Report: U.S. warns Azerbaijan over Karabakh war threats

by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Monday November 09, 2009

Tina Kaidanow. Mkhitar Khachatryan / Photolure.

The State Department has denied reports that it warned Azerbaijan that the United States might move to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh's independence if Azerbaijan were to launch a new aggression against the Armenian region. The claim was published by an opposition Azerbaijani newspaper, Yeni Musavat, and publicized by other Azerbaijani and Russian media on November 3.

The Azerbaijani newspaper claimed that the warning came from Tina Kaidanow, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in charge of Caucasus policy, who visited Azerbaijan early last week.

The U.S. Embassy in Baku dismissed the report as "manufactured." Ms. Kaidanow "said nothing like that. Tina Kaidanow did speak at length about U.S. support for a peaceful resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," the embassy stated.

U.S. officials, particularly the Bush Administration's Assistant Secretary of State for Eurasia Dan Fried, have long cautioned Azerbaijan over its recurring threats to use military force, arguing that it would be unable to prevail in a new war against Armenians and risked fresh setbacks.