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BAKU: Azeri leader to visit Iran to annoy US, opposition paper says

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  • BAKU: Azeri leader to visit Iran to annoy US, opposition paper says

    Azeri leader to visit Iran to annoy US, opposition paper says

    Azadliq, Baku
    11 Dec 04

    An Azerbaijani opposition paper sees President Ilham Aliyev's planned
    visit to Iran is "an expression of anger at the USA". Azadliq said
    that President Aliyev decided to go to Iran as a balancing act in view
    of the US Presiden George Bush's failure to invite him to his
    inauguration. Azadliq also said that the Azerbaijani authorities
    maintain "unofficial" economic ties with Armenia. The following is the
    text of the report by the political section of the Azerbaijani
    newspaper Azadliq on 11 December headlined "Why is Ilham Aliyev going
    to Iran?" and subheaded "There is no significant reason for this
    visit"; subheadings have been inserted editorially:

    [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev is planning to visit Iran. If one
    asks government bodies - the presidential administration, Ministry of
    Foreign Affairs - about the planned visit, they will all respond in
    the same way: documents are being drafted. You cannot find answers to
    questions such as what are those documents all about, have any new
    spheres for intergovernment cooperation have been defined? "Documents
    are being prepared for the time being." This is the only answer you
    can get. The only thing we know in very general terms is that the
    sides will discuss the simplification of the visa regime between the
    two countries. (About this a bit later)

    Aliyev offended by Bush

    But one can make assumptions as to the kind of questions that will be
    addressed during Aliyev's visit to Iran or what this official
    rapprochement with Iran is for.

    The main reason for the rapprochement with Iran is probably the fact
    that Ilham Aliyev's desperate attempts to visit the USA have
    failed. There have been numerous commentaries on this. The country's
    most famous political scientists have openly said that because Ilham
    Aliyev has not been invited to the USA, he is trying to remind people
    of himself by making special gestures towards Russia and Iran.

    Interestingly, there have been no reports yet as to whether Aliyev has
    been invited to the US President-elect [George Bush's] inauguration or
    not. Perhaps, Aliyev has a 50-50 chance. Bush was re-elected for the
    second term. So, he cannot be elected for another term, which is why
    this kind of invitation will not be considered as a risk for him.

    Tehran smoothes ethnic ire

    Iran has its own interests. Iran wants to demonstrate to the
    international community that it maintains special relations with
    countries of the Caucasus and that it plays a serious and constructive
    role in this system of relations. It is true that Iran maintains
    normal economic and political relations with some European
    countries. But its relations with the USA, which has the final say on
    geopolitical issues, are getting worse and worse.

    Iran pretends that it has close relations with Azerbaijan. By doing
    so, it aims to smooth the smouldering ethnic discord within its
    boundaries. The opening of Azerbaijan's consulate in Tabriz was also
    aimed at preventing ethnic tensions from growing. Azerbaijan could not
    open this consulate in Tabiz under [Former President] Heydar
    Aliyev. The Iranian authorities did not even allow Heydar Aliyev to
    see Tabriz when he visited this country.

    But Ilham Aliyev will most probably visit the newly-opened consulate
    in Tabriz (He will also have some "patriotic" films and footage of
    himself shot there). Iran knows pretty well that Ilham Aliyev's
    government has no geostrategic plans or policy in line with those
    plans. So, no-one is worried [in Iran].

    Iran's blackmail

    Now, the fact of Naxcivan's blockade is Iran's trump card in its
    relations with Azerbaijan. The Iranian government is openly
    blackmailing Azerbaijan by exaggerating its role in Naxcivan's power
    supplies. Although there is every reason to worry about this
    blackmail, Azerbaijan has encountered this neither under Heydar Aliyev
    nor under his successor. What are these reasons?

    Both Iran and Azerbaijan are members of the Organization of the
    Islamic Conference [OIC]. The OIC cannot do anything but declare
    Armenia as an aggressor again and again in its meetings (similar to
    wishy-washy resolutions on Palestine). Iran has also openly supported
    these resolutions. But the fact that Iran is maintaining military,
    strategic, economic and political ties with Armenia, whom Iran itself
    regards as an aggressor, is directly aimed against Azerbaijan. But
    the Azerbaijani government neither officially protested against Iran's
    double standards nor raised the issue with the OIC. Ilham Aliyev will
    not do so either for several reasons.

    First, the corrupt Azerbaijani government maintains secretly economic
    ties with Iran's corrupt clerical leadership. Second, there are no
    doubts that the Iranian secret services can prove any time that the
    Azerbaijani government itself profits from unofficial economic ties
    with Armenia by providing information collected both in Azerbaijan and
    Armenia. There may be other reasons as well.

    Simple visa regime not reason for visit

    Ilham Aliyev's planned visit to Iran presents interest also from
    another point of view: The simplification of the visa regime.

    The visa regime between Azerbaijan and Iran is not that complicated
    today. Even the Iranians and Azerbaijanis living within the perimeter
    of 40 km from the border can visit one another without visas. In order
    to simplify the visa regime, one should simply cut the number of the
    necessary documents, reduce fees and resolve some other issues
    connected with the border security.

    The scale of the mentioned problems shows that they can be solved by
    signing some necessary documents and there is no need for visiting the
    neighbouring country for this. Now that Aliyev has decided to visit
    Iran, this is nothing but his and Iran's expression of anger at the
    USA.

    And finally, why should not Aliyev along with [Eduard] Shevardnadze in
    Georgia, [Alyaksandr] Lukashenka in Belarus, [Leonid] Kuchma and
    [Viktor] Yanukovych in Ukraine and [Vladimir] Putin in Russia be
    together with the clerical regime?
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