Olcott: Azerbaijani Elections ‘Disappointing,’ Pressure Mounts on Aliyev

November 7, 2005
Council on Foreign Relations
Interviewee: Martha Brill Olcott
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman

Martha Brill Olcott, an expert on the Caspian region that includes Azerbaijan, [...].
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Olcott was interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman, consulting editor for cfr.org, on November 7, 2005.
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We have major oil interests in Azerbaijan, yes?
We do. Azerbaijan's oil is being developed by an international consortium that includes BP, which is the successor of Amoco and BP, so there is considerable interest. But more important is the recent opening of the Azerbaijan-Georgian-Turkish pipeline. Azerbaijan is the key to the export of Caspian oil and gas to both Russia and Iran and that pipeline is not completed but it is now partially open. There's no question that the construction will go through to the end, now.

Of course, they also have a small contingent of troops in Iraq.
They do and there have always been rumors that the Azeris would like a U.S. base but one has to remember we still have the Nagorno-Karabakh problem in Azerbaijan and Armenia where there is a frozen peace or frozen war. So there are practical restrictions on how close the United States and Azerbaijan relationship and security is able to get.

The United States politically can't do anything that would really upset the Armenians, can it?
No, and that's one of the reasons a base in Azerbaijan would be very hard to imagine in the current climate. So because of that, there isn't very much the Azeris can promise to placate Washington.
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Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.