Interview with Jeyhun Mollazade, chairman of the American-Azerbaijani Council and co-director of the US Azeris Network.
Q: What's your view of WikiLeaks? Do you think it's a planned operation to discredit the United States?
A: As far as Wikileaks is concerned, it's my guess that someone somehow obtained those cables and either sold them or passed them to WikiLeaks for some other reason - someone who had access to classified cables from different US embassies around the world. I do not know what that person had in mind in doing so. Yes, it is clear that WikiLeaks had strong interest in discrediting the US and other countries as well. WikiLeaks should have been acting responsibly in publishing the secret correspondence and creating diplomatic uproar. I am sure that some political circles are happy about WikiLeaks-gate, however I do not know if and how they were involved in this operation.
Q: Do you think that this will undermine the trust of many countries and their leaders in the US authorities and make bilateral consultations less open?
A: I am sure that WikiLeaks will create distrust in US diplomats and for a while foreign government officials will be very careful what they share with American diplomats. No one wants to read what's been said in private on the pages of the New York Times or Guardian.
Q: Will the events not undermine the already strained relations between Azerbaijan and the United States?
A: As far as American-Azerbaijani relations are concerned, I am sure that the public revelations of diplomatic conversations are not helpful in any way and create more problems rather than solve existing ones. WikiLeaks cables also create problems not only between the US and Azerbaijan, but also affect Azerbaijan's relations with its neighbours. I am sure that the US government regrets the security lapse and is trying to adopt appropriate measure to control the damage. It will take some time before the damage caused by Wikileaks goes away completely.
Q: Despite expectations, the OSCE summit in Astana did not bring progress on the Karabakh settlement. Do you have any expectations of progress next year?
A: I am not very hopeful about progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. As I have already mentioned to you and other journalists, Armenia is not being seriously challenged by the key players within the Minsk Group and international community in general and no significant pressure has been put on Armenia to demand its withdrawal from Azerbaijani territories. As long as the mediators continue their policy of "the two parties have to reach agreement and we can only assist", there will be no progress. Territorial, ethnic and religious conflicts are not, and never have been, easy to resolve, but those that have been resolved have been tackled in one way or another through the active engagement of political, diplomatic, economic, financial and sometimes even military, forces, but not through declarations about "progress made" when one of the parties to the conflict is simply providing diplomatic cover for its policy of occupation and the mediators are accusing one or another party to the conflict behind the scenes. As long as Armenia feels impunity over what has she done on Azerbaijani territory, there will be stalemate for a long time.
W.W.
News.Az
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