CC BY
23
Ibragim Ibragimov,
political analyst (the Diplomatic Academy
of the MFA of the RF)
FOREIGN POLICY OF AZERBAIJAN
It is known that for many centuries the Caucasus attracted attention of "the great powers" as a focus, one of the perceptible knots of not only regional but also world politics. The largest post-Soviet state of the South Caucasus is the Azerbaijani Republic marked by the depths of its history. However, the previous state entities were not identical to contemporary Azerbaijan in terms of territory, names etc.
As a result of the Russian-Persian war of 1812 and in accordance with the Gulistan and the Turkmanchai peace treaties Russia extended its sovereignty to the territories, which partially constitute the basis of Azerbaijan. Following disintegration of the Russian Empire, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia formed the Trans-Caucasian Democratic Federative Republic dissolved in May 1918. The proclaimed Azerbaijani Democratic Republic (ADR) became the first parliamentary republic in the Muslim world, which gave, for instance, election rights to women before it was done in Great Britain and the U.S.A.
The ADR existed for less than two years and succeeded to establish diplomatic relations with only six countries. However, the Soviet power was established in the country already in spring of 1920. For the period of existence as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic (AzSSR) the country possessed certain plenary powers in the field of foreign policy. According to article 80 of the Constitution of the USSR of 1997, the union republic had the right to maintain relations with foreign states, to conclude with them treaties and exchange diplomatic and consulate representations, to participate in activities of international organizations. Like other union republics, Azerbaijan had its ministry
of foreign relations. However, it would be difficult to speak about self-dependent Azerbaijani foreign policy equally as about Kazakh, Lithuanian or even Russian foreign policy. The functions of the republican foreign ministries were reduced to the representative sphere, and the Foreign Ministry of the USSR carried out the real policy according to decisions of the CC of the CPSU.
For the period in the end of the 1980s the latent ethno-political conflicts were aggravated and started to take the military form in a number of regions of the Soviet Union, including the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region within Azerbaijan. Due to inconsistency and lack of definite position of the Union leadership, the appeals for independence started to grow in the AzSSR. As a result, in 1990 the Supreme Soviet of the AzSSR adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty of the Azerbaijani Republic and restored the flag of the ADR as a state flag, and in October 1991 it adopted the Declaration of independence, which was confirmed by the all-national referendum.
The first years of existence of the Azerbaijani Republic were darkened by the events in Nagorny Karabakh. The military conflicts between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces started soon after proclamation of independence and continued till 1994, when with Russian mediation Azerbaijan, Armenia and the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh Republic signed the three-partite agreement on the cease-fire. Azerbaijan lost 16% of its territory, including Nagorny Karabakh, and 30 thousand killed people, while one million people had to leave the native places.
The formation of the basis of the foreign policy of the new Azerbaijani state was under the great influence of exactly this factor and of the acute internal political struggle in the Azerbaijani Republic in the beginning of 1990, which terminated mainly only in 1993, when G. Alyev became the President of the Azerbaijani Republic.
The final date of formation of the political order of the Azerbaijani Republic should be considered 12 November 1995, when its Constitution was adopted and determined the general foreign policy principles of the country. But formation and realization of foreign policy as well as establishment of diplomatic relations started much earlier, practically immediately after proclamation of independence.
For about one year Azerbaijan established diplomatic relations with the majority of countries of the world. Turkey became the first country, which recognized the Azerbaijani Republic, while Bahrain was the last country, which established with it diplomatic relations in November 1996.
At the present time, Azerbaijan maintains diplomatic relations with 158 states and is a member of 38 international organizations. In May 2006 Azerbaijan was elected at the session of the UN General Assembly as a member of the just established Council for Human Rights and in October 2011 - as a non-permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations. The President of the Azerbaijani Republic I. Aliyev in his speech on 4 May 2012 at the session of the UN General Assembly expressed his gratitude to all UN members for the support of the candidature of Azerbaijan. For the first time in its short history Azerbaijan was elected a non-permanent member of the Security Council, it is a great responsibility, and we are ready to assume this responsibility, said I. Aliyev.
