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Robert Cutler: â€œUS state energy policy towards Azerbaijan has been influenced by the Democratic Partyâ€™s internal need to consider the views of the Armenian lobbyâ€

21 May 2010 13:46 (UTC +04:00)

That by itself makes strong pursuit of any bilateral policy more difficultâ€, - told APAâ€™s Washington correspondent Dr. Robert M. Cutler, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies of Carleton University characterizing the current state of US-Azerbaijani relations.

According to him, â€œin this connection it bears remarking that the Armenian National Committee of America intervened publicly, in August last year through an open letter to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton requesting a meeting with her, against the nomination as US ambassador to Azerbaijan of a career foreign service officer, as had been rumored in the press, having nearly two decades experience in Caspian Sea basin energy mattersâ€.

â€œCombined with the US Administrationâ€™s fumbling of the question of its attitude towards a resolution in a House of Representatives committee labeling the mass death of Armenians during the First World War a "genocide", it is reasonable to suppose that US state energy policy towards Azerbaijan has been influenced by the Democratic Partyâ€™s internal need to consider the views of the Armenian lobby, which besides its influence on the national level inside the Beltway is especially strong in politics in California, a key state for domestic electoral politicsâ€ â€“ Mr. Cutler added.

A famous analyst also pointed out that, In January 2010 Armeniaâ€™s Constitutional Court placed major limitations on the implementation of the terms of the protocols and also clarified certain interpretations that Armenian state policy is now obliged to respect:

â€œIt is highly unlikely that the Turkish Grand National Assembly will ratify the protocols unless the Constitutional Court revisits its decision, which is in turn itself highly unlikely. Turkey now says that it will ratify the accords with Armenia only if Armenia makes concessions on Karabakh, a linkage that Armenia rejects, and which the decision of its Constitutional Court excludesâ€.

Mr. Cutler believes that, the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement was motivated in part by Washington under the influence of domestic US politics, based upon the impression that its success assist in the resolution of pipeline routing questions by generally defusing tension in the region.

â€œIt has proven impossible to accomplish this in the absence of a Karabakh settlement in which, necessarily, Azerbaijan must play an important role, as it has done over nearly two decades through the Minsk Group process of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)â€, â€“ he stated.