Former US envoy joins think tank

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Matt Bryza just completed a 23-year career as a US diplomat. AP photo

Matt Bryza, the former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, who was never confirmed by the Senate for the job, has joined the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, a think tank specializing in terrorism matters, the foundation said in a statement late Aug. 16.

U.S. President Barack Obama chose Bryza in late 2009 to head the embassy in Baku, but the strong Armenian lobby in the Senate blocked the confirmation efforts there, accusing Bryza, who has a Turkish wife, of being too pro-Turkish on Armenian and Azerbaijani matters.

As two pro-Armenian senators continued their opposition to Bryza last year and made this public, the Obama administration did not insist on him. According to U.S. law, Bryza, who had failed to win the Senate’s confirmation for two successive years, had to leave his post as ambassador to Baku.

Bryza just completed a 23-year career as a U.S. diplomat, over half of which was spent at the center of policy-making and international negotiations on major energy infrastructure projects and regional conflicts in Eurasia. Currently Bryza resides in Istanbul, where he also works as a consultant on business and democratic development and is a board member of several private companies.