Bryza Criticizes US Policy on Karabakh
ASBAREZ
Monday, May 7th, 2012
Former US Ambassador to Baku Matthew Bryza
WASHINGTON – Former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza last week
criticized President Obama’s policy on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
saying the administration has spent more time on Turkey-Armenia
normalization to the detriment of the Karabakh conflict.
`Washington lost its way in the last couple of years,’ said Bryza,
expressing his criticism while speaking last week at the Jamestown
Foundation.
Bryza said that the Obama administration had spent all its energy on
the normalization of ties between Turkey and Armenia and did not show
any effort for progress in the negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. He asserted that normalization between Turkey and Armenia
would not possible without progress in the Karabakh conflict.
`This [Turkey-Armenia] normalization would be great if it’s
achievable. But it’s not achievable and plus it negatively influences
Nagorno-Karabakh peace process,’ he said adding adding, `No matter how
much we wanted Armenia-Turkey rapprochement, instead we’ve got
nothing’.
`Had we put all of our eggs into a solution to Nagorno-Karabakh, we
could have achieved both. Instead, we got nothing,’ Bryza stated.
Bryza took it upon himself to ensure that Azerbaijan would not
initiate any military confrontation. However, if `the ice [over the
negotiation process] does not break,’ the possibilities for such a
confrontation would increase.
Bryza also pointed to the lack of trust between Armenia and
Azerbaijan. In his `that trust isn’t going to come until the US leads
it.’
Since leaving office in January, Bryza has lived in Istanbul and is
the director of the Tallinn, Estonia-based International Center for
Defense Studies. He has also taken to the interview circuit, telling
primarily the Turkish media that Turkey-Armenia normalizations should
have been preconditioned on Karabakh peace and blaming the Armenian
lobby in the US – especially the Armenian National Committee of
America – for undermining his nomination and prospects of returning to
Baku as the top US diplomat.
From: A. Papazian