“I think that this is a quite clear way of defending its interests for Azerbaijan, as that country is ready to do anything to thwart the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish protocols,” the political analyst Stepan Grigoryan told NEWS.am, commenting on Azerbaijan’s suspending its talks with Turkey and demanding that the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation be linked to the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.

“This is one of the steps by Azerbaijan. After all, agreeing or refusing to be involved in the Nabucco project, means not only pressure on Turkey, but, fist of all, on the positions of the United States and European Union – they that are interested in a success in the Armenian-Turkish normalization process. That is this pressure is being exerted in two directions – the West and the East – because the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation does not promise anything good to Azerbaijan,” Grigosyan said.

As to the probability of Azerbaijan’s pressure achieving its aim, he said: “Since the implementation of the Nabucco project is still problematic, Azerbaijan’s pressure is not in practice, but in ‘theory’. What is more, Turkey does not exert any serious efforts nor does it state its readiness to participate in the Nabucco project, and I am not sure that Azerbaijan’s blackmail will be effective. Even if the Nabucco project is realized, the pipeline can be constructed along a roundabout route, one that would bypass Azerbaijan – say a route from Central Asia through Iran. Sao I do not think that this instrument at Azerbaijan’s disposal will be so effective.”

The Azerbaijani political analyst Elgar Mamedov stated on March 23: “If we clearly see Armenian-Turkish reconciliation without any progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, Baku will not think for too long. The authorities may not plainly state this, but they may give up the Nabucco projects, as well as a number of other projects having to do with European energy security.”

T.P.