Azerbaijan: Baku Officials, US Diplomats Deny Cheney Blow-Up

Azerbaijani officials and US diplomats are vigorously denying reports that US Vice President Dick Cheney created a diplomatic incident during his recent visit to Baku.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant, citing anonymous Azerbaijani government sources, reported that Cheney became "extremely irritated" during his September 3 stop in Baku when his Azerbaijani hosts declined to make a clear statement of support for the proposed Nabucco pipeline. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The newspaper went on to allege that Cheney skipped a diplomatic reception held in his honor.

On September 9, the US Embassy steadfastly denied that Cheney engaged in undiplomatic behavior, according to a report distributed by the Turan news agency. "Not a single minute of the program of Cheney's visit to Baku was canceled or cut," an unidentified American diplomat told Turan.

"Everything that was planned - happened. The only change in the program was that Cheney's and President Ilham Aliyev's tête-à-tête talks lasted more than the allotted time," the source said. The diplomat also disputed the notion that Azerbaijani officials declined to back Nabucco.

Various top Azerbaijani government officials, including Energy Minister Natik Aliyev, have also publicly denied the version of events reported by Kommersant. Aliyev, along with Deputy Prime Minister Yagub Eyubov, have additionally expressed firm support for Nabucco.

While Cheney's behavior in Baku may be a matter of contention, no one is disputing the fact that President Aliyev had a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev shortly after the Cheney discussions, and that Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov traveled to Moscow for talks with top Russian officials.

When queried about the possible connection between the Cheney visit and Aliyev's telephone conversation with Medvedev, a top Aliyev aide, Novruz Mammadov, said only that "Azerbaijan is a leader in the region." Mammadov went on to insist in his comments to the APA news agency that "Azerbaijan is loyal to its principles and never uses its relations against others."

The Russian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, was circumspect about the September 7 talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Mammadyarov. A ministry statement mentioned only that the two diplomats discussed "the state of and prospects for Russian-Azerbaijani relations" and examined "the regional and international situation."

"The conversation passed in an open and friendly atmosphere that is intrinsic to Russian-Azerbaijani relations," the statement concluded.