According to the Conception of National Security of the Azerbaijani Republic, the priorities of the Azerbaijani foreign policy include as follows:
- Restoration of the territorial integrity of the country;
- Liquidation of the consequences of the loss of Nagorny Karabakh and of seven other regions of the country;
- Integration in European and European-Atlantic structures;Input in international security;
- Cooperation with international organizations;
- Regional cooperation and bilateral relations;
- Consolidation of defense potential;
- Ensuring security by internal political means;
- Consolidation of democracy;
- Preservation of ethnic and religious tolerance;
- Scientific, educational and cultural policy and keepingof moral values;
- Economic and social development;
- Strengthening of internal and frontier security;
- Security policy in the sphere of migration, energy and transport.
So long as restoration of the territorial integrity is the first and foremost foreign policy priority of Azerbaijan, the analysis of its foreign policy should be started with consideration of relations with Armenia, being the sole neighboring country, which has no diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan. Since 1994, the parties occupy the positions corresponding to the situation at the moment of signing of agreement on cease-fire, and the largest part of Nagorny Karabakh and some adjacent territories are kept under control of the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh Republic maintaining close ties with Armenia and using its national currency - dram. For the past time, the leadership of Azerbaijan not once stressed that if the Armenian party does not liberate the occupied territories and if no changes take place in the process of Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations, it would mean that all peaceful chances for the conflict's settlement would be exhausted and Azerbaijan would have to use forceful means to settle the conflict. Under conditions, when Armenia ignores four resolutions of the UN
Security Council (N 822, 853, 874 and 884) with the appeal for the immediate withdrawal of all Armenian forces from all occupied Azerbaijani territories, Azerbaijan actually has a small choice of its further actions. The Minsk group for regulation of the Karabakh conflict of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, created in 1992 and headed by Russia, the U.S.A. and France as the Co-Chairmen, for the past 20 years took impressionable efforts; however, the results of its activities do not impress. Baku and Erevan can not achieve the consent on the three principles proposed by it: self-determination, territorial integrity and none-use of violence. For instance, the Azerbaijani party expressed its agreement to the autonomy; however, Armenia brings forward the argument that in time of the USSR such status existed already. As far as the non-use of violence is concerned, the Armenian party presses for the prior agreement of Azerbaijan to it. The Azerbaijani party in principle does not deny the peaceful way, stressing that the conflict may arise due to any "sparkle".
So, the president I. Aliyev in his interview to the South-Korean magazine "Diplomacy" noted that this conflict all the same may be regulated only in the peaceful way on the basis of international principles within the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Nevertheless, the tension in line of opposition does not weaken and periodically results in armed conflicts. Under these conditions, Azerbaijan increases its defensive potential. However, it should be noted that in spite of the fact that the defense budget of Azerbaijan in absolute expression exceeds twice the whole state budget of Armenia, its military forces, according to the estimates in 2008, were not in the state of good fighting order and were not sufficiently prepared for the large-scale fighting actions. The economic sanctions on the part of Turkey and Azerbaijan caused a rather great damage to
the budget of Armenia; however, the situation is still far from its solving.
Under the existing conditions, the Azerbaijani Republic continues to develop reciprocal action with other states. The objectives of the reciprocal action are not reduced to the search for such partners, which might contribute to solving the Nagorny Karabakh problem. Given the absolute importance of this foreign policy priority, Azerbaijan pursues also other objectives. They are as follows: integration in international structures, cooperation with international organizations for the sake of ensuring international peace and security as well as mutual actions in economic, scientific and other spheres.
It should be stressed that the geopolitical position of the country long since attracted to it attention of near and distant actors. Leaving aside the history of the Persian-Ottoman or the Russian-Britain rivalry in the struggle for influence and dominance, it is possible to say that up to today Azerbaijan is in the focus of the fixed international attention. As a result, its policy can not help being the many-vector and balanced policy.
