AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT LASHES OUT AT "ARMENIAN NATIONALISTS"

March 30, 2006
Eurasia Net
Mina Muradova and Rufat Abbasov (freelance reporters in Baku)

Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, has lashed out at Armenia, claiming that "Armenian ideologists-nationalists" have pursued a policy of aggression against Azeris for "about 200 years." Aliyev’s vitriolic rhetoric indicates that the window for a negotiated solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is slamming shut.
[...]
In recent weeks, Aliyev and other officials have repeatedly threatened that Azerbaijan might resort to military action if Baku determined that Karabakh peace negotiations stood no chance of success. In comments made March 27 during a ceremony at the National Security Ministry, and broadcast by ANS television, Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan’s rapid economic growth, driven by the development of the country’s abundant energy reserves, was enabling the government to embark on a far-reaching military build-up. He added that the potential for Karabakh negotiations "has not yet been exhausted."
[...]
In addition to the build-up, Azerbaijan appears intent on mobilizing the Azeri diaspora to join in an information offensive to promote Baku’s interests around the globe, including a Karabakh settlement that is favorable to Baku. Azerbaijani officials used the second Congress of World Azerbaijanis, held in mid March, to issue a call for rapid consolidation of diaspora groups in order to present a unified view of Azerbaijan and its policy aims to the outside world.
[...]
Some delegates to the congress acknowledged that Azeri diaspora groups had not done a good job in promoting Baku’s policies. "The Azerbaijani diaspora is badly organized because it is young," Azad Seidov, head of the Azeri national cultural center in the Russian city Surgut, told EurasiaNet. "We do not have a common plan of action and Azerbaijani communities in foreign countries are working on their own. We have to unite in order to recover our lands, cultural heritage and customs."

Other representatives of diaspora groups confirmed that the consolidation effort was intended to influence the Karabakh peace process. Fahri Kerimli, chairman of board of the Romanian-Azerbaijani Cultural Assembly, said unification would assist in the "neutralization of efforts of Armenian diaspora around the world against Azerbaijan, Azerbaijanis and Turkey." A major aim of the intended information offensive, Kerimli added, was to recast Azerbaijan as the victim in the Karabakh conflict, dispelling the widely held view at present that Baku was the aggressor.

Seidov and other delegates expressed interest in coordinating actions with representatives of Turkish diaspora groups. "State interests ... made it necessary for the Azerbaijani and Turkish diasporas to cooperate – to jointly operate to solve vital problems," Ibrahimov, the state committee chief, said.

In 2002 the Azerbaijan goverment decided instead of working on peace, to launch an international PR campaign. See HERE.

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.