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  • Baku Goes On Bewailing Azeri Flags

    BAKU GOES ON BEWAILING AZERI FLAGS
    By Ivan Gharibyan

    Information-Analytic Agency NEWS.am
    Oct 20 2009
    Armenia

    The October 20 plenary session of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis turned
    into a platform for political elite's new wails at the Armenian-Turkish
    Protocols. During the very first hours, representatives of the
    ruling New Azerbaijan Party led by President Ilham Aliyev made
    statements. Using the same old stock phrases about the firm
    Azerbaijani-Turkish friendship, the speakers continued their

    The most "substantial" speech was delivered by Vice-Speaker Ziyafat
    Askerov, who, after expressing his resentment at Turkey's "insulting
    the Azerbaijani flag," made a "slight shift" to criticizing the OSCE
    Minsk Group for being passive in the process of "getting the occupied
    territories vacated." "The great powers' double standards in getting
    Azerbaijan's occupied territories vacated are taking an infamous form.

    If the international norms are nothing, let them say it," Askerov
    said. The greatest resentment over the latest developments is that
    the Armenian-Turkish Protocols were signed in the presence o U.S.

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well as that the OSCE Minsk
    Group Co-Chairs were involved. Mr. Askerov's discontent with the
    international mediators' latest statement refuting any link between
    the Armenia-Turkey normalization and Nagorno-Karabakh peace process
    "betrayed" once again the actual reasons for official Baku's concern.

    Although with reluctance, the Azerbaijani authorities have come
    to realize the only optimal option selected by the international
    mediators: following the principle of territorial integrity in
    the case of a number of Azerbaijani regions, which currently form
    a security zone round about the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR),
    and that of nations' rights to self-determination by determining
    Nagorno-Karabakh's status through a referendum.

    It is realizing this fundamental principle -- the world geopolitical
    players are following with the obvious intention to act through
    Turkey's mediation -- that has recently made the Azerbaijani leaders
    suffer from fits of hysteria. This hysteria is what is "taking an
    infamous form" mentioned by Vice-Speaker Ziyafat Askerov, who referred
    to the OSCE MG Co-Chairs' activities.

    One more piece of evidence of the deepening rift between the
    Azerbaijani and Turkish peoples is the latest statements made by the
    second Vice-Speaker of the Azeri Parliament Bakhar Muradova. "As
    regards the national flags of Turkey and other states, the Law on
    the National Flag of Azerbaijan was applied -- without any malicious
    intent," she said at the plenary meeting, commenting on the removal
    of the Turkish flags from the "Shahid lane" in Baku. Thus, with
    her own mouth, a high-ranking official in Azerbaijan's political
    hierarchy confirmed that the incident was not a mere coincidence. Her
    further statements about the absence of any anti-Turkish propaganda
    in Azerbaijan, despite her own admission of "Azerbaijan's sharp
    response to the Armenian-Turkish Protocols," proved to be striking
    evidence of disagreements between the Armenian and Turkish leaders,
    which are getting sharper and sharper.

    Of course, one can hardly speak of an inevitable "global" conflict
    between Ankara and Baku. The Azerbaijani authorities, which are "going
    through pain" because of the present geopolitical changes in the
    region, cannot do anything. In any case Turkey remains Azerbaijan's
    most reliable and closest ally. It is just high time for Azerbaijan
    to realize that Turkey cannot fuss over Azerbaijan to the detriment
    of its own interests. And if Turkey's interests are in harmony with
    great powers' position now, Azerbaijan has to do nothing but revise
    its uncompromising policy - or else it will become a rogue state.
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