TODAY.AZ / Politics

Conference Moscow-Baku Axis kicks off in Moscow

14 September 2017 [17:19] - TODAY.AZ

By Azernews

A conference entitled ‘Moscow-Baku Axis: Towards a New Caucasus Geopolitics’ has kicked off in Moscow.

Participants of the conference, organized by the Center for Geopolitical Expertise and the Izborsk Club, set a goal to assess the current state and prospects of the relations between Moscow and Baku.  The event also focuses on Azerbaijan`s role in international politics, regional problems, including resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, as well as issues of culture and education.

The event is attended by politicians, representatives of science and experts from the Russian Federation and the AR, diplomats, representatives of the press and all interested in the relations between Russia and Azerbaijan. Among the participants of the conference are Gennady Zyuganov, Sergey Markov, Andrei Klimov, Alexander Prokhanov, Leonid Kalashnikov, Dmitry Saveliev, Mikhail Zabelin, Shamil Sultanov, Polad Bulbuloglu, Ali Huseynli, Rovshan Rzayev and others.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Policy and State Building Ali Huseynli, addressing the event, pointed to a strong partnership between Russia and Azerbaijan, which support each other especially in recent years, proving the solidity of relations.

“A special political culture of our peoples also affects the strengthening of the relations. There is a link of strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Russia. Our countries support each other in the most difficult situations in world politics. Perhaps through solving these problems we understand the importance of living in peace and brotherhood," he said.

Huseynli further mentioned that the closure of the All-Russian Azerbaijan Congress cause strong concern of the Azerbaijani government.

The foundations of the Congress were laid by the National Leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said, expressing hope that Russian Supreme Court will make a fair decision and the congress will continue its activities.

Head of the All-Russian Azerbaijan Congress Fazil Gurbanov, in turn, noted that it is important to correctly assess the historical aspect of the Azerbaijani-Russian relations.

“The friendship of the leaders of Azerbaijan and Russia, Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin, laid a solid foundation for the development of our relations,” he said.

The fact that Azerbaijan is a powerful obstacle to the penetration of terrorist forces into Russia is very important, according to Gurbanov.

Touching upon the conflict around Nagorno-Karabakh, Gurbanov noted that it was not Azerbaijan that created this problem.

“There is only one solution to this problem - by peaceful means and preserving the integrity of Azerbaijan. A mechanism for the restoration of the lost trust between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be developed and the role of Russia is extremely important in this process,” he said.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Russia, along with the U.S, and France, is a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group established to broker a peace to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. 

Speaking about the Baku-Moscow ties, head of the Russian Federation Communist Party (KPRF) faction in the State Duma Gennady Zyuganov said that the strengthening of Russia's strategic partnership with Azerbaijan plays an extremely important role in the current difficult situation that has developed in international relations.

He noted that studying and preserving the Russian language in Azerbaijani schools plays a big role in strengthening relations.

Touching upon the issue of the formation of Azerbaijan, Zyuganov noted that national leader Heydar Aliyev did everything to strengthen the republic and curbed the elements that were being played at that time.

“It is difficult to overestimate the role of Azerbaijan in the victory in the Great Patriotic War, when most of the engines operated on Azerbaijani oil. It is not by chance that the German troops sought to seize Azerbaijan,” he said.

Speaking at the event, Mikhail Zabelin, Azerbaijani MP and chairman of the Russian community in Azerbaijan noted that good attitude towards Russia has always been in the soul of the Azerbaijani people.

“After the collapse of the USSR, Azerbaijan experienced difficult times. At the time it was very important to preserve the Russian language in the country and we wouldn’t be able to do that so had it not been national leader Heydar Aliyev and the entire Azerbaijani people,” he said.

Today thanks to the Azerbaijani government, the Russian language is successfully preserved and being developed in the country, he noted. Every year the number of those wishing to enter the Russian class is increasing.

The head of the Russia-Azerbaijan Friendship Parliamentary Group and State Duma deputy, Dmitry Saveliev, noted that today when Russia's relations with a number of countries are tested for strength, relations with Azerbaijan are actively developing in various spheres.

There is a free trade regime between Russia and Azerbaijan and cultural exchange is intensively underway, according to the deputy.

The multifaceted Russian-Azerbaijani cooperation is on the rise, he said stressing that “our countries are neighbors and will always work together to strengthen relations”.

The conference participants also considered prospects for cultural interaction, the importance of the Azerbaijani diaspora for the consolidation of the two countries, the establishment of educational exchanges and dialogue between intellectual patriotic elites of Russia and Azerbaijan. 

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/164916.html

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