Retired US Admiral: Azerbaijan is our key ally

Baku. 13 March. REPORT.AZ/ In light of Russia’s expanding relationship with Iran Azerbaijan’s independence and sovereignty are invaluable to American interests

Of all the countries that emerged from the former Soviet Union, few are as important to US long term strategic interests in the South Caucasus region than Azerbaijan.

Report informs, James A. Lyons, retired admiral in the United States Navy, who served as Commander, US Pacific Fleet says in article “Azerbaijan, a key ally” published by The Washington Times.

“Of all the countries that emerged from the former Soviet Union, few are as important to US long term strategic interests in the South Caucasus region than Azerbaijan”, article says.

"With its fine balancing of foreign policy toward the world’s major powers, Azerbaijan neither aspires to join NATO nor the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization. Nonetheless, an independent Azerbaijan is an obstacle to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goal of reconstituting the former Soviet controlled areas under Moscow’s domination

Partnership with Georgia and Turkey - with strong Western support and participation in building the strategic Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) gas pipelines has been critical in weakening Moscow’s energy blackmail stranglehold on Europe.

There is no question the Caucasus and Azerbaijan in particular, hold great geostrategic importance as a transit corridor for global resources such as oil and natural gas, as well as the intersection of important transportation routes between all areas. US and Azerbaijan relations continue to grow, but there are efforts to disrupt this partnership", it reads.

"These largely come from Azerbaijan’s neighbor Armenia and America’s large and influential Armenian lobby. Let’s face facts, Armenia has not been able to escape from Russia’s de facto control.

In the chaos surrounding the dissolution of Soviet Union in December 1991, Armenian nationalist forces saw their opportunity to tear Nagorno-Karabakh away from Azerbaijan and join it to Armenia. Unfortunately, this also meant the ethnic cleansing of all Azerbaijanis from the coveted territory. Khojaly, population 7,000, mostly Azerbaijanis, was in the way. The true story of Sumgayit and Khojaly has been difficult to get out due to a very effective Armenian lobby, both in the US and Europe which has cast a cloud over US-Azerbaijan relations. This disinformation campaign must be exposed to prevent any further deterioration of US-Azerbaijan relations", article says.