ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is trying to soothe the put-out authoritarian leader of Azerbaijan (ah-zur-by-JAHN’), a former Soviet republic needed for getting supplies and soldiers to Afghanistan.
Thousands of war-related flights cross Azerbaijan, and last year alone about 100,000 U.S. and allied personnel passed through the country.
Gates says his peacekeeping mission to Azerbaijan on Sunday is meant to reassure the country’s president that the U.S. doesn’t take him for granted.
President Ilham Aliyev (ihl-HAHM’ ah-lee-EHV’) has complained he gets too little attention from Washington and that U.S. officials have not done much to resolve a festering ethnic conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. He’s also irritated by mild U.S. criticism of his human rights, press freedoms and elections policies.
