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â€œSouth Caucasus Fault lines: Security, Energy and US interestâ€ conference takes place in Washington

24 February 2010 09:27 (UTC +04:00)

Washington. Isabel Levine - APA. Nagorno-Karabakh issue, US policy on Unresolved Conflicts, energy securities and other regional problems in the South Caucasus have been discussed during the meeting between the top US analysts and Azerbaijani, Turkish officials in Washington DC, according to APAâ€™s Washington correspondent.

On February 23, 2010, â€œSouth Caucasus Fault lines: Security, Energy and US interestâ€ conference was held at Center for Strategic International Studies.

During the panels of the conference the participants were briefed about the strategic importance of Azerbaijan for the United States.

Elin Suleymanov, the Consulate General of Azerbaijan to Los-Angeles and Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academyâ€™s Advanced Foreign Service Program Director Fariz Ismailzadein particular stressed that, Azerbaijani views of regional cooperation are very simple.

â€œWe have always supported the energy security. BTE and BTC are the good examples of thatâ€ â€“said E.Suleymanov.

Speaking about the regional developments, Mr.Suleymanov reminded that, Azerbaijan is not opposing the regional ties, including normalization between Turkey and Armenia. But the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is still not resolved.

â€œWithin few days it is the anniversary of the Khojaly massacreâ€, - he reminded.

Thomas De Waal, analyst of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace stressed that, there are one or two phrases that are still used in the region which is sounds â€œcontroversialâ€.

â€œI think avoiding them is a good thing to do. One of those phrases â€“ frozen conflicts, which I spent many years arguing that they are not frozen, for example, the South Ossetia conflict is not frozen. So those are unresolved conflicts. Another thing is the unrecognized territories. Nagorno-Karabakh is not recognized even by Armenia, but I think we should stop generalizing and look at each conflict separatelyâ€.

According to the analyst, in Nagorno-Karabakh in comparison to the other conflict the clichÃ© that Russia is blocking the negotiation over the conflict is not true anymore; the Minsk Group says they have a very transparent negotiation now. â€œAnd solving Nagorno-Karabakh is very desirableâ€.

Stephen Blank, senior expert of US the Army War College and other US analysts mentioned that, local dynamics in the South Caucasus is very important and each conflict should be treated individually.

According to Mr.Blank, Azerbaijan is very important for US energy and security policy.