By Edmond Y. Azadian
Azerbaijan’s political clout is growing in the Caucasus, despite internal dissensions as well as the beatings and jailing of the jour- nalists, because major powers are not interested in those finer matters, unless they became the necessary tools to meddle in the internal affairs of some targeted sovereign countries, marked for regime change.
Currently, Azerbaijan has been elected to the UN Security Council non-permanent membership and in a rotating system, it is presiding over the UN Security Council. If you need to figure out the moral bankruptcy of international politics, you have to watch the war-mongering President Ilham Aliyev, delivering his speech at the UN forum lambasting Armenians as aggressors and occupiers of Azeri territory.
Two major factors have contributed to Azerbaijan’s accession to the Security Council seat, defeating Slovenia: 1) It is reported that between $100 to $140 million were “donated” to developing countries to buy their votes. Islamic countries are regularly brain- washed at Islamic conferences that Christian Armenians have massacred their fellow Muslims in Karabagh, playing the religion card. Most vocal among the Islamic countries is Pakistan, under different administrations (Benazir Bhutto, Pervez Musharraf and the current rulers). They are natural supporters of their Muslim Azeri brothers, never mind that the Karabagh conflict is not a religious issue. Therefore, the Islamic bloc does not need any bribes to sup- port Azerbaijan’s candidacy. 2) Azerbaijan’s newfound friendship with Israel has also helped to rally many Western countries around that country. Azeris are playing an incendiary role in the region, providing their territory to Israel as a launching pad, in preparation for an eventual confrontation with Iran.
Interestingly, no binding resolutions can be adopted at the UN Security Council level on the Karabagh issue, because the co- chairs of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are also part of that body and they are not ready to relinquish their mediator’s role to the UN.
However, Azerbaijan and Turkey will gain a lot of public relations mileage every time they can bring the issue to the UN forum. This poses a very serious challenge to Armenia’s foreign policy establishment. Armenia has seasoned diplomats, beginning with Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian, and ending with Garen Nazarian, Armenia’s ambassador to the UN.
