Today is the jubilee birthday of the Director General of the news agency Interfax-Azerbaijan, the former head of the private security service of the national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, Alexander Ivanov. On the eve of his birthday, Alexander Ivanov told Vestnik Kavkaza about the relations between Russia and Azerbaijan today.
Acording to him, an important step in Russian and Azerbaijani relations came in 2000, with the appearence of Vladimir Putin as Russian President. "Of course, the authority of Heydar Aliyev is renowned not only as a politician, but also as a Chekist leader, because he was the first chairman of the Azerbaijan SSR KGB, the first major-general of Azerbaijani Chekists. I suppose Vladimir Vladimirovich's former profession played a role in his relation to national leader Heydar Aliyev as a person who in his work delves into intricacies. Today, I will turn your attention to this, he is the only leader of a state to visit the grave of Heydar Aliyev, kneeling his right knee in front of the monument. That says a lot. The mutual friendship level between the current presidents, I believe, is also positive, and any interaction is aimed at prospering bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Russia," Alexander Ivanov stressed.
At the end of the conversation, Alexander Ivanov spoke about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "This problem must be solved peacefully. If today everything ended peacefully, and as was repeatedly stated by the leadership of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh would have received special status, these lands would not have been in such an outrage as they are now, when, for example, refugees from Syria are resettled there. The fundamental point for solving this issue is, of course, peace negotiations, and Russia, as a mediator-state in resolving the conflict, has quite weighty leverages to help resolve it. Unfortunately, the opposite side has a different approach, although it is not clear why, After all, in the economic, social and cultural spheres peace would benefit the peoples of the two countries," he concluded.
