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AZERI ANALYST MULLS REASONS WHY PRESIDENT MISSED CIS SUMMIT
Turan news agency, Azerbaijan
Dec 7 2012
There may be several reasons as to why the Azerbaijani president did
not attend the 5 December summit of the CIS countries in Turkmenistan's
Ashgabat, an Azerbaijani analyst has said.
Azerbaijani leader seeks to avoid meeting Armenian counterpart
In an interview with the Media Forum website on 5 December, analyst
Elxan Sahinoglu, head of the Atlas research centre, said President
Ilham Aliyev wants to avoid meetings with his Armenian counterpart
Serzh Sargsyan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and also that
relations with Turkmenistan are strained.
The main reason for Aliyev not meeting Sargsyan is that anything
related to the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict has long been discussed,
and there has been no change in the positions of the two countries.
"Hence, a new meeting has no meaning," Sahinoglu said.
According to the analyst, Aliyev is also unable to give positive
answers to the two questions that Putin would pose him: about
prolonging the lease of the Qabala radar station to Russia and about
Azerbaijan joining the Eurasian Union.
Caspian dispute: Azerbaijani-Turkmen, Turkmen-Armenian ties
On relations with Turkmenistan, the analyst said that Azerbaijan
has yet to resolve the matter of the disputed Kapaz (Turkmen name:
Serdar) oil field in the Caspian Sea. "Turkmen vessels approached the
Caspian fields belonging to Azerbaijan and Baku sent Ashgabat a note
as a result. Subsequently, the Turkmen president visited Armenia,"
Sahinoglu said.
In a report on 7 December, Turan news agency quoted Azerbaijani
Deputy Foreign Minister Xalaf Xalafov as saying that it is up to
Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan within their sovereign rights to decide
on the construction of the trans-Caspian pipeline.
"Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia have already reached agreement on
delimitation of the Caspian seabed. I hope that delimitation agreements
will be reached with Iran and Turkmenistan as well within the framework
of international law and practice," Turan quoted Xalafov as saying.
Azerbaijan's ties with Russia at lowest point since 2000
In a separate report, Turan noted that relations between Azerbaijan
and Russia are at the lowest point since Putin came to power in 2000.
"This can be chiefly related to Aliyev's failure to ensure the
same support from Moscow in the forthcoming [2013] presidential
election as the support he received in 2003 and 2008. In this sense
the summit is not as interesting for Aliyev as it used to be in the
years when Azerbaijan's economy and significance grew and when in
exchange of expanding intra-CIS trade Aliyev received the political,
albeit formal, support of post-Soviet and especially Russian leaders,"
the report said on 6 December.
[Translated from Russian]
Turan news agency, Azerbaijan
Dec 7 2012
There may be several reasons as to why the Azerbaijani president did
not attend the 5 December summit of the CIS countries in Turkmenistan's
Ashgabat, an Azerbaijani analyst has said.
Azerbaijani leader seeks to avoid meeting Armenian counterpart
In an interview with the Media Forum website on 5 December, analyst
Elxan Sahinoglu, head of the Atlas research centre, said President
Ilham Aliyev wants to avoid meetings with his Armenian counterpart
Serzh Sargsyan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and also that
relations with Turkmenistan are strained.
The main reason for Aliyev not meeting Sargsyan is that anything
related to the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict has long been discussed,
and there has been no change in the positions of the two countries.
"Hence, a new meeting has no meaning," Sahinoglu said.
According to the analyst, Aliyev is also unable to give positive
answers to the two questions that Putin would pose him: about
prolonging the lease of the Qabala radar station to Russia and about
Azerbaijan joining the Eurasian Union.
Caspian dispute: Azerbaijani-Turkmen, Turkmen-Armenian ties
On relations with Turkmenistan, the analyst said that Azerbaijan
has yet to resolve the matter of the disputed Kapaz (Turkmen name:
Serdar) oil field in the Caspian Sea. "Turkmen vessels approached the
Caspian fields belonging to Azerbaijan and Baku sent Ashgabat a note
as a result. Subsequently, the Turkmen president visited Armenia,"
Sahinoglu said.
In a report on 7 December, Turan news agency quoted Azerbaijani
Deputy Foreign Minister Xalaf Xalafov as saying that it is up to
Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan within their sovereign rights to decide
on the construction of the trans-Caspian pipeline.
"Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia have already reached agreement on
delimitation of the Caspian seabed. I hope that delimitation agreements
will be reached with Iran and Turkmenistan as well within the framework
of international law and practice," Turan quoted Xalafov as saying.
Azerbaijan's ties with Russia at lowest point since 2000
In a separate report, Turan noted that relations between Azerbaijan
and Russia are at the lowest point since Putin came to power in 2000.
"This can be chiefly related to Aliyev's failure to ensure the
same support from Moscow in the forthcoming [2013] presidential
election as the support he received in 2003 and 2008. In this sense
the summit is not as interesting for Aliyev as it used to be in the
years when Azerbaijan's economy and significance grew and when in
exchange of expanding intra-CIS trade Aliyev received the political,
albeit formal, support of post-Soviet and especially Russian leaders,"
the report said on 6 December.
[Translated from Russian]