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EurasiaNet.org
May 1 2014
Azerbaijan Chides US Envoy's Twitter Diplomacy
May 1, 2014 - 2:20pm, by Giorgi Lomsadze
Not to underestimate the power of social media, but officials in
Azerbaijan believe it takes more than active tweeting to resolve an
ethnic conflict; especially if it's the longest-running conflict to
come out of the Soviet Union.
In a swipe at James Warlick, Washington's point-man for negotiations
between Baku and Yerevan on the 26-year Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a
senior Azerbaijani presidential administration official commented on
May 1 that he would like to see the US mediator's tweets matched by
actions.
`Sometimes it seems to me that Mr. Warlick seeks to resolve the
#NagornoKarabakh conflict through his tweets,' tweeted Novruz
Mammadov, deputy chief of staff to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Twitter debates with the ambassador about certain events in the Karabakh
conflict are not possible, Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov added
in an interview with APA news agency, since a tweet "must
consist of only 120 letters."
Azimov went still further, charging that the US envoy is pro-Armenian,
and "spreading rumors about a possible escalation of the conflict
between Armenia and Azerbaijan." Baku has "every reason" to demand his
recall, he said.
Ambassador Warlick, who recently attended an Azerbaijani gala dinner
in Washington, has not yet responded. But he is, indeed, a prolific
Twitter user.
Many of his tweets provide relatively innocuous progress reports about
the Karabakh peace talks led by the US, France and Russia (the
so-called Minsk Group), but one tweet in particular already has
encountered Baku's ire -- an
observation that he had been "corrected" (presumably by
Armenia) that the conflict is between Azerbaijan and Karabakh; a
position the Azerbaijani government categorically rejects.
As for the talks themselves, Azerbaijani officials insist there has
been no progress to speak -- or tweet -- of.
Earlier on, Ali Hasanov, a longtime senior presidential aide, objected
that after 20-plus years of work by the Minsk Group, a breakthrough
was nowhere in sight.
`If the negotiations continue without anyone putting pressure on
Armenia, we will not get anywhere,' Hasanov told APA news agency. `The
[p]resident of Azerbaijan is not happy with the negotiations process
and with the work of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group in general."
But in its dislike of tweeting about delicate topics, Azerbaijan does
not stand alone.
Turkey, Azerbaijan's best buddy in strategic matters, recently
attempted to shut Twitter down completely, albeit without success.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an dropped in on Aliyev last
month, but whether or not the two talked Twitter is unknown.
With or without Twitter, though, Baku already has one opening for its
criticism of the Karabakh mediators -- the separatist schism in
Ukraine.
Hasanov pointed out that unresolved conflicts like Karabakh continue
to pose a threat to international security. Sounding a familiar
refrain, he noted that the only alternative to talks is another war.
So far, Ambassador Warlick has not responded. (Neither Ali Hasanov nor
Deputy Foreign Minister Azimov appear to have Twitter accounts.) But
he has continued tweeting away.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/68331
From: Baghdasarian
May 1 2014
Azerbaijan Chides US Envoy's Twitter Diplomacy
May 1, 2014 - 2:20pm, by Giorgi Lomsadze
Not to underestimate the power of social media, but officials in
Azerbaijan believe it takes more than active tweeting to resolve an
ethnic conflict; especially if it's the longest-running conflict to
come out of the Soviet Union.
In a swipe at James Warlick, Washington's point-man for negotiations
between Baku and Yerevan on the 26-year Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a
senior Azerbaijani presidential administration official commented on
May 1 that he would like to see the US mediator's tweets matched by
actions.
`Sometimes it seems to me that Mr. Warlick seeks to resolve the
#NagornoKarabakh conflict through his tweets,' tweeted Novruz
Mammadov, deputy chief of staff to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Twitter debates with the ambassador about certain events in the Karabakh
conflict are not possible, Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov added
in an interview with APA news agency, since a tweet "must
consist of only 120 letters."
Azimov went still further, charging that the US envoy is pro-Armenian,
and "spreading rumors about a possible escalation of the conflict
between Armenia and Azerbaijan." Baku has "every reason" to demand his
recall, he said.
Ambassador Warlick, who recently attended an Azerbaijani gala dinner
in Washington, has not yet responded. But he is, indeed, a prolific
Twitter user.
Many of his tweets provide relatively innocuous progress reports about
the Karabakh peace talks led by the US, France and Russia (the
so-called Minsk Group), but one tweet in particular already has
encountered Baku's ire -- an
observation that he had been "corrected" (presumably by
Armenia) that the conflict is between Azerbaijan and Karabakh; a
position the Azerbaijani government categorically rejects.
As for the talks themselves, Azerbaijani officials insist there has
been no progress to speak -- or tweet -- of.
Earlier on, Ali Hasanov, a longtime senior presidential aide, objected
that after 20-plus years of work by the Minsk Group, a breakthrough
was nowhere in sight.
`If the negotiations continue without anyone putting pressure on
Armenia, we will not get anywhere,' Hasanov told APA news agency. `The
[p]resident of Azerbaijan is not happy with the negotiations process
and with the work of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group in general."
But in its dislike of tweeting about delicate topics, Azerbaijan does
not stand alone.
Turkey, Azerbaijan's best buddy in strategic matters, recently
attempted to shut Twitter down completely, albeit without success.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an dropped in on Aliyev last
month, but whether or not the two talked Twitter is unknown.
With or without Twitter, though, Baku already has one opening for its
criticism of the Karabakh mediators -- the separatist schism in
Ukraine.
Hasanov pointed out that unresolved conflicts like Karabakh continue
to pose a threat to international security. Sounding a familiar
refrain, he noted that the only alternative to talks is another war.
So far, Ambassador Warlick has not responded. (Neither Ali Hasanov nor
Deputy Foreign Minister Azimov appear to have Twitter accounts.) But
he has continued tweeting away.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/68331
From: Baghdasarian