Planned joint military exercises by Azerbaijan and the United States were cancelled on Monday against a backdrop of strained ties between Washington and the oil-producing former Soviet republic. The announcement by Azerbaijan followed its sharp criticism of Washington’s role in its festering conflict with Armenia over the breakaway mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Diplomats say the criticism reflects Azeri anger over US support for a deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan’s close Muslim ally Turkey to mend ties and reopen their border. Azerbaijan, a supplier oil and gas to the West, fears the deal will weaken its hand in talks over the rebel territory.
Azerbaijan did not specify who cancelled the exercises planned for May, or why, but the US embassy said it suggested “that the question be posed to the government of Azerbaijan.”
An Azeri Defense Ministry spokesman told Reuters, “The exercises are cancelled, but the reason is not known.”
In an interview with Reuters on Friday, a senior aide to Azeri President Ilham Aliyev accused the United States of siding with Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and warned that Baku could “reconsider” its relations with Washington
The cancellation announcement coincided with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s visit to Baku, where he had talks with both Aliyev and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. His talks mainly focused on the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between the two, which complicates Armenia and Turkey’s efforts to normalize their relations. The United States, along with France and Russia, is one the three co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has striven to resolve the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, where ethnic Armenians backed by Armenia threw off Azeri rule in the early 1990s in a war that killed 30,000 people. A peace deal has never been signed.
Speaking at a joint conference following their talks, Davutoğlu and Mammadyarov reaffirmed on Monday that the two countries share the same vision regarding Caucasian affairs.
Noting that the co-chairs of the Minsk group were schedule to arrive in Baku on Tuesday, Davutoğlu reiterated Turkey’s eagerness to see progress in efforts by the group.
“There is a very big window of opportunity around the Madrid principle, on which there has been agreement. Everybody needs to utilize this opportunity. Now everybody should exert efforts for a permanent resolution around these principles, instead of playing for time,” Davutoğlu cautioned.
The minister was referring to the fact that the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed in January on a preamble to an updated version of the 2007 Madrid document, which includes the latest changes to the settlement’s basic principles concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.
The Madrid principle envisages a stage-by-stage resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict that should start with the gradual liberation of parts of Azerbaijan bordering Nagorno-Karabakh that were partly or fully occupied by Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh during the 1991-94 war. In return, Nagorno-Karabakh should retain a corridor to Armenia and be able to determine its final status in a future referendum.
Turkey closed its frontier with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan during the war, and Azerbaijan says it should stay closed until ethnic Armenian forces pull back.
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