Asim Molladze: “Cultural communication is more efficient that economic and political talks”

Asim Molladze, Azerbaijani MP, the head of the Democratic Reform Party, tells VK about current relations between Baku and Washington.

- The US Senate will consider the appointment of Matthew Bryza as the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan at the end of the year. What are his chances of keeping his position?

- This issue has been discussed for a long time in the US administration. As you may remember, Bryza’s appointment faced resistance from pro-Armenian politicians; however, they failed to reject this candidate. The candidature was not rejected, but the Armenian lobby managed to veto it in the Senate. Then the President executed his right to appoint ambassadors whose candidatures were not approved by the Senate during the Senate’s vacations. The US constitution stipulates that such an appointment should be approved by the Senate in a year or be revoked. I think it’s possible that some Senators will be opposed to Bryza, but they will definitely be outvoted.

Bryza is one of the most experienced Caucasus experts in the US, he has participated in a lot of projects in the region. In particular, he has taken part in conflict settlement programs. He’s the best choice to represent US interests in Azerbaijan, so the Armenian lobby works against the best interests of the US.

- You have just arrived from the US, where you were on n official visit with other Azerbaijani MPs. What were the objectives of this visit?

- This trip was connected to the activities of the US ‘Karabakh Foundation’. Apart from charity events organized to help settle the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, we discussed several issues of Azerbaijani-American relations. We managed to meet a lot of Congressmen and human rights activists such as the head of the Freedom House organization, and to give several lectures in universities and research centers.

We also attended several events aimed at promoting Azerbaijani culture in the US: a concert of Azerbaijani jazz, the Turkish People’s Cultural Expo… These events were warmly greeted by American people. I believe that cultural communication can prove more efficient that economic and political talks.

Azerbaijan is the first state of the Muslim world to become secular. I hope that Azerbaijan is important for the US not only as an oil and gas exporter, but also as a model-state for the Turkic and Islamic world. Azerbaijan always supports the US in its fight against terrorism and international crime prevention.

- You visit the US and Europe often. Are people there well-informed about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?

- As a matter of fact, the wider public is very ill-informed. And Armenian diaspora organizations are the main source of information on the subject for them. Therefore we are facing a task to provide the European community and experts with accurate information. It’s not a normal conflict; it’s a violation of all possible international laws: one member-state of the UN, the OSCE and the European Council occupies a considerable part of another one, thus breaking the basic laws of all these organizations. Besides that, this occupation has caused a major humanitarian catastrophe.

We expect these international organizations to respect their own regulations. When the UN passed the Libyan resolution, action was taken within days, yet all resolutions on Karabakh are just waste-paper.

We have achieved considerable progress in the cause of informing the European public, which can be seen in present resolutions of PACE and the European Parliament. In the US we try to operate not only on a federal level, but also at state level. We try to combat the lies that well-financed and powerful Armenian diasporas spread.

-What is the status of Azerbaijani-US relations at the moment?

- This is a strategic partnership. At the beginning of its term, the current administration made several mistakes regarding US relations with its partners, Azerbaijan among them. It was unclear what political course would be pursued in the South Caucasus. The two-year absence of a US ambassador in Baku seriously damaged relations between our two countries. Nevertheless, the recent visit of the US Secretary of State to Azerbaijan demonstrates the high level of US interest in cooperation with Azerbaijan.

Interview by Ramin Nazimov, exclusively to VK