of the United States and western countries repeat the only phrase that only peaceful resolution of Nagorno Karabakh conflict is possible. They do not want the resumption of hostilities in the conflict area as they fear to lose money, invested to oil fields and pipelines.
Therefore, regardless of whether Azerbaijan is a member of NATO or no, the West will use its influence to hamper the armed resolution of Nagorno Karabakh conflict".
He said that if Azerbaijan access NATO, it would be asked, like Georgia was, to send more soldiers to Iran, Afghanistan and somewhere else.
"They would offer to purchase already utilized military technique (perhaps, even make a present) and you will have to spend money on their maintenance. And the most important is that in case of military campaign against Iran, the territory of Azerbaijan would be used by the United States and NATO for their purposes. At the same time, the relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, which can be assessed as positive at the moment, would be ruined", said the political scientist.
He noted that since the early 1990s, Azerbaijan has done everything to gain the favor of the United States and the West: it has conducted policy "oil in exchange to Karabakh", signed contracts under conditions which are unprofitable for it, excluded Iran from the list of consortium participants, agreed to construction of a pipeline bypassing Iran (though the Iranian way would have been economically profitable), agreed on the use of its territory by American militaries and made a number of other things.
"This list is too long. What has Azerbaijan got in exchange? It seems to me that naivety of most Azerbaijani politicians has no limits", Zurab Todua concluded.
/Day.Az/
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