Nuland Called Azerbaijan to Stick to Rules of Game

• 02.20.2015, 15:53
• Liana Hovhannisyan
•  Region,  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  World,  Armenia,  Analytics

- The visit of the Assistant Secretary of US State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland to the region raised a number of questions in the media, the most important one concerning the main objective of the visit. In your opinion what was the main objective of her visit?

If we take into consideration the timing of the visit, the order of the visited states (it was not by chance that Nuland first arrived in Azerbaijan) as well as the information about the visit disseminated in the media, one can state that it pursued the following main and the most important objective: to call the Azerbaijani government not to violate the rules of the game.

It is hard to doubt that for the West in general and for the US in particular energy sector security is very important. Recent developments in the international arena: Ukrainian crisis, growing extremism in the world and the like, made the West become worried for its energy security. There is no doubt either that the West considers energy resources of Azerbaijan as an alternative to its present energy sources. The territory of Azerbaijan is also considered as a transition route for the US ally, Europe. However the role  of Azerbaijan, as an alternative in energy sector, can vanish altogether, in case it starts real military operations; the scenario, which seem to be quite real if one takes into consideration the recent developments on Armenian-Azerbaijani borders. 

To put it in a simpler way, by provoking escalations on the borders, Azerbaijan in fact violates the rules of the game in the energy sector established between the West and Azerbaijan.

In this context Nuland’s main emphasis during her visit in Azerbaijan were not done by chance (Nuland attached special importance to the energy security, particularly security of pipelines, which grows in importance in the context of South gas corridor)

Thus one should state that Nuland’s visit to the region among others aimed at sending a concrete message to Azerbaijan:  in the face of other international developments for the West it is very important to preserve peace in the region. In this context I think that Nuland’s referring to painful issues for the Azerbaijani government (internal problems of democracy and human rights in the country) was done on purpose  and aimed at calling the Azerbaijani government “to tighten its belt.”