Interview by Peter Lyukimson, Israel, exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
On November 14, the Dan Panorama Tel Aviv Hotel had a state reception for the Independence Day of Azerbaijan. The meeting was organized by the Azerbaijan-Israel International Association (AzIs), Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israeli politicians, businessmen, artists and representatives of communities attended the reception.
Speaking at the meeting, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman noted that friendly ties continued the historic tradition of friendship between the Jewish and Azerbaijani peoples. Lieberman emphasized that the ties were constantly expanding, encompassing all fields of life, and the cooperation was advantageous for both peoples.
Samed Seidov, head of the Azerbaijani parliamentary commission for international affairs and Vice President of the PACE, said that “in years since becoming independent, Azerbaijan has made a great breakthrough in development of its national economy, education, science, culture and this development continues under leadership of President Ilham Aliyev. Seidov noted that relations with Israel were built basing on true friendship and mutual understanding and Azerbaijan valued the attitude of Israeli authorities towards Nagorno-Karabakh. “Today, our states and peoples are building a common future, future based on the principles of democracy, mutual respect, sincerely humanitarian values,” said Seidov.
Seidov gave an interview to Vestnik Kavkaza at the meeting:
- The Independence Day of Azerbaijan is a great gala provoking a special response in the soul of every Azerbaijani and I am pleased that such response, such pride for my Azerbaijan can be seen among compatriots living in Israel. I say ‘our compatriots’ because I do not distinguish natives of Azerbaijan living in Israel from the republic. They do not distinguish themselves either. The multi-century-long friendship connecting our peoples gets stronger every year, deeper and firmer. In no small measure, it is happening because Israel and Azerbaijan are getting stronger, firmer every year and our countries have established friendly, brotherly and exceptionally important relations.
- In your speech, you noted that Israel and Azerbaijan had a lot in common. What do you think makes them so similar?
- I think that both our peoples have gone through a long historic path. Israel and Azerbaijan have suffered from many tough, tragic moments and continue living through them today. The stronger Israel gets, the more, sadly, there are people trying to give it problems. The stronger and more beautiful Azerbaijan becomes, the more hate-filled become those who do not want to see this progress. Maybe our common pain and our common outlook into the future pull us together. Besides, doubtlessly, we have common reverent respect for national history and traditions smoothly correlated with reverent respect for traditions and customs of other peoples. Israel and Azerbaijan look to the future today and we are pulled together by this determination, common vision of what our future should be like. I am confident that there are no forces, no political intrigues and problems capable of stopping our rapprochement.
- What fields of cooperation between Israel and Azerbaijan seem the most important to you?
- Traditionally, people tend to answer this saying that it is the economic field, as the fundament for development of relations in all other fields. For me, it seems to be the humanitarian field: culture, education, public diplomacy, strengthening ties between people. Because a strong economy can only be built with account of the human factor, I would say, with proper state’s treatment of its citizens, system of forming societies and etc. Look, all these years, the economy of Azerbaijan and Israel has been successfully developing, despite the fact that the world economic system has been in deep crisis. Maybe the causes of this crisis should not just be searched for in wrong economic approaches, in ‘wrong economy’, but in wrong treatment of own citizens, own history, own national values and historic origins. In Europe, we see how an attempt to give up national identity, to forget own history and traditions, bring big economic problems. Well, when, in addition to that, they attempt to impose the approaches to other peoples, ‘to cut’ them from their history and traditions, to strike national mentality formed for centuries, Europe will never come to anything good.
- Do you mean the latest demarches of the European Union against the circumcision tradition so important for Jews and Muslims?
- And this, certainly, too. This is why during my visit to the Knesset, we prepared a special joint declaration for this case with our Israeli colleagues. Israel and Azerbaijan plan to form a single front to withstand the feeble intentions of the Council of Europe. Both our states will not put up with any attempts to reform us, interfere in our history, our cultural and religious traditions, because one who gives up the past has no future. And we do not put this issue off the agenda until take a stand.
- Your visit was both representative and working. What arrangements have you made at meetings with Speaker of the Knesset Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the Israel-Azerbaijan parliamentary group Amnon Cohen?
- We were certainly talking about bringing our cooperation benchmarks to a new level in the field of coordination of efforts in the political arena and in the fields of economy, security, education and etc. The global range of relations between Israel and Azerbaijan is so wide today that all the spheres are closely interconnected, that is, literally interlaced.
