Today.Az » Politics » President of Azerbaijan considers assessment of international nongovernmental organizations Freedom House and Transparency International on Azerbaijan to be not objective
28 November 2008 [09:42] - Today.Az
Azerbaijan is satisfied with the current level of relations with the European Union and the further accession of the country to the European Union will depend on Brussels.
Interfax-Azerbaijan reports with reference to AzTV that the due announcement was made by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in his interview to Italian RAI Internationa.
“This will naturally depend on Europe and European Union. We consider that the current level of relations is high”.
The President noted that Azerbaijan is successfully developing relations with the European Union in the framework of “the neighborhood police” including in the energy sector.
“I am confident that the reforms, we hold, will bring most criteria of our life, including political system and economic freedom to the level of the EU criteria in the next five years. If the European Union wants to see us integrated into their structure or as their neighbor, any choice will be profitable for us. We can not demand anything from the European Union and can not hit the door demanding to accept us”, said Aliyev.
He noted that “EU is a family, which has its own laws and rules and which has a right to admit or not allow anyone”.
The President noted that regardless of the results of integration, Azerbaijan continues holding political and economic reforms.
Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan is highly appreciating the European values but at the same time it observes its national values. Azerbaijan tends to establish good relations with all countries.
“Italy , as one of the leading countries of the European Union, plays an important role in Azerbaijan’s relations with this organization. We consider that these ties are developing successfully”, said the President.
As for the implementation of the Nabucco project, the president noted that this depends on not only Azerbaijan and therefore it is too difficult to say today whether it will be implemented.
“It is difficult to state this and I would like to note that when the NABUCCO project added to the agenda, not Azerbaijan but other sources were considered as potential suppliers.
Yet, today the NABUCCO project is associated with the gas reserves of Azerbaijan. We have recently began the development of our main gas fields. We hope to reach the top in production in the next five-six years”, noted Aliyev.
He noted that today Azerbaijani gas has already entered the markets, is exported to three countries and “probably, the range of consumers will expand”.
“But the implementation of the NABUCCO project depends not only on us. It greatly depends on the activity of the companies of NABUCCO, transit issues, participation of Central Asian sources in the project. This is a larger project, while Azerbaijan is ready to play a role of a transit country in the NABUCCO project and when necessary of a potential supplier. But at the same time, I would like to note that this is not only our project”, noted the President.
As for the proposal of Russian Gazprom about purchase of Azerbaijani gas for high prices, Aliyev said this issue is currently being studied.
“We receive different proposals and we export gas to neighbor Georgia and Turkey. Via Turkey our gas goes to the EU market, especially Greece. We have proposals from the Russian Gazprom and we are currently studying them. We approach all proposals equally. This is a purely commercial issue.
We are implementing our energy projects only in the sense of commerce, diversification, security and long term partnership. And all proposals will be considered in this very context. Certainly, the price must also respond to market prices. Today Azerbaijani economy is 100% market and if a price is good, naturally any proposal can be appreciated.
At the same time, today and in the future – not in the too far future – Azerbaijan will be able to extract sufficient volumes of gas for export in different directions”, noted the President.
Aliyev did not agree that Azerbaijan is strongly mobilizing.
According to the President, the rise in defense spendings is just a result of the overall expansion of the country’s budget. At the same time, he noted that Armenia, which holds a part of Azerbaijani lands under occupation, must take this into account.
“They should realize that there is no previous balance between us. They should understand that Azerbaijan is a strong country, which will develop even more. They must take this into account to ensure the welfare of their people”, said the head of the state.
He said much should be done in the economic sphere “as there is still a need to study the potential of our country and to get assured of the importance of the role of Azerbaijan that it plays in the region, not only in the sense of economic development but also as a political stabilizer.
“As is known, unfortunately, the situation in the South Caucasus is unstable. Therefore, the economic development of Azerbaijan and its positive political influence play an important role the security of the country. “Moscow declaration” on the Karabakh problem, signed by the heads of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia does not deprive Baku of the right to settle this conflict by way of force.
