Azerbaijan’s new approach towards a balanced policy

According to the opinion of the head of the Turkish political centre Atlas Elhan Shakhinoglu, Azerbaijan has agreed to continue to balance its energy policy by signing an agreement with Turkey for transit of the gas. According to the analyst, Azebaijan thus moved the relations with Turkey into a strategic phase. Until this agreement Moscow had hoped that it would receive more gas from Shahdeniz, but since Moscow failed to achieve a major breakthrough in solving of Karabakh problem Baku took another step. The Azeri President delayed for some time the development of relations with Ankara in the direction of a strategic partnership, but eventually Ilham Aliev realized that only Turkey could be the major strategic partner for Azerbaijan. So the final decision has been taken. Azeri gas will go to Europe via Turkey bypassing Russia. Aliev said that Azeri foreign policy will be based not on a political balance but on the interests of his country. Meanwhile Georgian analysts assume that Georgia will definitely benefit from such developments.