Mikhail Saakashvili in Baku

The two-day visit of President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili to Azerbaijan last week was considered ambiguously by observers. On the one hand, Baku intends to develop cooperation with Georgia, first of all, in the economic sphere. On the other hand, Azerbaijan won’t support the anti-Russian statements of Saakashvili.

The visit confirmed the continuation of further strengthening of bilateral relations at the top level. “Azerbaijan and Georgia are two friends, two brothers. It has always been so and it will be so,” President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev emphasized. Saakashvili expressed his gratitude to Azerbaijan for its support for Georgia’s development and reminded about Azerbaijan's help for Georgia in difficult times. The government delegations signed a memorandum on cooperation in the sphere of statistics and an agreement on cooperation in the sphere of sport.

Moreover, the parties agreed to intensify the building of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad, which will open access to Europe for both states. “The first test trains will be launched by the end of 2012, and this railroad will be our window to Europe,” President Saakashvili said. The heads of state agreed to establish a joint company on electricity exports. According to the Ministry of Energy of Georgia, electricity would be exported not only to Turkey, but also to Russia. In politics a lot depends on personal relations between top officials. It appears Aliyev and Saakashvili have such relations: at least, the Azerbaijani President took Saakashvili on a night ride in the government Mercedes to view Baku.

However,  for Baku experts the most interesting and ambiguous speech by the president of Georgia was presented in the Azerbaijani parliament:Saakashvili cited the founder of the first Azerbaijani Democratic Republic, Mamedaemin Rasulzade: “Once the flag is hoisted, it will never be dropped.” He got heavy support from the audience. But the continuation of the speech was alarming: “Victory or defeat: we were always together against powerful occupants, whether they were Christians or Muslims, pagans or communists,” the Georgian President said, making a parallel with the recent Russian-Georgian war and meaning Russia by “powerful occupants.” And the Russian effort to establish a Eurasian Union was described by Saakashvili as an attempt to reconstruct the Soviet Union: “We live in 2012, and we should understand that in 2012 attempts to revive the corpse of the Soviet Union will fail.”

From the point of view of PR, Saakashvili’s speech was successful. But its clear anti-Russian character would be considered more positively in Poland or in the Baltic states, rather than in Baku. Azerbaijan follows a very pragmatic approach to relations with Russia. And it tries to avoid tricky moments.

Many stated their dissatisfaction with the fact that Saakashvili chose the floor of the Azerbaijani parliament for his anti-Russian speech. One deputy of the parliament, Fazil Agamaly, called Saakashvili’s speech “adventurous” and said: “With this speech he damaged Azerbaijani-Russian relations. He shouldn’t have done it from the political and ethicical points of view. He used the Azerbaijani parliament as an international platform for his anti-Russian interests. We have perfect relations with Russia. He shouldn’t do it. In his statement Saakashvili didn’t mention that Azerbaijan is occupied. As for the occupatuion policy of Russia in the Caucasus, the Russians came to the Caucasus at the invitation of Irakly II,” Agamaly said.

The same position is shared by many people in Baku. People are ready to develop cooperation with Georgia, but Baku doesn’t want to take political responsibility for the harsh statements of the Georgian President, especially in the current difficult political situation. First of all, Azerbaijan is concerned about the Iranian nuclear program and the crisis around it, which touches upon the interests of Russia in the South Caucasus. At the same time, tense negotiations on the further fate of the Gabala radio-location station are taking place. It seems that Baku is trying to take the heat out of relations with Tehran. The joint statement by the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran in Nakhchyvan on March 7th was a significant step towards a way out of the crisis in relations between Baku and Tehran.

The head of the social and political department under the presidential administration of Azerbaijan, Ali Gasanov, stated in an interview to ANS that “Azerbaijan wouldn’t let its territory be used against Iran… Our compatriots live in Iran. Anti-Iranian forces would never use Azerbaijan…” “In this country 40 million ethnic Azerbaijanis are living. How could we support launching bombs on the heads of our natives? It is absolutely impossible,” Ali Gasanov said. The defense minister of Azerbaijan arrived in  Iran on March 12. Probably the visit is aimed at clearing up the issue on buying Israeli armaments by Azerbaijan.

As for Russia, Azerbaijan is ready to develop relations with it under Vladimir Putin. President Aliyev congratulated him on his victory in the presidential elections and invited him to Baku. That is why the anti-Russian speech by Saakashvili was inappropriate for official Baku.

Finally, the attempt to present Russia as a “common enemy” for Azerbaijan and Georgia would be much more successful if Saakashvili would mention the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia. But the Georgian leader didn’t put Georgian-Armenian relations at risk for diplomatic and political reasons. Thus, Azerbaijan and Georgia are allies, but in some issues their interests do not correspond. And politicians shouldn’t forget about that.

Orkhan Sattarov. Exclusively to VK