This declaration does not include any commitment, preventing Azerbaijan from the forced way”, said he.
The President also noted that the paragraph of the declaration about the need to settle the conflict by political ways does not deprive Azerbaijan of the basic rights.
“On the basis of all international norms, every state has a right for self-defense. Azerbaijan is a victim of Armenian aggression. In a result of this aggression not only Nagorno Karabakh but also seven regions out of its bounds, where Armenians never lived, are under Armenian occupation.
Our people suffer from it, therefore, while hoping for the political solution, we must always be ready to adopt any measures and the forced way has never been an exception for the restoration of our territorial integrity”, said the head of the state.
The President noted that Azerbaijan has consolidated in the military, political and economic sense through the past five years.
“But the fact of talks, held for almost two decades, shows that our purpose is to find a peaceful way. No one wants war in the Caucasus . At the same time, we can not reconcile with the current situation”, noted Aliyev.
According to the President, Azerbaijan can not accept the fact that for two decades Armenia has been violating the basic rights of Azerbaijani citizens.
The head of the state also voiced resentment over the passiveness of the world community in the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.
The world community does not play a necessary role in the resolution of the issue. We hope for increased attention to this problem, especially after the recent events in the Caucasus, which demonstrated that the peace is too fragile here”, said the President, noting that reconciliation in the area of the Karabakh conflict is ensured not by peacekeepers, but the armed forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia, which makes peace even more fragile.
“To establish peace in the Caucasus we must find the soonest solution to the conflict”, concluded Aliyev.
The President of Azerbaijan considers the assessments of the international NGOs Freedom House and Transparency International on the country to be not objective.
Such organizations as Freedom House are not objective. They try to present Azerbaijan not as it is. For me, the assessment of international organizations given to our activity is the most important. Freedom House is a nongovernmental organization with its own agenda and political interests.
It even has friends in Azerbaijan among some opposition representatives. Therefore, their statements about Azerbaijan can not be considered correct”, noted the President.
I.Aliyev stressed that the assessments of OSCE and Council of Europe, which observed the recent presidential elections in Azerbaijan , are important.
This is a fact that the elections in Azerbaijan were held in a normal and transparent environment and their results reflected the will of Azerbaijani people. There have not been a single complaint about the results and correctness of the conducted elections and this is important. It proves that Azerbaijan is moving rapidly in the direction of construction of a real democracy”, noted Aliyev.
He said Azerbaijan is integrating with the European Union, implementing programs of neighborhood with this organization for closing values with EU.
“We need not money from EU or any concessions or subsidies. We just want to bring our life values and the political system to the level of the best pattern. The same picture can be observed in the Council of Europe, which we join for seven years. This is a complicated and uneasy and even painful way, but we have chosen this way and this is a reality.
In addition to it, liberal economic reforms would have been impossible in a not democratic state. Undemocratic state could not have been declared a reformer country No 1 by the World Bank”, noted the President.
He said that WB, OSCE, Council of Europe and EU are serious structures, with which Freedom House and other similar structure can not rival.
Aliyev also criticized the assessment of international nongovernmental organization “Transparency International”, according to which Azerbaijan ’s rating has dropped in the table on corruption.
“We attach special importance to the assessments of serious international organizations. We have become reformers No 1 not by accident. This is recorded in our liberal economy and combat with corruption. This proves that it is easy to build business in Azerbaijan , which is important in the corrupted environment. Thus, NGO’s assessments are mostly based on their subjective views.
At the same time, it would be a mistake to say that we are far from this disease. This is a great problem in all countries, in the former Soviet states and even in Europe. We try to overcome this problem.
We have created a special commission on combat with corruption, we have a special program, a law. At the same time, we attract administrative and economic powers to this combat. We are undertaking serious steps”, said the President noting that several ministers and high ranking officials were arrested for corruption in Azerbaijan several years ago.
“But we see that it is difficult to act against it just with administrative methods. We must create coordination, make the economy liberal, create a strong middle category and broad conditions for every person in the political life”, noted I.Aliyev.
"Interfax-Azerbaijan"
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