Orkhan Sattarove, the head of the European bureau of Vestnik Kavkaza
A serious diplomatic scandal occurred between Baku and Washington. Criticism of the presidential elections in Azerbaijan by U.S. Department of State and the fact that Barack Obama hasn’t congratulated Ilham Aliyev on his third presidential term yet worsened already less than perfect Azerbaijani-American relations.
The head of the presidential administration Ramiz Mekhtiyev who usually prefers not to communicate with the mass media has met journalists from leading periodicals. Mekhtiyev made statements which appeared to be sensational in the context of the elections. The top official who is thought to be one of key figures in the country expressed his disappointment and indignation on the estimation of the presidential elections in the country by the observing mission of OSCE/ODIHR and U.S. Department of State. Criticizing the Americans for double standards and insincerity in partnership with Azerbaijan, Mekhtiyev doubted the adequateness of the report by OSCE/ODIHR – the organization which works watching at the U.S., according to him. “We don’t accept the estimation of the presidential elections by U.S. Department of State and OSCE/ODIHR and believe this is a shameful fact, dependent and unfair treatment by these official structures. The ODIHR has never given such a negative view of elections in Azerbaijan. The facts which were included into their report were the results of guesses, cheating, and lies which were actively spread by representatives of the National Council,” Mekhtiyev said. According to the official, Azerbaijan had doubts about inviting observers from the ODIHR, but made the step on the recommendation of the U.S.: “We remembered that the organization always gave a dependent estimation of elections in Azerbaijan and acted according to a certain order, we didn’t want to invite it to the presidential elections. However, the Azerbaijani side invited OSCE/ODIHR due to a recommendation by America. Now it appears that reports by Department of State and OSCE/ODIHR are identical. It shows breach of confidence. The position by OSCE/ODIHR gives us reasons for breaking up cooperation with the organization.”
However, the most interesting thing in the interview was inside information from Mekhtiyev that American officials “recommended” the Azerbaijani government to falsify results of voting for the opposition candidate Jamil Hasanly, as if he got 25% of votes. “Officials from the U.S. recommended us to give 25% of votes to a representative of the National Council and keep 74-75% to Ilham Aliyev – in this case the estimation by Department of State would be balanced. Following the logic, if we didn’t do it, we would receive a negative estimation anyway. The result is known. It seems to be not a friendly recommendation, but a strict warning,” Mekhtiyev said.
U.S. Department of State quickly responded to the interview by the head of the presidential administration and stated that his statements on “recommended” results of the elections were a lie. The diplomatic fight could come to an end without serious consequences for bilateral relations. However, tension seems to reach the highest level. The Azerbaijani side didn’t ignore the disproof of the Americans and decided to state certain names. The authorities focused on the American ambassador in Azerbaijan, Richard Morningstar – the diplomat has always thought to be friendly to the Azeri government. “The figures mentioned by Ramiz Mekhtiyev were voiced by the U.S. ambassador at meetings with the government of Azerbaijan,” the head of the political analysis and information support of the presidential administration of Azerbaijan, Elnur Aslanov, confirmed in an interview to 1news.az. A few days ahead of the incident, there was another unpleasant moment which involved Morningstar. According to the press service of the Defense Minister of Azerbaijan, the American ambassador stated at the meeting with the minister that “the elections have passed, and the winner is Ilham Aliyev” and actually he shut down all political speculations on recognition or non-recognition of the Azerbaijani elections by the U.S. However, the U.S. embassy decided to make a statement that the words by the ambassador were misinterpreted. This time the Azerbaijani side also resisted America and stated that it had an audio record of the talk and the press service of the ministry didn’t misinterpret the message. The American colleagues didn’t demand a demonstration of the audio.
The current anti-American rhetoric can be compared with the sharp reaction by Baku on active American lobbying of the Armenian-Turkish peacemaking in 2008 without consideration of the Nagorno-Karabakh topic. Then, in 2009 Ilham Aliyev even rejected meeting with Barack Obama.
It is notable that in the context of worsened relations between Baku and Washington the mass media is again discussing the topic of whether Azerbaijan should take the European and Western course or the Eurasian course, i.e. a radical turn toward Russia. Vladimir Putin’s summer visit to Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani’s energy policy which prefers to prevent development of the project of Nabucco to avoid competition with the Russian pipeline of South Stream, deliberation of the question on association with the EU – all these factors give an opportunity for Baku to turn north.
