While Armenia is grappling with the fallout from the February 18 presidential voting and trying to accommodate a newly energized opposition, its two hostile neighbors, Azerbaijan and Turkey, are entangled in a feud with each other over the Armenian election.

A year ago, in a column titled, “Who Rules Turkey: Erdogan or Aliyev?” I expressed my astonishment that Turkey was allowing Azerbaijan to repeatedly interfere in its sovereign policies, as in the case of the Armenia-Turkey Protocols. Now there are two fresh examples of Azerbaijan’s unwarranted interference in Turkish decision-making.

No sooner had Turkish Airlines announced that it would distribute a copy of Agos, a bilingual Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper to its international passengers, Fikret Sadikov, an Azeri professor and political analyst, objected to its dissemination, calling it an “absolutely absurd and irresponsible gesture.”

Sadikov also complained that Turkish President Abdullah Gul had sent a congratulatory letter to Pres. Serzh Sargsyan for his re-election. “Such steps would cause great sorrow both in Turkey and Azerbaijan,” Sadikov told Trend, an Azeri publication. Prof. Sadikov’s objection was part of a larger campaign orchestrated by Azeri leaders, accusing Turkey of undermining their efforts to pressure Armenia into making territorial concessions regarding Artsakh (Karabagh).

Here are some of the objections leveled at Pres. Gul by leading Azeri officials:

— “Turkey must clarify the issue of Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s sending congratulations to his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan,” stated Novruz Mammadov, chief foreign policy of Azerbaijan President.

— “This hurt us…. It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that no matter how many signs of politeness may be expressed to Armenia, it uses it for other purposes,” stated Oqtay Asadov, Speaker of Azerbaijan’s Parliament.

— “We didn’t expect this…. It is regrettable that the President of Turkey, a strategic partner of Azerbaijan, hastily congratulated Sargsyan, who was elected as a result of fraud,” stated Mubariz Gurbanli, member of Parliament and Deputy Executive Secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party.

— “Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s sending of congratulations before the official announcement of the results is the wrong step. This is the continuation of Turkey’s zero-problem policy with neighboring states. But, actually this policy failed. With this policy, Turkey’s relations with most of the states in the region have become tense. Moreover, the Turkish President’s congratulations to Sargsyan contradict the interests of Azerbaijan. At a time when the international community is expressing views that an illegitimate government exists in Armenia, the Turkish government sealed the legitimacy of the Armenian leadership. This is wrong and regrettable,” stated Arif Hajili, Central Executive Board Member of Azerbaijan’s Musavat Party.

— “If someone thinks that Armenia and Armenians will give up the so-called genocide and territorial claims thanks to these steps, they are mistaken,” stated Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Chairman of the United Azerbaijan Popular Front Party.

— “Pres. Gul’s congratulations of Serzh Sargsyan was a hasty decision,” stated Nizami Jafarov, Parliament member and head of the working group on inter-parliamentary relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey.

— “This step will not gain Turkey positive assessment by the global community. Turkey can be sure of it. Congratulating Serzh Sargsyan was a hasty step. This is not in the national interest of either Azerbaijan or Turkey,” stated Parliament member Fazail Aghamali.

— “Serzh Sargsyan is Turkey’s enemy. He accuses Turkey of so-called Armenian genocide and makes territorial claims. It is not clear why Abdullah Gul decided to be one of the first to congratulate Sargsyan on his re-election. This is unacceptable,” stated Vafa Guluzade, foreign policy advisor to the former president of Azerbaijan.

Rather than lashing back at the undue Azeri interference in Turkey’s decisions, the Turkish Foreign Ministry sheepishly explained that Pres. Gul’s congratulatory letter to Pres. Sargsyan was “a diplomatic courtesy and a gesture of goodwill.” Gul had also congratulated Sargsyan’s first presidential election in 2008.

How long will the all-powerful Turkish government, which projects its political, economic, and military clout far and wide, tolerate Azerbaijan’s repeated interference in Turkey’s policies? When will Ankara dare to tell Baku to mind its own business and make it clear that Turkey will not subordinate its national interests to Azerbaijan’s self-centered wishes?

Armenia is fortunate that, while it is dealing with the repercussions of the presidential election, its two hostile neighbors, Azerbaijan and Turkey, are busy feuding with each other!

Money may help solve some problems, but does not solve them all. And sometimes it backfires!

