Matthew Bryza: President Ilham Aliyev is genuinely popular

CNN has posted an article “Don't write off Azerbaijan just yet” by former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, director of the International Center for Defense and Security in Estonia and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Patriciu Eurasia Center Matthew Bryza.

The article says that although President Ilham Aliyev faced no real competition for a third term and election observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe were particularly sharp in their criticism of the electoral process.

Bryza says: “President Aliyev is genuinely popular. Two years ago, when I served as U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, independent polls reported Aliyev's approval rating at between 83 percent and 86 percent. These numbers, perhaps unimaginable for a Western political leader, reflect the support he enjoys for delivering what Azerbaijani citizens crave most: stability.”

“Azerbaijan nearly collapsed in the early 1990s: the country was gripped by poverty and had just suffered a humiliating military defeat by Armenia in Azerbaijan’s region of Nagorno-Karabakh.” The former ambassador says Heydar Aliyev`s coming to power is viewed in Azerbaijan as a moment of national salvation, even by many oppositionists. Azerbaijanis recognize that the elder Aliyev's bold decisions to connect Azerbaijan's oil and gas fields to the West were critical to securing the country’s independence and economic growth, says the article.

“Aliyev has built on that success. GNP has tripled since 2006, while poverty has dropped from 49 percent to just over 6 percent; reformist economic policies have helped catalyze the growth of Azerbaijan’s non-energy sectors.”

Bryza concludes his article by underlining Azerbaijan`s role in ensuring the European energy security.


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