Interaction between Azerbaijan and the CSTO in 1994-2011

After gaining its independence,Azerbaijan found itself engaged in the military conflict with Armenia caused by Nagorny Karabakh territory. About 20 % of Azerbaijanilands had been under the Armenian occupation by the spring of 1994. Several months earlier Azerbaijan, hoping Russian would help to settlethe conflict, joined the CST. Moreover, joining the Organization Azerbaijan counted upon the aid the Organization could deliver the state inthe sphere of military forces reforming and the opportunity to buy the modern army system from Russia. However, the foreign policy ofthen-Russian government regarding the South Caucasia tended to be one-dimensional and short-sided. Russia continued to support Armenia,building up Armenian armaments. As a result, hopes of Azerbaijan that "the justice would be restored" were scattered and the interest ofAzerbaijan towards the CST faded. At the same time NATO started to expand its activity engaging post-Soviet republics in the sphere of itsinfluence. Notably, in 1998 Russia was not against improving its military capacity using the money delivered from the west. Under thesecircumstances it was difficult for Moscow to persuade Baku that participation in the CST would meet national demands of Azerbaijan.Therefore, Azerbaijan gave up the attempts to gain real and not only declared cooperation with the CST and Russia and started to get closerto western states and other countries concerning the military construction. In April 1999 Azerbaijan, together with Georgia and Uzbekistan,denounced participation in the CST, which was undergoing the transformation into CSTO at that time. However, withdrawal from the organizationdidn't mean that Azerbaijan parted with this structure and with all its member-states. On the contrary, Baku started to build up thedeepness of the dialogue in the military sphere with all CSTO member-states, with the exception of Armenia. Arranging mutually beneficialbilateral military-political cooperation with the CSTO member-states promoted the opinion articulated by Azerbaijani experts that the statemay return to the CSTO. However, pro-Armenian statements of the CSTO officials made Azerbaijan leave the CSTO. And though it is clearthat leaders of the CSTO member-states won't allow using military potential of the organization against Azerbaijan in case of hostilities renewalin Nagorny Karabakh, nevertheless, in May 2011 Baku joined the Non-Aligned Movement. For the majority it was a surprise, thoughAzerbaijani leader has recently repeatedly stated that the country was not going to enter any military bloc in the nearest future. But it's evidentthat the plexus of the relations with the CSTO made Azerbaijan act like this.

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