Rasul Guliyev: "I do not set a goal to come to power"

- How do you evaluate the chance of opposition parties in the presidential elections this year? Do you think about your participation in the elections?

- Any chance can be created as a result of purposeful, smart and 12-14-hour hard work a day. The opposition had to prepare for the elections since the day of election of the actual president. There are five months until the elections, but opposition doesn’t know yet what it wants. What chance can be questioned in this situation? I guess a part of opposition hope for the fortune. Fop example, bread price will increase, there will be a deficiency and people will flow to the streets and bring them to power.

-Where do you see the reason of opposition’s inactiveness?

-The level of activeness is founded by the discontent electorate in the country. There is a discontent electorate in any country and it promotes the development. If this electorate weakens, the government should take appropriate steps to restore the competitiveness in normal countries. If this electorate believes in any political force and follows any leader, there will be activeness. Non-existence of political forces or leaders led the way of this electorate causes inactiveness. Strangely, why the government doesn’t allow the meetings and tackles it.

-You always make suggestions to bring the opposition together. What steps have you taken in this direction? Why doesn’t the opposition seriously approach your suggestions?

-There were enough steps. There are many reasons caused the opposition not to come together. First of all, there should be concrete program on the discussed issue and plan to carry out this program. We cannot see different-minded persons or parties in any countries to achieve something during the democratization process without uniting. Such discussions continue sometimes for three months, sometimes for years. We achieved it only once and at that time half of participants left the room two hours later under different pretexts, because they didn’t believe in their earnings from the hard and naked democratic discussions. Even small and not important parties alongside with the great leaders have a right to give ideas and to make it accepted. If there are leading interests in the country, there should certainly be such discussions. It seems, some people prefer their personal interests. The opposition comes together and establishes an organization and decides that all decisions can be passed only within the consensus. What does it mean? Is it international organization or something else? I don’t understand. The organization, where minority doesn’t become subordinate to majority, cannot make serious decisions. It is inadmissible to do such unserious work like relying on unstable persons to solve the fateful issues. People, living with such ideas like "I am great and that person is small and I will not sit at the same table with him" or "I hate that person", cannot solve the serious problems. We should agree with that the formula of “any figures multiply by zero equal to zero” had to prevent the opposition from the disease of “great and small”. It is difficult to unite the opposition which doesn’t take reason from the developments in the Eastern Europe and post-Soviet space in the past fifteen years. In other countries the forces having serious intentions are uniting on the basis of several common ideas, but it is impossible even to discuss these ideas in Azerbaijan. It means that there are no intentions or there are only unserious intentions here.

-Do you expect from the international organizations to play serious role in the elections?

-The role of international organizations will not differ from the previous ones. The role of opposition will be in minimum level in these elections. Turning of opposition into the ineffective force made government to take all responsibility for the democratic elections. The government has a unique chance to hold democratic elections without any concern and to restore its international image. Progressive forces and conservators inside the government may struggle over the democratic elections. There are enough progressive-minded people in the power team. They should unite around the president for the future of Azerbaijan and repulse the attacks of conservators.

-Open Society Party could not justify itself within a year. What is its reason?

-Actually, I do not see any party that has justified itself at present. I believe in the party’s prospects and development.

-You engaged in active politics several times, but then remained in the shadow. Some commentators say your time has expired. Are you going to say goodbye to Azerbaijan’s political arena? If not, what is your goal? Why are you in politics?

-I have stated several times that my goal is not to come to power. My goal is to see my country among civil countries. I respect everyone, who lives and works for this goal. I do not think I came to politics, paused and then returned. I simply express my opinion of the ongoing processes in the country. This is not politics. It is a citizen sharing his views with the others. If this is politics, I will never leave it. I want to say that after every interview I have discussions with a number of readers. If as you have said politics is a stage and we are actors, some should leave this stage, as they are performing in the hall without audience. But I repeat that this is not politics. I have had no chance to engage in politics, so I can not discuss my leaving it.

-What is the reason of divergence in the Guliyevs’ family?

-I hesitated for a long time whether I should speak about it in the media. In the majority of cases, I do not answer those who slander, the truth will come out anyway. But when I hear such statements as "The person, who can not get on with his relatives, should give up his claims", I think how these people will explain that dictator Stalin could not get on with his children. I have never been insincere in my interviews, and I will answer now, in order not to touch on this case again. Viewing the newspapers, I can only say that this is a lie, blackmail, slander. Relatives often have gossips in Azerbaijan. Only in 1929-1938 during the repression, thousands of people slandered their outstanding relatives. There are problems among hundreds of relatives in Azerbaijan at present, but the newspapers do not write about them. Newspapers would never write about my relatives, if some of them had spoken about me. Some people believe newspaper more than government agencies. A newspaper can increase its sale, but lose trust of the people by writing "Rasul Guliyev is a monster". Why do they slander? First of all, they send message to the government, in order to solve their problems. They want to say "We are ready to slander Rasul Guliyev, give us reward".

-Is it true that you had role in Elbrus Guliyev’s arrest? Why are some of your relatives against you?

-I have respected Elbrus Guliyev more than the other relatives. I told him several times not to leave London, one should ask the man, who made him return to Baku. I must say that most of my relatives came to Baku from Nakhchivan or Gazanchi village in 1994 with my help. I bought house for Idris Guliyev, who gives a lot of interviews to newspapers now. I did this, because this was my sister’s family. No one else in Azerbaijan helped his sister’s family as I did. What can I do, if those, who confirmed all this before, now act differently?

Everybody mentions tension in 1993-1996 and serious measures were taken for the restoration of the government. I did not take last part during this fighting. I was not time to be engaged in criminals committed crime around me. I removed them at times. It is not important for me that swindlers are relatives. I have the same attitude toward them. The man, who tells lies in Western countries and abandon his carrier and make his son tell lies should not be accepted as a normal man. This man does not understand that slander, false property is considered as a crime in England. If I intend to arrest somebody, I will arrest him not another one. I have not intended to arrest somebody in my life, except those, who tried for coup-d’etat. I cannot imagine that my children can say such unworthy words about my opponents. I am sure that "my dear relative "has recorded my voice and made false reportage from my interview. This is illness, he should read psychoanalyst Freud. I have many relatives and I have not problem with them. I could not fight for property. I would be one of the richest men in Azerbaijan. I do not support traitors, who want to achieve property. Hundreds have been arrested but they do not tell lies against me. Those, who tell lies should be embarrassed.

-Do the letters published in "Yeni Musavat" newspaper belong to you? There is ironic attitude toward several opposition activists. Why don’t you consider them as strong politicians?

-Most of us do not read newspaper. It is tragedy. I have many interviews about the opposition over past 2 years. I criticized them seriously. I have different attitude toward them. I am on good terms with Sabir Rustamkhanli as an intellectual and creative man. I cannot say that the policy pursued by Rustamkhanli does not play a great role in the establishment of democracy in the country. I have read analytical articles of others and I should state that they do not use their current potentials. I express my gratitude to those, who replied for the article used their names. Though I know truth, it will be made clear soon. Unfortunately, there are many insulting words in newspapers. Serious political newspapers cannot do it in the world.

/APA/