Azerbaijan is the perfect example of a filthy rich country using its billions of petrodollars to win over foreign politicians and individuals in all walks of life in an attempt to improve its shoddy image around the world. In fact, the term “caviar diplomacy” was specially coined to describe the “goodies” that Azeri officials regularly and generously distribute to achieve their sinister purposes.

For example, Baku paid $5 million to Mexico City to renovate a park on condition that the statue of former President Heydar Aliyev be displayed in that prominent location. After Mexican activists became aware of this unseemly deal, the dictator’s statue was dismantled and unceremoniously dumped in storage.

Azeri officials are finding out that not everyone can be bought and there still are some honorable people in this world who cannot be bribed! One such person with impeccable integrity is Peter Savodnik of the New York Times. Earlier this month, the American journalist was invited to Baku by Ibrahim Ibrahimov, an Azeri multi-billionaire, in order to get the New York Times to write a puff piece on his gargantuan construction project.

Unimpressed by the excesses of the nouveau riche Azeri oligarch, Savodnik wrote a scathing article ridiculing Ibrahimov’s grotesque vision. Here are brief excerpts from the reporter’s lengthy article:

Ibrahimov is planning to build “a sprawling, lobster-shaped development called Khazar Islands — an archipelago of 55 artificial islands in the Caspian Sea with thousands of apartments, at least eight hotels, a Formula One racetrack, a yacht club, an airport and the tallest building on earth, Azerbaijan Tower, which will rise 3,445 feet. When the whole project is complete… 800,000 people will live at Khazar Islands, and there will be hotel rooms for another 200,000. …It will cost about $100 billion.”

Savodnik reports that the day before he arrived in Azerbaijan, Ibrahimov’s representative flew to Moscow to hand-deliver a book and DVD on the Khazar Islands project. Once in Baku, the journalist was struck by the oligarch’s lavish lifestyle — “sitting in the back seat of a black Rolls-Royce as it tore across island No. 1 of his soon-to-be built archipelago. Nigar Huseynli, his 23-year-old assistant, was sitting up front in a black and white floral-print skirt, black tights and rectangular black sunglasses. She seemed to be vaguely worried, always. She wore a great deal of perfume that, she said, came from Italy. ‘When he’s in Azerbaijan,’ Huseynli said, ‘Mr. Ibrahimov always drives in his black Rolls-Royce. In Dubai, he has a red one.’”

Sporting “blue Stefano Ricci crocodile-skin shoes that matched his blue Stefano Ricci jeans, blue Zilli jacket and blue Zilli button-down shirt,” Ibrahimov told Savodnik that the Azerbaijan Tower would definitely be in Guinness World Records. If the Saudis or Emiratis or anyone anywhere tried to build a bigger building, Ibrahimov said he would then build an even bigger one!

Savodnik writes that the Azeri oligarch described Pres. Ilham Aliyev, the Boss of All Bosses, as “a great supporter, an ally, the son of the savior of the people of Azerbaijan.” When the NY Times reporter asked Ibrahimov “about other features of his regime: the lack of transparency, the lack of civil liberties, the detention of opposition activists,” his response was typical of all oligarchs: “I don’t know anything about politics.”

The American journalist boldly slammed both Ibrahimov and his country: Azerbaijan “builds nothing that the rest of the world wants and has no internationally recognized universities. It does, however, have oil.” In a follow up article, Savodnik concluded: “Underneath all the glass and steel and neon lights, it [Azerbaijan] is still an authoritarian state.”

This is not the first time The New York Times has published an exposé of Azerbaijan. In an October 27, 2003 editorial, the newspaper wrote: “Ilham Aliyev, businessman, playboy and novice politician, received a nice gift from his father — the country of Azerbaijan. Heydar Aliyev had ruled Azerbaijan almost continuously for 34 years, first as an agent of the Soviet Politburo and then as an autocrat in his own right. When he became too ill to continue, he anointed his son to run for president in his place. Ilham Aliyev ran a rigged campaign, using all the powers of the state, and then celebrated his victory by arresting most of the opposition.”

The New York Times concluded its scathing editorial by urging the United States to keep Pres. Aliyev “at arm’s length and avoid repeating the unfortunate history of supporting autocrats who sit atop oil riches.” Regrettably, this warning went unheeded by successive US administrations.