Interview by Maria Sidelnikova, the editor-in-chief of Vestnik Kavkaza
Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Armenia have been living in the Eurasian Economic Union for two months already. It is thought to be an analogue of the common European market. The Integration Club under the head of the Federation Council is studying integration processes in the post-Soviet space. The Vice President of the Russian Council on Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Alexander Dzhasokhov, told Vestnik Kavkaza about the international contacts of Russia.
- Alexander Sergeyevich, recently a regular meeting of the Integration Club was held. What practical benefits can it bring?
- The desire to create an audience that would permanently in such a discussion, in a realistic form, discuss the establishment of the Eurasian project, emerged a couple of years ago. And, of course, Russian politicians, well-known in our country, who have experience in the international sphere, responded to this initiative. The initiative belongs to the respected Valentina Matviyenko, as she is a specialist in international relations. She graduated brilliantly from her time at the MFA Diplomatic Academy and was an ambassador to two countries, including the Greek Republic.
The structure of this Integration Club includes the directors of the largest academic institutions of international profile: Daykin, who heads the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Sergey Rogov of the Institute of USA and Canada, Vitaly Naumkin, who heads the Institute of Oriental Studies, and so on. I think that this is a very effective form of free discussion of the most important issues related to the formation of the EaEC in the 21st century. At our last meeting in the Federation Council, we summed up the results for 2014, of the work done by each of us, and the overall result was also indicated. So we broke up after many hours with the conviction that holding the meeting was the right thing.
From January 1 this year, it is not about the Customs Union, not about the Eurasia project, but from January 1 the whole system of work of the EaEC came into full force in terms of legal and policy documents. I must say that of all the major political events of the recent period, the issue of establishing the EaEC, maybe, in my view, the most strategic and most definite is in the interests not only of politicians, not only heads of state, but also the inhabitants of those countries which at this stage are part of the EaEC, which are Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. So we all agreed that we would deal with this issue on a regular basis and in 2015.
- Russia has been living for about six months under sanctions. Accordingly, the role of cross-border cooperation will be further increased. What prospects do you see in this respect in the relations between Russia and Azerbaijan?
- Russia is not only a large-scale country geographically, but more than 40 constituent subjects of the Russian Federation are bordering, these regions have borders with neighboring countries. For example, the Russian-Kazakh border is the longest of all the borders of neighboring countries in the world. This feature of the Russian Federation, more than 40 constituent parts have borders, suggests that we indicate the border areas of the Russian Federation as important. From the point of view of maintaining good-neighborly relations and the implementation of economic ties and humanitarian contacts and perhaps even joint decisions, the required tasks related to infrastructure, with roads, with trade.
With Azerbaijan we have a maritime boundary, which is very important. In addition, Azerbaijan borders Dagestan, one of the largest North Caucasian republics. As for features, traditions and even specialization in the economic sphere between, say, the North Caucasus and Azerbaijan, there are also many similarities. So of course, at the regarded meeting, for this reason we agreed that in October in the Dagestani capital Makhachkala we will gather a forum, which will be entirely devoted to the role of border areas on the experience of the Russian-Azerbaijani border in the development of appropriate forms of cooperation on the part of our border regions, territories and republics and those who are our neighbors.
The experience of cooperation with Azerbaijani border regions, particularly the North Caucasus, where Dagestan relates to, yes, but in exactly the same way it applies to other republics of the North Caucasus. Just three weeks ago, the prime minister of the republic of North Ossetia, Sergey Tokoev, was on a visit to Baku, and an agreement was signed there on economic and trade cooperation between Azerbaijan and the RNOA.
- In a crisis, can Ossetia help Russia in terms of import substitution? What can the republic offer?
- In the circumstances, which I hope are temporary, each republic, each region can mobilize the resources they have. In the North Caucasus, there are very experienced executives, and they certainly have the will and knowledge in order to minimize the negative impact on the material life of the residents of the North Caucasus.
- You are a politician with a huge work experience. You witnessed, witnessed and participated in many events, in particular, were familiar with the Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, wrote a book, "Going Forward", participated in the work on it. Can you share some striking episode of memories of him?
- The name and work of Heydar Aliyev, they belong not only to history, but also to today. Many of his actions, his thoughts, his ideas about the future of Azerbaijan and the future of Azerbaijani-Russian relations are not just of cognitive value, but quite practical. I would advise anyone who is engaged in public affairs to refer to the political and public heritage of Heydar Aliyev.
For many years I was acquainted with Heydar Aliyev, and do not want to be like those who say that "we were friends." Although we had a really good, good relationship, we always wondered whether it would be a short or a long meeting. Aliyev was a personality. He came to big politics from a completely different sphere. He was a professional scout, had the rank of general. When he was elected leader of Azerbaijan, some doubted that he could maintain the big, successful, industrial, engineering, scientific, oil republic. But these were a minority.
I believed in his potential, because behind him was a knowledge of not only the Caucasus, but the whole of our country. He understood well the position on the adjacent territories, and on Turkey, Iran. He always listened to his interlocutor, whether it was an employee or a guest from Moscow. He did not have prepared correct answers to questions. He had his own point of view, but he always found it necessary to test this, compare, discuss.
I participated, on my initiative, in several activities conducted by Azerbaijan. One of them, in the late 1960s, was devoted to the next anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. It was a huge forum, delegations came from 70 countries, with the authority of acting heads of state, leaders of world-famous parties. We agreed that he would deliver a keynote speech. And here he was exposed, because it fully penetrated into the issue. It was not a declaration, and showed the experience of Azerbaijan convincingly, with illustrations, facts that could reach people in the era of civilization, which was called Soviet.
