Turkey-Azerbaijan relations still strong

When Turkey decided to launch an initiative to normalize its relations with Armenia in May 2009, Azerbaijan perceived it as a betrayal by the Turkish-Azeri alliance and their brotherly relations based on sharing the same ethnic background. The Azeri officials still insist to this day that Turkey did not inform them about that initiative in advance, and that they learned it from the media like everyone else. That caused a significant turmoil in Azeri confidence in Turkey. Ankara was perceived as acting solely on its own national interests, trading off the territories in mountainous Karabakh that have been occupied by Armenia since 1991. And this perception of Turkey really struck a sensitive nerve in the Azeri society.

Perhaps these two countries won’t ever trust each other as they did prior to this incident, but, nevertheless, it has also become clear that no crisis between Turkey and Azerbaijan can leave a permanent scar in this pivotal relationship. Although the Turkey-Armenia normalization efforts are long gone, technically speaking, Ankara did not actually cause any harm to Azerbaijan in the end. What’s noteworthy is that Azerbaijan started to pay more attention to balancing and improving its relationships with its powerful neighbors like Russia and Iran. It’s as if the Azeri government is trying to implement Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s failed attempt for Turkey's “having zero problems with neighbors” policy.

“Today, Azerbaijan’s initiatives in regional affairs are of great importance not only for our country, but also for the region. Our economic and political initiatives pursue one goal: first of all, to enable the people of Azerbaijan to live even better,” Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, told a crowd of nearly 1,000 people last week, Oct. 31, during the third Baku International Humanitarian Conference. “On the other hand, we want to be in constant communication with neighboring nations. The purpose of our regional initiatives is to further strengthen our ties with neighboring countries. Today this is the case. Azerbaijan has very sincere and constructive relations with its neighbors. Our relations with all countries are based on a very sound footing. These are relations of friendship and partnership, equal relationships.”

Matt Bryza, the former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, however, argues that they’re not really multitasking. “They have the opposite ambition of Turkey,” he told Al-Monitor. “They’re extremely vulnerable to outside intervention, and they’re trying to do the best they can to save themselves from any problems.” He added: “Azerbaijan’s survival as an independent and sovereign state is dependent on the pipelines that physically and economically interconnect it to Turkey and the Western world.”