ABSTRACT: Azerbaijan is drifting back into the Soviet orbit."The circle is closing", whereas the problems of the over 800,000 refugees of war and of a destroyed economy remain unsolved. The only valid prospect is that of a "transnational" integration with Europe and China.

(1994 - IL QUOTIDIANO RADICALE, 22 November 1993)

Geidar Alijev, who worked for years at the Politburo under Breznev and Andropov, was elected President of Azerbaijan with an overwhelming majority; the first step taken by his government will be leading Azerbaijan back into the orbit of the Soviet Union. The application for CIS membership has already been submitted. The circle is closing. Among the uncertain democratic trials and the Islamic-fundamentalist temptations, the Azers, prostrated by three years of war with the Armenians of Karabakh, by internal regional conflicts and by the June coup d'état, are returning under the wing of the "Pax Sovietica". The problems of the over 800,000 refugees of war and of a destroyed economy, remain unsolved. In this chaos operate the 3 parliamentarians and 300 radical members committed to obtaining laws for the abolition of the death penalty, the guarantee of the rule of law and of the most elementary foundations of democracy. The hope, and not only of the Azers, is that the great project called "Europe-Caucus-Asia", de

vised to bring gas and oil from Central Asia to Europe, and to link China to the European market, will become a reality. Only this transnational prospect seems to be a way out to avoid a new Yugoslavia in the area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.