ONE-WAY STREET

Partnership between Azerbaijan and NATO under the Partnership for Peace programme is marking its 20th anniversary this year. Two decades is a considerable period for building a firm relationship at strategic partnership level as it is described in Brussels. This relationship especially in the field of security is characterized by a high level of mutual support on issues of paramount importance to the parties. However, I regret to say that Azerbaijan is giving much more than receiving in these respects. 

In general, integration with Euro-Atlantic structures the main of which is NATO is one of Azerbaijan's foreign policy priorities, as the country's leadership has repeatedly stated. At an enlarged meeting of the government held recently under the chairmanship of President Ilham Aliyev, the head of state described his visit to the NATO headquarters early this year as one of his most important foreign trips over the past three months. "Our bilateral relations are positive. An exchange of views on future cooperation took place. Azerbaijan's participation in energy security and its contribution to peacekeeping missions are perceived with approval," he said.

A little earlier, NATO Assistant Secretary General Sorin Ducaru had said the same: "Azerbaijan is one of the most important, active and long-term partners of NATO". Relations between Baku and Brussels have reached the level of a "strategic partnership" today, he had said at a conference held in Baku to mark the 20th anniversary of Azerbaijan's participation in the "Partnership for Peace" programme. 

According to NATO's spokesman, Azerbaijan is playing an important role in promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan both by its peacekeeping activities and by providing its transit capabilities for NATO forces. Bilateral relations have reached the level of strategic partnership on issues such as energy security and combat against terrorism. S.Dukaru also noted the importance of the "Science for Peace and Security" programme in which Azerbaijan and NATO have implemented dozens of projects which is a good basis for developing a dynamic and promising future between the parties. 

S.Dukaru voiced the same thoughts at his meetings with the president and the foreign minister of Azerbaijan. However, without belittling its own services in maintaining stability in the Euro-Atlantic space, Azerbaijan should press NATO for a more pro-active involvement in the South Caucasus region filled with threats of international rather than regional scale. Of course, we are primarily speaking about Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan and its consequences. Speaking with S.Dukaru at a conference devoted to the anniversary of the Baku-Brussels relations, the republic's Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov admitted that the parties are discussing the issue of Nagornyy Karabakh in the context of matters affecting Euro-Atlantic security. NATO is informed about the Karabakh conflict, Azimov said, "but, due to various reasons, this structure has limited opportunities for participation and contributing to certain processes". According to the deputy minister, at the political level, including at its summits, NATO has repeatedly expressed support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of different countries, which in itself is a "very important factor". 

In fact, however, Baku can hardly be satisfied with verbal confirmations of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity in the context of the overall situation in the post-Soviet space. In return for Azerbaijan's verifiable and practical contribution to NATO's missions, the republic is entitled to expect equivalent practical assistance from its strategic partner. Especially given that the alliance takes a principled position towards other countries even less pro-active in assisting NATO missions. For example, recently NATO posted answers on its official website to Moscow's theses concerning Russia-NATO relations. By those answers, NATO unequivocally declares that the referendum conducted in the Crimean autonomy of Ukraine in March this year was illegitimate. Today, some Azerbaijani analysts find comfort in the thought that "the situation in Crimea and [Nagornyy] Karabakh is identical and therefore NATO will not recognize the Karabakh separatists' referendum". But we should agree that this is just speculation. The sad truth is as follows. Over the 20 years of partnership, Azerbaijani citizens, military and civilians, have risked their lives carrying out their international duty in the world's regions far away from Azerbaijan in the name of their commitment to cooperation with NATO. Some of them were even killed in those missions (remember the Silk Way airline's transport aircraft that crashed in Afghanistan three years ago). Meanwhile NATO member states have never displayed the same consensus on the "referendum" on the basis of which, according to Armenian separatists, Nagornyy Karabakh gained independence from Azerbaijan. 

The developments in Ukraine should lead NATO to reassessing its role in this matter. Moreover, in the light of those events, the problem of routes for withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan expected to start shortly looms even larger for NATO. One of the routes discussed was over Russia but, due to deteriorated relations between Moscow and the West, this option will naturally be dismissed. In turn, the route over Azerbaijan may get a greater chance to be implemented. 

Interesting in this sense is the opinion of experts who are not limited by the bounds of diplomatic protocol and speak openly. "I expect more active NATO activities in different regions including where Azerbaijan is located and a tougher stance against aggression," Zahid Oruc, a member of Milli Maclis [parliament] and Azerbaijan's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO, has told R+. 

According to him, NATO is now trying not only to dissociate itself from a possible anti-terrorist operation in Azerbaijan's Nagornyy Karabakh region but it merely fears even to say openly who is who in the conflict. And this is despite the fact that Azerbaijan was not afraid to take risks supporting NATO missions in spite of threats from the Taliban, al-Qa'eda and other radical groups. "But we have seen no return. I would really like people from NATO's think tanks and the decision-makers sitting in the NATO headquarters to be able to assess the situation more correctly," Oruc said.

So the time has come for the West today when there is no room left for omissions and ambiguities. True, one cannot deny the important role being played by the Alliance in enhancing the combat capability of the Azerbaijani army and reforming it in accordance with NATO standards. Meanwhile, NATO positions itself not merely as a military but a military-political organization. It has proved that, whenever its member states stood to benefit from it, they unanimously expressed their stance on political issues. So if NATO seriously regards the post-Soviet space as its zone of strategic interests, it must heed its close partners' aspirations and protect their, and therefore common, interests. If the West has finally realized this, they must take concrete steps. In this regard, it makes point to listen carefully to the message of President Ilham Aliyev's statement made at the said government meeting: "Why are the leaders of the self-proclaimed Nagornyy Karabakh Republic not suffering from sanctions? Why are there no sanctions applied against them? This is injustice and double standards. This is why we raise our voices in protest against double standards in international relations. We ask the executives of the Western countries cooperating with us not to admit 'leaders' of the phony 'Nagornyy Karabakh Republic' to their countries and impose sanctions against them." 

It seems that putting Nagornyy Karabakh separatists on the "black list" to keep company there with representatives of Crimea that declared its independence from Ukraine would be a significant step for the West. The step would prove that strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and NATO in the security sphere is in the interests of both parties and not a one-way street case.