The relations with Russia are of special significance for Azerbaijan. The Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Security signed on 3 July 1997 is the kernel of their legal basis. The close ties in various fields characterize relations between two countries, which cooperate both on the bilateral basis and within the framework of dozens of international organizations. Russia participates in oil and gas projects of Azerbaijan. For instance, Russian company "Lukoil" has the share of 10% in development of deposit "Shah-Deniz" and the share of 80% - in project D-222.
At the same time, the amount of Russian investments in Azerbaijani economy is rather small comparing with western
investments. In 2003 the two countries signed the inter-government agreement of military-technical cooperation.
After Azerbaijan obtained independence and became the owner of Gabalin radar tracking station (RLS "Darial") Russia continued to use it as a component of its system of tracking the launches of ballistic rockets. The agreement on the status, principles and conditions of RLS use was signed by Russia in 2002. In 2007 for the period of aggravation of relations between Russia and the U.S.A., due to the plans of the U.S.A. and NATO to locate the complexes of the anti-rocket defense in East Europe for protection from the hypothetic Iranian rockets' threat, Russia made the proposal to the U.S.A as an alternative to use Gabalin RLS. The U.S.A. did not pay interest to it, but it should be stressed that the Russian proposal was supported by the leadership of Azerbaijan.
Characterizing the relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, president I. Aliyev in his interview to Russian TV pointed out that the new stage in development of relations between Russia and Azerbaijan was started just in the beginning of the 2000s, when Russia was headed by V. Putin, who made his first official visit as the Russian president to Azerbaijan. Much was done for the past ten years. Briefly speaking, all sore or complicated subjects in bilateral relations were settled. None of them was left.
Speaking about other countries, it should be said that Azerbaijan stresses "special relations" with the Turkish Republic. Turkey actively supported Azerbaijan in solving the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, having joined the Azerbaijani economic sanctions, actually economic embargo of Armenia, and closed its border with Armenia. The withdrawal of Armenian forces also became the condition of establishment of Turkish-Armenian diplomatic relations. The close economic ties were shaped between Azerbaijan and Turkey. Turkey purchases from Azerbaijan natural gas and participates in infrastructural projects, such
as the oil pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan, the gas pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum and the railway Kars-Tbilisi-Baku. The military cooperation was started in 1992 after signing the agreement on military education. Turkey started to render assistance to Azerbaijan in the military sphere, which amounted to $ 200 million in 2010. In December 2010 the agreement was signed on mutual guarantees in case of an attack of the third party. The military doctrine of the Azerbaijani Republic adopted in the same year fixed the possible location of foreign military bases on the territory of Azerbaijan. It raised speculations on the coming location of Turkish forces in Nakhichevan region. However, there are no proofs of this information.
Georgia is another neighbor of Azerbaijan. In the past time there were no significant contradictions between the two countries. For the period of 1918-1920 the two republics had close ties. After disintegration of the USSR the diplomatic relations between them were established on 18 November 1992. The countries cooperate extensively in the regional development of energy, transport and economic projects, which is conditioned by existence via territory of Georgia of the main transportation routes of energy carriers to Turkey and further to Europe. The joint project is being implemented for starting of railway transportation Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, and Georgia within the framework of the project received the Azerbaijani credit of $ 775 million. Azerbaijan keeps its second place in the list of Georgian biggest trade partners.
The Islamic Republic Iran is the fourth country having the land frontier with Azerbaijan. The relations between the two countries are not simple. For the longer period of time, before the Azerbaijani territory 200 years ago became subject to Russian/Soviet sovereignty, the territory of Azerbaijan was a part of Persia. One heritage of this history is the fact that 16% of the population of Iran consists of Azerbaijanis. The tension in connection with uncertainty of
consequences of realization of the Iranian nucleus program, more so the apprehension excited by probable big military conflict can not help causing anxiety in Azerbaijan.
In this connection, president I. Aliyev pointed out that the frontier of Azerbaijan with Iran made over one thousand kilometers, the trans-border contacts were arranged and over half of ethnic Azerbaijanis lived in Iran... He noted that any aggravation of the situation in the region, evidently, would result in dangerous consequences for all countries, since in terms of political, economic and military plans the countries of the region were connected with each other. Destabilization in one of them might have catastrophic consequences, and it would be difficult to predict their nature, he said.
