Yesterday representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the presidential administration, government institutions, the Federal Assembly and creative people gathered in the embassy of the Azerbaijani Republic in Moscow on the day of remembrance of the national leader of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev. The Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, told Vestnik Kavkaza about Heydar Aliyev, Russian-Azerbaijani relations and the Karabakh settlement.
- Unfortunatelly, I was not honored to work personally with Heydar Aliyev. Together with Ilham Aliyevich we studied at MGIMO, and Heydar Aliyev came into my life when perestroika began, when each of us was deciding how serious it was, for how long, whether it was right or wrong. I believed in perestroika due to Heydar Aliyev. The great statesman, a member of the Politburo, was revealed suddenly as a completely different person to all of us, citizens of the Soviet Union. He was revealed as a person, not as a statue or a portrait or a monument. This was very important for all of us. He acted like a great statesman by revealing himself as a person. I am sincerely grateful to him that I still can refer to him, despite the fact that he is no longer with us, as a person who formed our common country, the Soviet Union, on the basis that we all continue to be sincerely proud of, on the basis of internationalism, on the basis of a true understanding of the national and international issues in our lives. As the leader of an independent and sovereign Azerbaijan he continued to do everything possible to preserve the centuries-old friendship between the peoples who found themselves on the different sides of the border. He remains the highest moral political intellectual, moral authority for all of us.
- What was Heydar Aliyev’s contribution to the development of Russian-Azerbaijani relations?
- Heydar Aliyev was an undisputed national leader and a national treasure of the people, the people of Azerbaijan. At the same time he is our common national heritage, because he was a man who, of course, understood quite adequately and correctly the interests of his own people as allied relations with the people of Russia, with the other peoples of the USSR, and then the former Soviet Union.
Unfortunately, after the collapse of the USSR the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples shared the tragedy of Nagorno-Karabakh, but it is rather an exception to the general rule. And the elder Aliyev’s rule was always a promotion of understanding between the peoples, the establishment of closer ties between the peoples. Modern Russia remembers Heydar Aliyev, values his fate, activities, and will always cherish the memory of him due to that selfless labour.
- What work is being done at the parliamentary level on the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh?
- Of course, the topic of Nagorno-Karabakh is always a subject of discussion among parliamentarians, but that's just a discussion, and the negotiations are held primarily between the stakeholders themselves in the framework of the Minsk Group. This is a very complex, delicate process, which does not tolerate politicking, does not tolerate the interference of people who would like to build their own political platforms on this issue. The settlement of conflicts is a task for professionals, heads of state, diplomats, professional negotiators. Parliamentarians should promote this to the best of their abilities. I am sure that this is our work. We discuss these issues in bilateral and multilateral formats. I hope we have never harmed the process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement, and if once we helped, we will continue to do so.
