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• Analysis: Bryza as Ambassador to Azerbaijan bodes ill for NKR self-determination

Byrza and the entire lot at the failed-US-State Department can go to hell....

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The main issue in this connection is: how can Ambassador Bryza impact the negotiation process considering his close relations with Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s political circles and his kindred relations with a famous Turkish family?

The recent hearings at the US Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs during which Bryza, as the nominee for US Ambassador in Azerbaijan, was asked impartial questions related to his partial position on the Karabakh issue settlement, have made this issue more urgent.

On June 20 the Washington Times published an article citing the concerns voiced by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) over Bryza’s close relations with Azerbaijani and Turkish political circles and fuel-communication companies.

Bryza has many levers of influence on the region, and regardless of his mission – Minsk Group (MG) mediator or US Ambassador to Azerbaijan – he is a constant presence in the South Caucasus, and has been for many years.

As deputy head of the US State Department’s office of Europe and Eurasia and deputy assistant to the Secretary of State he has constantly worked with Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

During the Senate hearings, Senator Robert Menendez reminded him that the US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans was released of his duties after using the phrase “Armenian Genocide”. “What was your role in firing Evans” he asked Bryza, who, in response, said he had no involvement in that issue.

Bryza was also asked the reasons for his firm conviction that Nagorno-Karabakh has to be part of Azerbaijan.

Right from the moment of his appointment as MG mediator Bryza lobbied this option, and in his interview to the BBC he candidly said the principle of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity was dominant over all other principles, including that of nations’ right to self-determination.

Senator Menendez asked Bryza: “Isn’t the principle of national self-determination among the most important principles in America's policy?”

Bryza did not give a direct answer to that question, and made a reference to the position of the then Vice-President Dick Cheney saying that earlier, even before his interview to the BBC, Cheney said in Baku that the settlement of this conflict had to meet the principles of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

Bryza marked his joining the OCSE MG in 2005 by presenting the so-called Framework Agreement, which, as he said, “calls for the withdrawal of the Armenian troops from those territories of Azerbaijan where they are currently quartered”.

It was during the time period of Bryza’s mission as a mediator that the Madrid Principles came up, providing for a new status to Nagorno Karabakh, but only under the condition of being an indispensable part of Azerbaijan. That was in November, 2007.

“If we recognize the independence of this or that territorial unit every time the issue of self-determination is raised, the other norm of the Helsinki Act will be violated – the principle of territorial integrity,” stated Bryza back then.

Bryza's appearance at OSCE MG activated the operation of the International Crisis Group (ICG): the recommendations of this group often influence the final decisions on this or that issue.

“As Deputy Secretary of State I often used the ICG products. Reports compiled by this group and their analytical researches, as a rule, had the kind of information that was impossible to receive from other sources. So, no wonder their recommendations played their part in the process of making final political decisions,” said Strobe Talbott.

With Bryza’s appointment as the American co-chair of Minsk Group the ICG reports grew more and more rigorous and unambiguous.

In September, 2005, ICG made public the report text on Nagorno Karabakh, which said in part: “Nagorno Karabakh wants independence and grounds its capacity to build a sovereign state by having a democratically elected government in accordance to the terms and standards of statehood. However, from the international perspective Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan… Nagorno Karabakh is one of the most militarized communities on earth.”

It was this report that prompted the Azeri authorities to start making more radical appeals, and, what’s important is that Bryza never once criticized Azerbaijan’s bellicose rhetoric.

Bryza's constant presence in the region (now as the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan) will result in an even more active work of the Crisis Group, the position of which is based on the condition of Nagorno Karabakh being part of Azerbaijan.