Richard D. Kauzlarich commented on current situation in Azerbaijan and the region

 Richard D. Kauzlarich, a veteran American diplomat (ret), writer, and intelligence analyst, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and US Ambassador to Baku (1994-1997), commented on current situation in Azerbaijan and the region, during an interview with TURAN’s Washington DC correspondent.

    Amb. Kauzlarich currently serves as a Deputy Director of Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at the George Mason University’s School of Public Policy.

    Question: Just recently, President Obama announced his new candidate to the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan position. What will be the main challenges for Ambassador Morningstar in Baku?

    Answer. Dick Morningstar is an excellent choice.  He knows Azerbaijan and the senior officials from his lengthy involvement in energy negotiations. Obviously energy relations with Azerbaijan are very important. He understands, however, the many other challenges in our relations with Azerbaijan including security issues and human rights and governance. 

    Question: How do you see the process of this appointment? Will the Senate appoint him?

    Answer: I hope that the Senate moves quickly to confirm him as Ambassador but I do not know how long the process will take.

    Question: Recently, US and Azerbaijan have celebrated the twenty years anniversary of their diplomatic relationship - how does it look like today? There has been no US Ambassador in Baku (the Obama Administration has been only for one year represented on ambassador level in Baku during the past 4 years), no high-level visits to Washington DC and no annual democracy dialogs that were settled before. How is the bilateral relationship being driven today?

    Answer: US-Azerbaijan relations are good but more complex than 20 years ago was establishing diplomatic relations and ensuring Azerbaijan’s survival during some very difficult times.

    It’s hard to believe how far Azerbaijan has come in developing its economy thanks in large measure to the success of the Contract of the Century.

    On the other hand progress in democracy building, good governance and press freedom has not matched the economic progress and that is a shame for Azerbaijan.  The lack of a US Ambassador in Baku for an extended period has harmed the bilateral relationship and prevented dialog on a number of topics including human rights and democracy.

    Question: Almost on the second year of Arab Spring, we still hear that the dictators in. for example, Central Asia, Caucasus are continuing to threaten the democrats even more.

In Azerbaijan’s case, the latest Freedom House, Human Rights Watch and other organizations' reports indicate the country’s human rights record had deteriorated in 2011. Why is the situation getting worse instead of improving? What are the reasons behind that?

    Answer: Observing the Azerbaijan human rights situation from the US, I agree that it appears to have deteriorated. It is worse than during my time in Baku and more visible thanks to social media coverage of property seizure a eptable abuse of opposition journalists. Why it is getting worse, I cannot say.  Given the immense economic progress in Azerbaijan it ought to be improving. 

    Despite the increased visibility of Azerbaijan as a member of the Security Council and host of the Eurovision Song Contest, the government has not taken advantage of these opportunities to show the world it is improving its human rights record.

    Question: Azerbaijan has recently found itself in the middle of Iran-Israel confrontation, as Tehran accuses Baku of providing hiding grounds to the Israeli secret service agents. For decades Azeri officials have been capable of not taking side in Iran-West confrontations, which the government propaganda calls "balanced policy". Do you think it will be easy to "keep the balance" from now on? Or if you think the balance already is "broken", when did that happened?

    Answer: Iran is a neighbor – a difficult neighbor of Azerbaijan. It has never demonstrated in deeds, however, that it was a friend of Azerbaijan despite Azerbaijan’s proper, neighborly relations with Iran.

Azerbaijan cannot ignore the steps the international community has taken to prevent Iran from acquiring or developing nuclear weapons and be part of that international effort.

    Question: Why do you think Azerbaijan needs such amount of Israeli weapons? Baku officials say that it's only because of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Do you think the country is getting closer to war?

    Answer: I do not believe that a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan regarding Nagorno-Karabakh is likely or necessary as long as both countries remain in diplomatic contact through the Minsk Group process.

    What I worry is that rather than engaging in serious efforts to resolve the conflict through negotiations, both Armenia and Azerbaijan are using the long-standing invo nal community as an excuse not to reach an agreement that requires compromises on both sides.

    Question: On the other hand, a number of believers are being arrested by the police in Baku, tensions between the state and religious Muslims have mounted in recent months. Many in the country are afraid that the religion is replacing regular opposition. Where do you think Azerbaijan is going to end up with this policy?

    Answer: Radical Islam – mainly sponsored by Iran – was a concern during my time in Baku. The worry is that popular unhappiness with the state of Azerbaijani democracy, human rights violations and the extreme corruption will lead to the further growth of Islamic radicalism.

    Everyone in Azerbaijan – especially the government – should understand this threat and use Azerbaijan’s economic wealth to address social concerns as well as improve the human rights situation.