The external connections of Azerbaijan are not reduced to its relations with neighbors. Thanks to its geopolitical position some distant from the region countries are also interested in development of mutual action with it. Azerbaijan itself also proceeds from the benefit for it of such cooperation.
The European Union and the U.S.A. as the biggest economic centers with a half of the global GNP, making $ 63 trillion in 2010, represent in the region the main actors. It is important to take into account not only the absolute amount of the GNP but also its structure and quality. In essence, these two centers are the sources of the lion's share of contemporary technologies; and the national modernization is difficult and actually impossible to be attained without these technologies. Finally, the U.S.A. and almost all of 27 countries-members of the European Union (and also Turkey, as it is significant) are united in the oldest and mightiest military-political structure of the contemporary world - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In view of this fact the reciprocal action of Azerbaijan with these centers of force is of great significance.
On the other side, they in the West also objectively estimate the role and place of Azerbaijan. Thus, a patriarch of American political science Z. Brzhezinski stressed that Azerbaijan with it vast energy resources had a key importance in the geopolitical sphere. It seems that this appraisal made by Z. Brzhezinski in the beginning of the new century should be renewed to some extent. The importance of Azerbaijan has grown since that time.
First, the world prices of hydrocarbons have risen several times. Second, the struggle for the routes of gas and oil pipelines from the Caspian and the Central Asian regions to Europe has aggravated to a large extent since that time. Third, Iran as a big neighbor of Azerbaijan, for the last years turned out to be in the focus of the counter struggle of all leading geopolitical actors and became a potential objective of use of force, which also changes the place of Azerbaijan in the general scheme without its knowledge, by the way.
By the present time, the whole South Caucasus has turned out to become the arena of the geopolitical rivalry between the West, on one side, and Russia, Iran and China, on the other side. Having analyzed the new strategic conception of NATO, adopted in Chicago in spring of 2010, Russian political analyst V.V. Shtol points out that the evident strategic perspective will be the consolidation of NATO in the Central Asian region and the South Caucasus representing the basis of a new strategy of the block for the coming decade.
The relations between Azerbaijan and NATO started to form in March 1992 after its enter in the Council of North Atlantic Partnership; and the beginning of real reciprocal action may be considered to start on 4 May 1994, when Azerbaijan joined program "Partnership for Peace". The representative office of Azerbaijan was opened in 1997 in the headquarters of NATO in Brussels. The Azerbaijani peacemaking forces, created in 1999, started to participate in peacemaking operations
of NATO in Kosovo in 1999, in Afghanistan - since 2002, in Iraq -since March 2003. On 19 November 2002, Azerbaijan was admitted to become an associated member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Nevertheless, for the whole period of cooperation with HATO the leadership of Azerbaijan never spoke about its wish to enter this organization. And what is more, for the last time the tempos of cooperation between NATO and Azerbaijan slowed down. On 25 May 2011 Azerbaijan entered "Non-Alignment Movement", uniting, as it is known, the states, which proclaimed as a basis of their foreign policy course the non-participation in military-political blocks and associations. In view of this fact, the prognoses of Azerbaijan's entry into NATO in the near future, leaving behind Ukraine and Georgia, seem to be completely unfounded, since in general there was no question of that. Azerbaijan maintains working relations with NATO and EU, and it is interested in cooperation with member-states in all spheres of mutual interest.
For the future period, Azerbaijan intends to carry out the balanced foreign policy of equal in rights, mutually beneficial and multilateral cooperation with all countries of the region and the world, which are interested in such cooperation. As president I. Aliyev stressed in his speech at the sitting of the UN Security Council (May 2012), Azerbaijan will stand up for ideals of justice, international law and peaceful cooperation among all countries. I may assure all our friends in United Nations and the UN member-states that Azerbaijan will become a reliable and friendly partner for all countries, said he.
"Obozrevatel-Observer", M, 2012, N10, pp. 85-92.