Aliyev brought a lot of interesting, little known even, examples for all the decades of the modern history of Azerbaijan. He was very attentive to cultural figures. Stars of world scale coming from Azerbaijan in the years of Heydar Aliyev’s working there and in Moscow, all experienced the attention of their great contemporary.
I appreciate the behavior of the Azerbaijani people, their intellectuals, the leadership of Azerbaijan and President Ilham Aliyev, so the years go by, and attention to the personality of Heydar Aliyev does not decrease, but is rather maintained. He is known everywhere - in Siberia and in the Urals, and in the North and in the Caucasus too. Therefore, the Caucasus has provided many outstanding personalities of the twentieth century in the history of our country, and one of the brightest representatives is Heydar Aliyev.
When in Russia, people were looking very narrowly and too pragmatically at the issues of cooperation with the former Soviet republics, he didn’t take it with irritation. He was a holder of some acute mutually exclusive views on issues of world politics. He understood that the 1990s would end, everything would be fine. He showed restraint, some failed to extract this restraint, the new leaders of different countries which were formed after the collapse of the USSR. He did it. And he is the one historical figure who preserved Russian-Azerbaijani relations.
- I even heard once such a point of view, that the resignation of Aliyev at the time was one of the parts of the plan of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Do you share this opinion?
- If you carry out extensive analysis of this issue, of course, such a place for this judgment exists, but to think that it was a central reason or even one of the main ones, this should not be done. The collapse of our country was not the result of such a law-governed process. This is a problem of the circumstances that two people, in particular - Yeltsin and Gorbachev - were quite different in their perception of the fate of the country. It is now said that "we knew that the country would fall apart." Nobody knew anything, and the West did not know it. You do not need hindsight to build conspiracy plans.
The truth is that, as the first deputy chairman of the government of the Soviet Union as a world power, Heydar Aliyev brilliantly coped with very diverse and very important areas of state activity. His absence from political leadership, of course, had a negative impact. There was no reason not to make Aliyev a part of the political leadership and the leadership of the government. His presence would only benefit the country. It was quite obvious.
- And now let's talk a little bit about the Middle East. In the 1980s you worked as ambassador to Syria. In your opinion, what fate awaits this country? We have been witnessing the sad events around Syria for several years.
- Syria is a museum of a country. There is classical Islam, the wonderful Arabic literature, the language of one of the most diverse Arab nations. On the other hand, it is a country where there is still Aramaic, the language of Christ, say in the settlement of Maalyulya.
So when in this country there are destructive actions, it causes great damage to world civilization. From the very beginning of the crisis around Syria, Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin took a principled stand, rejecting the course hailed by Washington, which was aimed at regime change, the methods differ little from what happened in Iraq with Saddam Hussein and then what happened in Libya. Thanks to the position of our country, Syria has remained for four years a sovereign state capable of protecting its national interests. If in Syria a so-called "Arab Spring" had taken place, the Arab world would have lost a secular state, where there are different religions. The world would have lost a country where there is a tradition of Syrian diplomacy, which is very important, because Syria has played a much greater role in Middle Eastern affairs in the time of President Hafez al-Assad.
Syria is connected with the Caucasus historically. If the trajectory followed the dramatic way, then most likely the Caucasus would have experienced an echo of this tragedy. Some radical elements might try to extend their success to the Caucasus. So when we are on the side of Syria, we defend our national interests in the Caucasus.
On the other hand, when Syria protects its national interests, it protects other states and nations. Because it does not give the opportunity to implement the most medieval forms of state formation. I was an ambassador more than 20 years ago. But I'm very proud of the fact that even now I communicate with my Syrian friends.
Syria is very connected with Russia. 100 thousand Syrian citizens were educated in different institutions of our great country. 35 thousand families are the result of intermarriage of Syrians and our girls. Basically, these are happy families. Recently, false information was launched that we may change our position on Syria, in response to some relief on the position in Ukraine. But the modern Russia of the Putin era does not trade for its well-thought-out views on the relationship between the whole sphere.
- We will mark a memorable date this year - the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Alexander Sergeyevich, what was the contribution of the Caucasus to the cause of victory?
- The anniversary is a very good opportunity to reveal the truth about the war. In the general flow of completely unfounded attacks against our country, false views have been expressed on the role of other states in defeating the Third Reich. In the post-war years, there was no doubt that it was the Soviet people, our armed forces, the talent of our military commanders, the unity of our multinational people, their heroism played a decisive role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Now there are attempts to put it in doubt. I absolutely do not believe that success in these bad intentions will prevail, but as they say, it is necessary to keep a finger on the pulse.
The peoples of the Caucasus made a significant contribution to the victory. They held a strong defense in Rostov. The German troops in 1942 in November rushed directly to the capital of North Ossetia. What was the goal? To capture Vladikavkaz, where the Southern Georgian Military Road went to the Caucasus, and near there was Grozny with sufficiently important raw oil reserves. At the 60th anniversary of victory with my friends, at home, we created a Memorial of Fame, there are all the pages of citizens’ involvement in World War II. And each republic and our neighbors, and the Transcaucasian republics, Azerbaijan, contributed to the victory in the Great Patriotic War. Therefore, let us present to our young people the truth about the Great Patriotic War, and let it become a stimulus unifying our people, to echo so that this victory could be heard over the entire territory of the former territory of our great country and around the world. I'm sure people think so, hundreds of thousands of people in many dozens of other states that stand in upright positions.
