DAILY SAYS OUTGOING US ENVOY FAILED TO ESTABLISH DEMOCRACY IN AZERBAIJAN
Zerkalo, Baku
25 Mar 06
Excerpt from Rauf Mirqadirov’s report in Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo
on 25 March headlined “Reno Harnish leaves an unenviable legacy”.
Reno Harnish is very satisfied with his work as the US ambassador
to Azerbaijan. His mission had to expire in the summer. However,
in connection with his appointment to a higher post in the State
Department, he will end his mission before the due date, the head of
the embassy’s public relations department, Jonathan Henick, has told
APA news agency.
[Passage omitted: about former US envoys to Azerbaijan]
As for Reno Harnish, one can assume that most likely he has failed
to “live up” to the expectations. The diplomat tried to be on both
sides of the fence, which is impossible in countries with “transition
democracies”, just as it is impossible to be “half-pregnant”. As a
result, [he] has often been caught in the “crossfire”.
>From the point of view of the global geopolitical interests of the
USA, the launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline can be regarded
as his achievement, even though to be precise, the implementation
of the project is rather the achievement of the untiring Steven Mann
[US envoy on Caspian issues].
And now more details about, let us say, shortcomings.
First, Reno Harnish failed to realize the idea of establishing
democracy in Azerbaijan through evolution. Both the 2003 presidential
election and the 2005 parliamentary election ended in a post-election
confrontation between the opposition and the ruling elite with
very harsh consequences, that is with an ordinary brawl. It must
be mentioned for the sake of justice that the 2003 events cannot be
entirely “credited” to the incumbent US ambassador because he came
to Azerbaijan literally on the eve of the presidential election. But
the 2005 parliamentary election which practically all international
organizations described as “wasted opportunities” is fully Harnish’s
“achievement”. The US ambassador was one of the active and extremely
interested political players on whose “advice” mass rallies were
scheduled and cancelled.
Before the [6 November 2005 parliamentary] election representatives
of the ruling elite criticized him bitterly and some members of
parliament even proposed to declare the US ambassador persona non
grata. Subsequently, the opposition also decided to “boycott” its
former “patron” but it did not last long. In a nutshell, Azerbaijan
did not set an example of an evolutionary development of democracy
to the whole world. Democratic processes in Azerbaijan following the
parliamentary election turned out to be at the same level or most
likely even at a much lower level than at the time when Reno Harnish
took the helm as US ambassador in Baku.
Second, attempts have failed to involve Azerbaijan fully in the
US sphere of interests. On the contrary, during Harnish’s tenure,
Azerbaijan’s foreign policy became more “balanced”, that is more
pro-Russian. What is important is that efforts have failed, at least
for now, to convince Baku to sign a peace agreement on the settlement
of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagornyy Karabakh, which
is the main obstacle to achieving Washington’s geopolitical aim of
bringing the South Caucasus under complete US control.
Third, plans to establish a powerful pro-American, pro-democracy lobby
within Azerbaijan’s ruling elite have completely failed. Harnish’s
“protege”, [former] Minister of Economic Development Farhad Aliyev,
who was “put in charge” of this role, is on “lengthy leave” [jailed]
now. Therefore, it is a bit surprising that “Mr Reno Harnish is fully
satisfied with his work as the US ambassador to Azerbaijan”. Briefly,
Reno Harnish has left an unenviable legacy to his successor.
But we should note for the sake of justice that Harnish is one of a few
US ambassadors who was very open for the press. He, unlike Escudero,
at least tried to explain Washington’s actions and statements,
including those that were highly unpopular in Azerbaijan, even though
most often he tried to behave like a real “governor-general”.