Ingushetia wants to be friends with Azerbaijan

By Vestnik Kavkaza

The powerful economic development of Azerbaijan is a key reason for establishing partnership of Ingushetia with the state of the South Caucasus, Ahmet Palankoyev, an Ingush senator, the head of the Russian-Turkish Business Council, told Vestnik Kavkaza.

“Azerbaijan has the most actively growing economy among the South Caucasus republics. The potential of the country is implemented successfully, as well as its opportunities for oil and gas extraction. Even the appearance of Baku confirms that the republic has great prospects. Of course Ingushetia wants to be a friend of a successful state. So we have started with Azerbaijan, even though this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work with other republics, build contacts and relations,” he noted.

Palankoyev recalls that the cooperation agreement between Azerbaijan and Ingushetia was signed in 2011. “Since that time our delegations have visited Azerbaijan several times and learned a lot on the trips. There were return visits by Azerbaijani delegations. We have built contacts with enterprises. There are many forms of cooperation – from tourism to mutual investments and trade. And we intend to develop our relations in the future,” the senator said.

Speaking about the economic potential of Ingushetia, Ahmet Palankoyev spoke about opportunities for mountain tourism in the republic. “Mountain Ingushetia is a unique place where tourism of various directions can be developed – extreme, educational, religious, architectural tourism. The republic is an open-air museum with more than 2 thousand architectural monuments; it is a rare phenomenon not only in the Caucasus and Russia, but also in the whole world. Ingushetia is included in the tourist cluster of the Resorts of the North Caucasus; and construction of the resorts of Armkhi and Tsori is planned,” he said.

The senator noted that there is the Armkhi resort, which is not connected with the RNC. “It was built with private investments from the Akropol Group; I am one of shareholders of the group. It is a nice resort, according to the people who visit it. Why did we build it? We triggered big federal projects without waiting for registration of documents; moreover, budget investments are a long story. We decided to show that we could work and to build a client base, so that local residents could learn how to ski and board. The project is operating today, and we are looking forward to opening the winter season. I think this year it will be popular,” Ahmet Palankoyev stated.

He stressed that, in general, Ingushetia has great prospects. “I hope Ingushetia will be a hospitable tourism subject where people will enjoy their stay. Moreover, our republic has great potential in agriculture. We have great residents who are able to become great professional workers. I have recently met students at a university, and I was surprised that young people are educated, they have local interests and global thinking, knowledge in politics, economics, art and literature. I was happy to see it, and I am sure they are our future,” Akhmet Palankoyev concluded.