“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains the main threat to the region”

By Vestnik Kavkaza

On Saturday the annual 23rd session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was opened. It will last until July 2nd. The central event of the first day was a speech by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. According to him, Azerbaijan as an active member of the UN Security Council is striving for providing peace, security, stability, justice and international law in the world.

“At the moment one of the priorities of Azerbaijan as the chair of the Committee of Ministers of the CE is global building of international law and establishing a mechanism of fulfilling decisions and resolutions of international organizations. Unfortunately, we face double standards, and the issue is worrying the Azerbaijani people. We see that some resolutions of the UN Security Council are fulfilled in a few hours, but resolutions on Azerbaijan have remained only paper for 20 years. Azerbaijan suffers from such a situation.”

The Azerbaijani President stated that “the Armenians committed genocide against the Azerbaijanis in Khojaly, and the genocide is recognized by ten countries in the world. International law is being violated. The UN SC has issued four resolutions which demand the immediate withdrawal of Armenian troops from occupied Azerbaijani territory, but the resolutions are not being fulfilled. The OSCE’s decisions, including those which were made at the Lisbon summit, are still only written on paper.”

According to Aliyev, “self-determination of peoples shouldn’t violate territorial integrity. At the same time, the Armenians have an independent state, they already have self-determination. So they have no reasons for establishing another Armenian state on the historic lands of Azerbaijan. The OSCE sent two missions to the occupied territories – an evaluation mission and a field evaluation mission. Both of them reported on full destruction of the Azerbaijani territories. The Armenians levelled our cities to the ground; historic monuments have been destroyed, including mosques and graveyards. We appreciate such an evaluation of the OSCE. Unfortunately, the reports didn’t play any role in settling the conflict. We need a settlement of the conflict. Our state, our people, refugees, and the whole region need a settlement of the conflict. The Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the main source of a threat to the region.”

The Azerbaijani President is sure that “the best way to reduce tension, to establish and improve a mechanism of mutual trust, is withdrawal of Armenian troops from the Azerbaijani territories,” the head of state said.

Speaking about the development of the Azerbaijani economy, Aliyev noted that “the fast economic growth was supported by strong social policy. Our economy has tripled in the last 10 years. It is one of highest paces in the world. At the same time, the poverty rate fell 90%, and at the moment it is at the level of 5%. Our financial system is very stable – our foreign debt is only 8% of GDP; it is one of the best indices in the world.” The credit ratings of Azerbaijan were increased by major rating agencies, such as Standard&Poors, Moody’s, and Fitch; and Azerbaijan is respected as a country which protects investments properly. During the last 10 years $170 billion dollars has been invested in Azerbaijan. Last year $28 billion was invested, 70% of them are internal and 30% are foreign investments.

According to Aliyev, Azerbaijan is the first country which has connected the Caspian, Black, and Mediterranean Seas and diversified the pipeline net. It enabled the republic to diversify export routes and stay independent from any route. It is important for the producing country. Transportation of gas will be provided through three pipelines which will turn into one big pipeline from Baku to Europe, Italy. These are the Trans-Anatolian, the South Caucasian, and the Trans-Adriatic pipelines.

President Aliyev noted that his country could be considered as an example, as multiculturalism is one of the elements of the success if Azerbaijani society: “Citizens of our country, whatever their ethnic or religious belonging, have equal rights and benefits. It is one of the biggest advantages of Azerbaijan. We live as a family; we, representatives of different religions, celebrate holidays together. It is a unique experience, which is appreciated in the world so much. Today, when we see dangerous tendencies of estrangement, selectivity in Europe and Asia, in the Middle East and neighboring countries, the problems should be solved and we should discuss them.”