Vladislav Kondratyev: Azerbaijan has become a strong sovereign state under Ilham Aliyev's rule

Vestnik Kavkaza talked with the editor of the analytical portal "Caspian Vestnik" (Astrakhan) Vladislav Kondratyev about the results with which Azerbaijan is entering a new historical era.

- Vladislav Vladimirovich, in your opinion, what progress has Azerbaijan made in the 21st century?

- In my opinion, the most important achievement of Azerbaijan in recent decades is that the republic has been able to build a strong sovereign state that has stable sources of income. The economy of Azerbaijan is not yet fully diversified and it is still more focused on oil and gas resources, but at the same time, the renewable energy sector is actively developing, especially after the Karabakh events.

Work is also underway on the development of transport, that is, the creation of a transport hub on the territory of Azerbaijan in the North-South, West-East, and East-West directions. In this regard, Baku managed to build quite productive and mutually beneficial relations with its neighbours. Certain problems arise from time to time, but the desire of all Caspian countries in the region to develop business and partnership ties with Azerbaijan is clear. And this desire is constantly being realized.

Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran treat Azerbaijan with sufficient respect and see great benefits from increasing economic ties with it. It should be added, as for cultural and humanitarian ties, over the years many contacts have been established at the level of universities and public organizations. In general, all this is a consequence of the fact that Azerbaijan has emerged as a strong, independent state that pursues a sovereign policy.

- In your opinion, what helped Azerbaijan to achieve these results?

- Here we need to talk about the objective factors of the geographical location of Azerbaijan and the subjective factors of the republic's leadership. As for geography, the territory of Azerbaijan is a link between Europe, Türkiye and the countries of the Caspian region. Western experts emphasize that it's no less important that the geopolitical position of Azerbaijan is located between Russia and Iran. Today, Washington considers these countries the key rivals of the USA on the world political arena. Azerbaijan also has rich oil and gas resources, which not all countries have. The "Contract of the Century" for the development of these resources, concluded in 1994, allowed to obtain significant financial revenues for the development of the republic.

The key subjective factor is the consistent policy of the country's leadership, which tries to maintain equal relations with all foreign partners who show great interest in developing ties with Azerbaijan. President Ilham Aliyev cooperates with all countries like President Heydar Aliyev. He builds policies in such a way that cooperation is carried out even with those states that compete with each other on the world stage. The leadership of Azerbaijan manages to calm these tensions and find common ground with everyone.

Heydar Aliyev and Ilham Aliyev made the most important contribution to the establishment of Azerbaijan as an independent, sovereign state. Heydar Aliyev, who held high positions in the Soviet times and had extensive political experience, formed a balanced policy for the Republic of Azerbaijan, which allowed the country to develop. Ilham Aliyev is also a highly qualified politician and a competent leader. Their personal qualities also played a decisive role in the history of modern Azerbaijan. During the years of their rule, the country constantly has been increasing its potential, both economic and geopolitical.

- In your opinion, what tasks does Azerbaijan face after the closure of the Karabakh issue?

- The most important task is to convince the world and, above all, the Western public that everything that happened in 2020-2023 was done for the better, and the real situation in the region is finally normalizing and stabilizing after decades of hostility and military clashes. The world must see that the measures taken by the Azerbaijani leadership have brought real benefits to the region and have made the South Caucasus no longer considered a long-term conflict point with regular escalations. Therefore, I think that Azerbaijan will work to convince the world community of the correctness of its policy.