Bryza: Sahakyan's US visit should have no impact on strategic partnership with Azerbaijan
Trend:
The visit of Bako Sahakyan, who claims to be the “president” of the
illegal regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, to
the US should have no impact on strategic partnership between
Washington and Baku, Matthew Bryza, former US ambassador to
Azerbaijan and former co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, told Trend
March 18.
“This is not Sahakyan’s first visit to the U.S. Moreover, he has
absolutely no sponsorship from the U.S. government and, as in the
past, will not have any meetings with U.S. government officials,
except possibly the U.S. Co-Chair, and that would never occur on
U.S. government territory. So, as long as the above conditions are
met, Sahakyan’s decision to make what the U.S. government views as
a private visit to the U.S. should have no impact on the
Azerbaijan-U.S. strategic partnershp. But, I stress, the above
conditions need to be met,” said Bryza.
Also, he believes, it is possible that members of the U.S.
Congress, such as Senator Robert Melendez, may host meetings with
Sahakyan.
“But, Menendez has been under investigation by the FBI for
corruption for years and will soon face a re-trial. I know from my
personal experience of him blocking my confirmation as Ambassador
to Azerbaijan that he is in the pocket of the vicious and hateful
Armenian National Committee of America, whose previous president is
a convicted felon. I therefore would not read anything significant
into any meeting the highly corrupt Menendez might host,” added
Bryza.
Earlier, over Bako Sahakyan’s visit, the US Ambassador to
Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and
received a note of protest, sent by the Foreign Ministry of
Azerbaijan to the US State Department.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the US, Elin Suleymanov,
after a meeting in the State Department, presented the protest of
Azerbaijan to the American side.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a
result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied
20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council
resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the
Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.