POLITICS
The Daily Caller publishes article on settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under President Trump's administration
Washington, January 24, AZERTAC
US-based The Daily Caller newspaper has published an article by Raoul Lowery-Contreras, the author of the recently published book "Murder in the mountains: War crime in Khojaly and Nagorno-Karabakh conflict".
Headlined "Dangerous Neighborhoods and The U.S", the article reads: "Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson is well acquainted with - the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) region, where his former company ExxonMobil now operates. Specifically, Tillerson is likely very knowledgeable about the situation that surrounds the oil-producing Azerbaijan, where ExxonMobil has been working for decades.
Azerbaijan has an ongoing 25-year-long conflict with Armenia, which resulted in refugees (over 1 million) that were driven from their homes in Armenia as well as in western Azerbaijan that Armenia occupied in 1992-94.
As President Donald John Trump enters the White House and Rex Tillerson takes over the State Department, pending confirmation, will the new administration pay more attention to the South Caucasus region?
The April 2016 armed hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan that resulted in the death of hundreds of soldiers and civilians within just 4 days clearly showed the vulnerability of the current status quo (no war, no peace) in Nagorno-Karabakh. A new outbreak of violence in the conflict zone could easily escalate into full-blown combat with devastating consequences for the entire region as well as for the energy security interests of the West. It is enough to mention that the two strategic oil and gas pipelines run only a few miles from the conflict zone.
Will the new U.S. administration pay attention to the former Soviet Union's longest-running conflict? Being as well-informed as they are of the region, they should. A resolution to such a protracted conflict that has killed 30,000, wounded 100,000 and made over 1 million people refugees would definitely make the region more stable and prove that President Trump's "Art of the Deal" should not be underestimated."
Yusif Babanli
Special Correspondent