(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 20 . Austrian online
newspaper dasfazit.at has published an article with the following headline:“We
consider“Eastern Partnership” as an opportunity for strengthening
the cooperation with the EU – President Ilham Aliyev”. The article
is dedicated to the speech of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev
during the reception of the delegation led by Dirk Schuebel,
Special Envoy of the EU for Eastern Partnership.
During his speech, which is cited in the article, the President
described the cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU as“very
broad” and mentioned that Azerbaijan was very supportive and
participated actively in different events, including summits within
the Eastern Partnership. He also added that it is time to modernize
it and review what has been done.
It is also mentioned in the article, that the President noted
the fact that Azerbaijan in contrast with the other participating
countries remains the only country that“joined none of the
formats”. He noted that the main reason for that was the foreign
policy that came from the economic performance, economic stability,
political stability, and the liberation of the country's
territories, and that was based on pragmatism and“was
targeted”.
Also, according to the President, which are quoted by the
publication, the main goal of Azerbaijan's participation in this
program once again becomes obvious: the program represents an
additional opportunity, primarily for strengthening the cooperation
with the EU, and“to have additional mechanism of cooperation with
European Commission”, in particular. Moreover, Azerbaijan considers
this platform as the basis for the agreement discussions with the
EU.
However, according to the words of the President that the
newspaper cited, the work on the agreement“is moving successfully
but slowly”, because of the presence of unsolved issues that are
related to the economy, trade, and so on, that require“political
will from both sides”.
“There are certain concerns in Azerbaijan, because any agreement
which we signed or plan to sign must give additional benefit to us
and to our partners. So, we cannot sign something which in a
midterm or long term can create certain economic difficulties,”
cites the newspaper the head of state.
The article says that, talking about Armenian-Azerbaijani
relations, President Ilham Aliyev noted, that he considers current
talks of the Armenian side about peace to be“a kind of
manipulation”, since after the war Azerbaijan proposed a peace
agreement, but Armenia did not respond to this proposal. The Head
of state noted the fact that the peace proposal from the side that
defeated the enemy and expelled him from their lands is“one of the
probably unique cases in the world history”.
“We offered a kind of framework that famous five principles, was
us who advocated for establishing a commissions on delimitation, it
was us who was trying to find a ground for normalization of
relations. Armenia was very reluctant in the first phases of the
process. Now, they talk about peace. But what do they mean by
peace? We do not actually understand. Because our position is very
clear. […] we need to have two tracks- Armenian-Azerbaijani
normalization process and also issues related to Armenian minority
in Azerbaijan, in Karabakh with respect to their rights and
security,” the newspaper cites the words of the President.
Touching upon issues related to the Armenian minority, the
President noted that Azerbaijan is going to resolutely stop all
attempts to include this issue in the peace agreement.“It is not
possible. And we will not agree on that. […] We are ready to talk
about that with Armenians who live in Karabakh, not with those who
have been sent from Moscow hiding in their pockets billions of
stolen money from Russian people, like person called Vardanyan who
was transferred from Moscow there with a very clear agenda. But we
are ready to talk to those people in Karabakh who live there and
who wants to live there,” the President of Azerbaijan noted.
President Ilham Aliyev in his speech called the official persons
of Armenia to refrain from“dangerous rhetoric” toward Azerbaijan,
referring to the recent statements of the Armenian officials where
they compared Azerbaijan to ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
“First, because they acted as ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Ambassadors of
EU visited the liberated territories, Armenians did the same what
was done by ISIS and Al-Qaeda with respect to historical and
religious heritage. It was not us, it was them. So they committed
acts of terror, they committed genocide, they destroyed our
mosques, not us,” the President said.
According to the President, if there are no external
interference and attempts to block this process, then the process
of the regulation is going to be more dynamic. For this, a
consensus is required. The consensus between Azerbaijan, the EU,
the USA, and Russia. As the President said,“Those countries and
the institution, which Azerbaijan sees as those who can be
helpful”.