Thomas Goltz is the author of several books, including, “Azerbaijan Diary”, which cronicals Azerbaijan’s early years of independence following the break up of the Soviet Union.
But in 1994 came the so-called “Deal of the Century.” Major foreign oil companies and the industry that supports them took renewed interest in Azerbaijan, culminating in the opening of the 1,071 mile-long Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that linked the Caspian to the eastern Mediterranean. Once snidely referred to as a “pipeline to nowhere,” the $4 billion line officially opened on July 13, 2006 to international applause and the first physical symbol of a new “East-West Energy Corridor.” For Azerbaijan, the opening of the pipeline was a vindication of Heydar Aliyev’s vision of securing Baku as the new “hub” of the Caspian energy sector, with multiple “spokes” running to all points of the compass. It has planted Azerbaijan squarely on the world map, both as an economic entity and a political player. Indeed, on a foreign policy level, the period between 1993 and 2006 saw an extraordinary expansion of Azerbaijani diplomacy, which has grown from a few run-down rooms with few computers on a side street in central Baku to the hustle and bustle of the current Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which coordinates information flow from at least four dozen foreign embassies, many of which double as interest sections in which organizations like the UN or OSCE maintain their headquarters. The most recent success of this policy of persistent, diplomatic outreach was the unanimous passing of a United Nations’ General Assemble resolution “urgently” calling for an investigation in the causes of fires that have ravaged the occupied territories in and around Karabakh last summer. When compared to 1992, when the notorious Article 907 “rider” to the Freedom Support Act restricting U.S. aid to Azerbaijan was attached in the U.S. Congress with scarcely an objection, one can cite real progress. Progress is also seen with Azerbaijan’s decision to offer peace-keeping troops to international missions in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, as well as the pending decision to send soldiers to Lebanon. The young state on the shores of the Caspian is starting to make waves, successfully playing a balancing act between regional and global powers, while cultivating a wide variety of ties with other countries and international institutions, ranging from UNESCO to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to maintaining friendly relations with both Iran and Israel. Unlike the bleak situation of 1991, the new Republic of Azerbaijan is looking boldly into the future, a butterfly emerging from its cocoon.
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